John 10:1-10 (Teaching)

[0:00] Morning. Good morning. Back in the Gospel of John this morning. Last week, we finally wrapped up Chapter 9.

[0:14] I don't know how many weeks we spent in Chapter 9, but it felt like quite a while. But that's fine. And, you know, we could go back to John Chapter 9 and redo it and find all kinds of things that I really didn't hit on in that chapter.

[0:33] There's a whole lot in that chapter. But again, we wrapped up Chapter 9, leading us naturally into Chapter 10. One thing I'd like for you all to consider as we begin Chapter 10 is it begins with the words, Verily, Verily.

[0:52] Some English translations have it as truly, truly. And basically, either one of them means is Amen, Amen. Or so be it, so be it. And this is one of about 25 times that you find the words Verily, Verily in John's Gospel.

[1:08] It's the only time you find, or the only Gospel that you find, Jesus saying, Verily, Verily. The rest of me just says Verily. But John writes it in his Gospel as Verily, Verily.

[1:20] But what I want you to notice though, or concentrate on, keep in mind is that this is the same conversation that we ended Chapter 9 with.

[1:32] And those of you that were here, and those of you that weren't here last week, well, really over the past several weeks, John Chapter 9 was all about Jesus Christ outside the temple, finds a blind man, he heals the blind man.

[1:48] This man is brought before the Pharisees, and all kinds of hoopla is raised because Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath day, and all kinds of things is going on.

[2:00] And of course, Jesus is making his point that he is the light of the world, and making a claim to his deity, and the Pharisees don't like that. They call the, those of you that have been here, you'll remember they called, or they asked the man how it was that he was healed.

[2:17] They brought the parents in, said, is this your son who was born blind? The parents confirmed that, and then they brought the man back in, and it was basically just a mini trial, and they were calling all these witnesses in.

[2:31] And even, but even the parents, they, the parents even said, yes, this was our son. But for fear of the Jews, if you remember, for fear of the Jews, that's about where they left it.

[2:43] They said, he's of age. Ask him about these other things. And so the Pharisees brought him back in. They asked him these other things. And of course, he laid claim.

[2:55] He owned that Jesus was from God, and that next little discourse that he gave. And they cast him out of the synagogue. They cast him out. They basically excommunicated the man at that point.

[3:09] And the last two verses of John chapter nine, read verses 40 and 41, saying some of the Pharisees, which were with him, heard these words and said unto him, are we blind also?

[3:19] Jesus said unto them, if you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore your sin remaineth. And this was just after Jesus Christ had come to this man that had been excommunicated from not just a synagogue, not just the assembly, but he'd been excommunicated.

[3:40] When you were excommunicated, you were cut off from your people. You were cut off from the Jewish people. And nobody wanted anything to do with you if you'd been cast out like that. And Jesus came to this man and revealed himself to him as the Son of God.

[3:56] And those of you who were here last week, we read it. He said, do you believe on the Son of God? And the man asked, who is he that I may believe on him? And Jesus told him, he said, you've seen him.

[4:09] And even he, or Jesus referring to himself, even he that speaks to you now. And the man is, the Bible says he believed and he worshiped Jesus Christ at that point.

[4:19] And these last two verses of John chapter nine, we just read are immediately following that. So the Pharisees asked, are we blind also? And Jesus revealed to them that they were indeed blind in the statement that he made.

[4:33] And we covered all that last week. So all that being said, keep all that in mind because this is the exact same conversation that is still going on here at the beginning of John chapter, or really all the way through John chapter 10.

[4:49] So we'll pick up in John chapter 10 verse one. It says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

[5:03] But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. So this seems kind of odd that, you know, all these things have happened. Jesus has revealed himself to the excommunicated man and the excommunicated man worshiped Jesus Christ and accepted Jesus Christ, believed on Jesus Christ.

[5:24] And these Pharisees have come saying, are we blind? Jesus basically in a nutshell says yes, you are indeed blind. And then he says, Verily, Verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

[5:39] What's that got to do with this man that was blind, but now sees and believes on Jesus Christ as the Son of God? What does any of that got to do with that? And these Pharisees want to know if they were blind.

[5:50] Jesus is telling them, yes, you are blind. It seems kind of odd when we first read it. But when we couple it with verse two, but he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

[6:03] Jesus is showing them just how blind they really are. That the shepherd, the good shepherd, as we read a little bit further down in this chapter, the good shepherd has come.

[6:15] God has come. Old Testament prophecy has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And that's what Christ is getting at here.

[6:25] No one else had the credentials that Jesus Christ had. If we go on to verse three, to him the porter openedeth and the sheep here his voice, and he called his own sheep by name and leadeth them out.

[6:38] So we've got Jesus Christ coming, fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. No one else had the credentials that he did. Nobody else could claim that they were that they were Messiah.

[6:49] No one else could claim that they were God. But what is what is the sheepfold that is being mentioned here? This is where this gets really wacky for lack of better terms.

[7:01] And a lot of people's theology and a lot of people's understanding of the scripture. I've heard this scripture preached several times, so out of context that it's in. Because remember, we're still in the same conversation here.

[7:14] And what was chapter nine all about? Even chapter, even chapter eight, but on into chapter nine, mainly chapter nine, it was about contrast between light and darkness.

[7:26] Between good and evil and right and wrong, but mainly about light and darkness. So Jesus here saying that he that erred not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbed up some other way the same as the thief in the rubber.

[7:39] What is the sheepfold here? Well, if you will drop on down real quick to verse 16, Jesus says, and other sheep I had which are not of this fold.

[7:51] And that's what tells us what fold he's talking about in verse one. He's talking about Israel. Remember Jesus came and he came to the lost children of the nation of Israel first.

[8:06] So when he says, I have other sheep that are not of this fold in verse 16. Well, he's got to be talking about another fold if he said that. So what other fold is there?

[8:17] The fold of Israel, the fold of Israel, religion, Judaism. That's the fold that we're talking about here in verse one. So when he says he that entered not by the door into the sheepfold, but climb up some other way the same as the thief in the rubber.

[8:32] But he that entered them by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. So Jesus here. Once again, he's talking about entering into the sheepfold off Israel.

[8:44] How were you considered to be part of the sheepfold off Israel? You had to be born into it. Now you could be proselyzed into it as well. And the Old Testament backs that up. God gives stipulations how people can be proselyzed into Judaism and proselyzed.

[9:00] Just a fancy word for convinced or made into a Jew. Much the same way that people are converted from Judaism into Christianity. Now it's a conversion that we're talking about here.

[9:12] People have dropped Judaism and entered into Christianity. People have dropped paganism and heathenism and entered into Judaism in the Old Testament.

[9:22] But mainly you had to be born into the fold. You had to and that was was and is the apple of God's eye.

[9:33] Israel was and is the apple of God's eye. And so that's the sheepfold that we're talking about here. But Jesus says the ones that climb up some other way the same as a thief and a robber.

[9:47] But he that entered them by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. And I'm sure you all probably heard the reality of what exactly Christ is talking about here.

[10:01] What a sheepfold was and is over there because those sheepfolds are still used over there to this very day. And there's videos of it on YouTube if you'd like to see it.

[10:11] Some of the things that we're going to be talking about here about the shepherds going to the sheepfold. But basically what it was and is is a great big area and there's walls around it anywhere from 8 to 12 feet high.

[10:24] Depending on where the sheepfold is and honestly how much crime there is in that particular area. But all the shepherds would have their sheep out in the out in the pastures out in the fields.

[10:36] And but in the evening they would bring them all up to the sheepfold. They would put them all all the shepherds take all their sheep and put them in a sheepfold. So you've got this mix of all these sheep that are in there.

[10:48] But when one shepherd comes to get his sheep all he has to do is call for him and they recognize his voice. And Jesus is getting into that with this here in this account.

[11:01] And it was that way 2000 years ago and it's that way now. Like I said there's there's current videos on YouTube of this very thing taking place. And you can actually see sheep in these folds ignore people's people's voices that they don't know.

[11:18] And it's quite amazing to watch especially when you're taking scripture into consideration. So Jesus has entered in to the sheepfold of Israel and he's done it completely legally.

[11:31] No one else could say that they that they were born of a virgin which was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. No one else could say that and no one else could follow.

[11:44] I mean the line to a T the way that Jesus Christ did it was prophesied he would be born in Bethlehem. Christ was born in Bethlehem. It was prophesied he'd be born of a virgin and he was born of a virgin and several other things that we could hit on.

[11:59] But we want this warning but Jesus Christ had fulfilled every one of those proving that he is the shepherd of Israel. But he is the good shepherd of us all here in the church this morning.

[12:11] Not the church is free of gospel mission but the church as a whole he is our shepherd. But he says he entered in by the doors of shepherd verse 3 again to him the porter opened it.

[12:24] And this is another thing that people get kind of catawampus in their own minds. Who is the porter? We've got who the sheepfold is folks.

[12:35] And there's a lot of people out there that say that the sheepfold is the church that's being mentioned here in verse 4. Folks that is not the case. That is not the case at all.

[12:46] Because once again if you drop down to verse 16 and he says that he has sheep that are not in this fold. The fold that he's referring to in verse 1.

[12:56] Folks the other fold is the Gentiles. And we comprise the Gentile church which is made up mostly of Gentiles. So here in verse 3 to him the porter opened it.

[13:09] Who is the porter? The porter literally is the one who when the shepherds all bring their sheep up to the sheepfold. The porter is the one that keeps watch over the sheep.

[13:21] He's the one that lays down in front of the door. There is no actual door to a sheepfold. There's no door that swings in and swings out or opens and shuts.

[13:31] The porter is the door. And the porter is the one that the next morning the shepherds, each shepherd would go to. The porter would recognize that shepherd and allow him in to call for his own sheep.

[13:44] And that's very important when we're reading this. To him the porter opened it. Then the sheep hear his voice and he called his own sheep by name and leadeth them out.

[13:55] Well the porter here would be a picture for us of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one that prepares hearts, is he not? The Holy Spirit prepares hearts.

[14:06] He softens hearts to be receptive to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The porter recognizes Jesus Christ. The porter recognizes the word of God when it's truly preached.

[14:19] But something else which you pay attention to here in verse 3. Not only who the porter is but it says, And the sheep hear his voice, hear whose voice, not the porter.

[14:29] It's the shepherd. Remember it says to him the porter opened it. Who is the him? That's the shepherd. And it's the shepherd whose voice that the sheep recognized. But it says, And he calls his own sheep by name.

[14:44] It doesn't just say he calls the sheep by name. He calls his own sheep by name. And they recognize his voice.

[14:54] This goes back to what we've all heard quoted several times over that many are called and few are chosen. You could actually apply that here. When this shepherd, when the porter allows this shepherd in and the shepherd calls for his sheep, only his own sheep are going to respond to that call.

[15:15] Now there might be one or two sheep that either lag behind, that actually belong to that particular shepherd, or there might be one or two sheep, or maybe even a few sheep that go out with this little herd of sheep when that shepherd calls for them.

[15:32] But eventually they're all going to recognize where they belong. They're going to say, This isn't my place. This isn't my shepherd. Now sheep, we probably all heard are not exactly the most intelligent animals that are out there.

[15:48] And so sheep need a shepherd just as we as Christians, we need the shepherd that we have in Jesus Christ. Why is that sheep? When you compare sheep with us, I mean, once again, they're dumb.

[16:04] But not only are they dumb, they have no natural defense about themselves. They might be able to bite a little bit, but they don't have claws. They can't run real fast. They can't leap. I mean, they can't leap up into a tree to get away from an enemy.

[16:17] And like that, they depend on the shepherd for their protection. They depend on the shepherd to take them out to pasture, to graze, to take them by the waters. I mean, we all know Psalm 23 probably by heart.

[16:28] And that's exactly what that Psalm was talking about, the shepherd taking his sheep down by the waters and out to the pastures, to graze and to get that which they need.

[16:40] Folks, we need Jesus Christ to be that kind of shepherd for us. We didn't even go down to the shepherd part of this yet, but we're talking a lot about it. But again, these sheep, they hear his voice.

[16:53] He calls them his own sheep, his own sheep by name. And again, he's putting this call out though to every sheep that is in that fold, whether they're his or whether they're not.

[17:07] In Matthew chapter 20, we read a parable that Jesus Christ spoke about, a good man that goes out and he's looking for workers and he goes out and finds them some workers.

[17:19] He says, I'll give you a penny to come work for me. They all agree to it. So they go and that parable continues. He goes out about the third hour of the day and he tells some folks, I'll give you a penny to come work for me.

[17:29] He goes out the sixth hour of the day, tells these folks the same thing, the ninth hour. And finally, the eleventh hour comes and he comes to these folks. He says, why are you sitting here idle all the day?

[17:40] There's work to be done. I'll give you a penny to come work for me. Well, at the end of that parable, Jesus Christ is speaking and he says that the people that were brought in at the first hour of the day, the first people they got are mad.

[17:55] They're angry. Why? Because the people that came in at the eleventh hour of the day are getting the same wage. But Jesus says, are you not getting what I promised you? You know, do I not have a right to do what I want to with what is mine?

[18:11] Jesus puts this question forth to him and that's one of the times he says many are called, but few are chosen. Another time in Matthew chapter 22, he's speaking another parable and he's talking about a ruler going to give a wedding feast and he sends his servants out to call the people to the feast.

[18:28] The people ignore him, says that they go on about their business. Some went to their house and some went here and some went there and they ignored it, they made a lot of the situation the scripture teaches.

[18:41] So when it gets closer to time, he sends his servants out again and this time they ignored him, but no one did they ignore him. The Bible teaches that they spotfully used the ruler's servants and they slow them.

[18:56] So what the ruler do? He sent his armies into that town, says that he burned their town, he killed all the people and then he sent his servants out.

[19:06] What was left of him? To go out into the highways and then there were people there at the wedding feast and those that were there at the wedding feast, the ruler's coming through and he's checking everything out and he sees a man without a wedding german on.

[19:19] He says, how'd you get in here without a wedding german on? And he says the man was speechless. He couldn't speak up for himself. So in that part of the Bible, it says to bind him and throw him out into the outer darkness where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth and that's another time that Jesus says many are called, but fewer are chosen.

[19:41] Folks, I'm not going to get into the whole doctrine of election teaching through this. I can't explain to you the doctrine of election. I honestly can't, but one thing I can tell you with 100% absolute certainty about it is that if you are indeed saved, if you are indeed born again, you are the elect of God.

[20:03] I can tell you that with 100% certainty, but I'm not going to get any deeper than that. I've heard this very scripture used and people have tried to use this scripture to explain to me the doctrine of election, but a lot of those people, there's a lot of Issa Jesus that goes into those explanations, reading things in a scripture that aren't there, not only here in John chapter 10, but in other places in the scripture as well.

[20:36] So I'm not going to get into the doctrine of election, but I will tell you that the Bible teaches that the shepherd calls his own sheep and they are the ones that respond to his voice.

[20:50] So when he put a fourth his own sheep verse four, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. The main thing I want you to pay attention to here verse four is again, he put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice.

[21:09] Substitute that word for with the word because. They follow him because they know his voice. Now notice they don't follow him to become his sheep.

[21:24] They follow him because they are his sheep. It's the same way with us. I didn't follow Jesus Christ before I was saved.

[21:35] I wasn't his sheep. I wasn't his sheep then. But since I've been saved, I follow Christ. I don't follow him perfectly. I don't follow him as closely as I should if I'm honest with myself.

[21:48] And if y'all are honest with yourself, you don't either. We don't follow as closely as we should, but we follow and we follow because we are his again.

[21:59] They don't follow to become his sheep. They follow because they are his sheep and they recognize his voice. Verse five, in a stranger they will not follow but will flee from him and they know not for they know not the voice of strangers.

[22:16] And again, we can substitute that word for with with because. In a stranger will they not follow but will flee from him because they know not the voice of strangers. Now again, I brought it up just a few minutes ago that when the call goes out to however many sheep that there are and whatever folded it is, when the call goes out, there may be some stragglers that stay behind that should follow that shepherd.

[22:44] And there may be some that go out that shouldn't be following that shepherd, but sooner or later they're going to realize that they're in the wrong spot. Folks, when when the shepherd comes in and calls for a sheep, those sheep aren't sitting there thinking, I don't like this shepherd.

[23:03] He's ugly. I don't like this shepherd. He dresses funny. I don't like this shepherd. He smells funny. They're not sitting there. They're listening for the call and it is the same way with us.

[23:17] We recognize the call of our shepherd. We recognize his voice. So when it says a stranger, they will not follow, but will flee from him.

[23:28] Sooner or later they will. But folks, it's the same way with a sheep of Jesus Christ with a Christian, with a born again believer. It's the same way with us. We might go off the path that we're supposed to be on.

[23:41] We might stray a little to the left. We might stray a little to the right as much as y'all have heard me not really dog, but kind of poke fun at the charismatic movement.

[23:52] I've got some really good friends that are part of the charismatic movement and I have no reason to think that they are not saved. They're not as charismatic as a lot of the people in that movement are.

[24:04] And there's some really good preachers, as a matter of fact, that are part of the charismatic movement. But if the call has gone forth, Jesus Christ, and this gives me great comfort as a preacher and a teacher of God's word, and I'm sure it gives great comfort to Vern as well and any other preacher that's out there, folks, it gets frustrating.

[24:27] When you preach and you preach and you preach and you tell people that there is a sinner, but there is a mighty and wonderful and marvelous Savior that they can have in Jesus Christ. And you preach this and you preach this and you preach this and you see no response.

[24:42] No response. Do you know why you see no response? Why is there not His sheep? That's why. His sheep will know His voice. I'm not saying that Christ speaks through me at all.

[24:54] That's not what I'm saying at all. But the Word of God is, that's the written Word of God. We have the living Word of God in Jesus Christ. So if we faithfully preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the porter or the Holy Spirit is opening the way for that Word to go in there, those that are His sheep will come to Him.

[25:16] It's a guarantee from the Scripture right here. The sheep will follow Him. His sheep will follow Him. It's not that they might. It's not that they may.

[25:26] It's not that they'll think about. They will follow Him. So if I'm being faithful in what I should be doing, then that brings me great comfort.

[25:36] That it's not in how I preach. It's not anything along those lines. I'm just preaching to a bunch of folks that aren't His sheep.

[25:47] And if that's the case, folks, there's nothing I can do about that. Only God Almighty can change that. Only God Almighty knows what's going on as far as that goes.

[26:02] So a stranger will they not follow but will flee from Him for they know not the voice of strangers. And folks, if we attend this church, I told Missy and I'm not bragging on Verne or putting him up on a pedestal or anything along those lines.

[26:18] The reason Missy and I have stayed at this church for almost two years now is because the Word of God preached faithfully. And the Gospel has preached faithfully because there's a lot of trash and a lot of churches that I've heard in churches that I visited that gets preached.

[26:35] And we go for one service, maybe two, and we hop to another church and hop to another. I told Verne that myself. That's why we stuck around because there's not many churches where you get the true blue Word of God anymore.

[26:51] But the reason I just said that is because these other churches that we went to, those were strangers. I didn't recognize what they were preaching.

[27:04] I knew it was wrong, but I didn't recognize it wasn't the Word of God. It wasn't penetrating my heart. My heart was rejecting it. I was rejecting what many of them were preaching.

[27:17] So a stranger will they not follow but will flee from Him for they know not the voice of strangers. Verse 6, this parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were which he spake to them.

[27:31] Folks, this is a sad line here in verse 6. They understood not what he was saying. Well, if we consider what I talked about at the very beginning of this session, that these Pharisees had asked Jesus Christ if they were blind and Jesus told them in a nutshell that they were indeed blind.

[27:53] This verse here says that they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Not only were they blind, but they were deaf.

[28:05] They could not understand. They would not understand what Jesus was speaking to them, but they could not understand what he was saying to them. So folks, that's a pitiful state to be in, to be blind and deaf.

[28:19] But I was blind and deaf at one point, and you were blind and deaf at one point before the Holy Spirit of God opened your heart to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[28:30] Until that point, you were blind and deaf to the things of Jesus Christ. This is a very sad statement because not only were they blind, but they were deaf also.

[28:43] This puts me in mind the times in Scripture, and particularly in the book of Revelation chapters 2 and 3, but several other times in the Scriptures as well in the Gospels where it says, He the Hatheneer, let him hear.

[28:57] In the book of Revelation, it's He the Hatheneer, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. But either way, He the Hatheneer, let him hear. And I can actually remember when I was small, there was a song that was pretty popular.

[29:15] It was a secular song, but it was a good song. I can't remember the name of it, but it had a line in it that said, You can listen as well as you hear. And I remember being on a trip with Daddy.

[29:26] My Daddy was an OTR trucker. I remember being on a trip with him and asking him what that meant because it made sense to me as a child. If you're hearing, you're listening.

[29:37] And if you're listening, you're hearing. So I asked Daddy about that. And he said, Well, son, not everyone who hears actually listens. And that was the thing with these Pharisees.

[29:50] It's not that they were physically deaf. They were spiritually deaf. And they refused to hear the truth that Jesus Christ spoke all through the ninth chapter that we just finished last week.

[30:03] All through the ninth chapter, Jesus Christ is explaining who He is, this man that He healed is explaining what happened. The parents are explaining, you know, this was our son who was born blind, but the Pharisees refused to see it.

[30:19] And they refused to hear the testimony that these people were giving. So they were spiritually deaf. They did not want to hear it.

[30:29] Verse seven, then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. Now, we got to remember what sheep we're talking about here and what fold that we're talking about here in verse one.

[30:44] This would be the door or this would be the sheep of Israel. He says, I am the door of the sheep. This is another one of the great I am statements of Jesus Christ that we find throughout the Gospels and particularly in the Gospel of John.

[30:59] Well, again, what is the function of a door? I know we talked about a sheep fold then and now doesn't really have a door that opens and shuts or swings or whatever the case is.

[31:11] But the function of a door is to allow access in or deny access in and to allow access out or deny access out.

[31:25] That's the function of a door and Jesus Christ here says, he says, Verily, Verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. Verse eight, all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

[31:40] All that never came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. What sheep? The ones that Christ is calling now. Folks, this blind man that we spent several weeks talking about in chapter nine was a sheep of Jesus Christ.

[31:55] He heard the call of Jesus Christ when Christ came to him. He knew the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one that made mud and put it on the man's eyes, told him where to go wash.

[32:07] The man did it and came seeing. He knew the work of Christ, but it wasn't until Christ came to him at the end of the chapter and revealed himself to him as the Son of God.

[32:17] It wasn't until that point that his eyes were completely open, granted he came again, he came seeing after he washed his eyes, but he didn't truly see until Jesus Christ revealed himself to him and he worshipped Christ at that point.

[32:34] So he says, all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. Folks, I've heard some really bad things taught and preached from this as far as the Old Testament prophets go.

[32:50] All that ever came before me were thieves and robbers. Well, would that not include Jeremiah? Would that not include Isaiah, Hosea, Haggai, Malachi, and all these other faithful men of God that preached what God told them to?

[33:06] Does all mean all here? No, no, he's not referring to those Old Testament prophets here because they weren't thieves and robbers. They were simply doing what God told them to do.

[33:20] What folder are we talking about here? Israel. All that ever came before him that were acting like these Pharisees were acting. Again, we're in the same conversation here, the same conversation with the Pharisees.

[33:34] All that ever came before Jesus Christ was thieves and robbers. They were trying to keep the people of Israel in this legalistic system that was mostly made up by them.

[33:47] That was branching off commandments that God had given in the Old Testament, but many of the rules and regulations and stipulations that they had were completely man-made that they had made themselves.

[34:00] He says, all that ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. This man didn't hear who Jesus Christ was talking about here.

[34:12] He didn't hear the Pharisees. He didn't hear them when they said, we know this man is not of God. They're in chapter 9. He didn't hear them when they said that.

[34:22] He didn't care. He knew better in his heart. He knew what Jesus Christ had done for him. He says, all that ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

[34:34] 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 pastor. I am the door. And by me, if any man enter in, by me, if any man enter in.

[34:49] He just got through saying that these others were thieves and robbers, but he says, by me, if any man shall enter in, praise God, he shall be saved.

[35:01] There's no room for doubt in that. If any man enters in by Jesus Christ, he shall be saved.

[35:12] This is no different than what we find in Romans chapter 10, where we find that Paul wrote to the Roman church. And he said that if we confess Jesus Christ with our mouth and we believe in our heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

[35:26] There is zero room for doubt with that. And there's zero room for doubt with what we find here in John chapter 10. Jesus says, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pastor.

[35:43] He shall go in and out and find pastor. Go in and out of what? Well, Jesus Christ is the door. Again, doors allow access in and out and they deny access in and out. What are we going in and out of?

[35:54] Why would we go in and out? The verse plainly tells us to find pastor, but it is through Jesus Christ that we do that. We go out and we find pastor. We go out and we find good preaching like I was talking about a little while ago.

[36:08] Many places out there, you don't find that. But we go out and we find good preaching. We go out and we find good singing. We go out and we find sound, doctrinally sound teaching and things along those lines.

[36:22] The folks, it is only through Jesus Christ that we have the liberty to go out and find pastor. Where it says go in and out here, people think that Jesus Christ is talking about going in and out of the fold.

[36:37] Why would Jesus Christ want people to go back into Judaism, then come back out of it, then go back into it, then come back out of it? Again, that's not what he's saying here. He says they are allowed to go in and out and find pastor.

[36:51] But he does not want them going back into the legalistic system. Folks, it is the same way for us, for the Gentile church. It's the same way nowadays as it was what Jesus Christ is talking about here.

[37:01] Somebody, it may not be Judaism that they're brought out of. It might be some other legalistic system that they're called up in. It might be a movement like the extreme charismatic movement we were talking about a little while ago.

[37:15] It could just be outright false teaching that they might be brought out of. Whatever the case is, the call is still going out. He the heathen here, let him hear. The call still goes out and his sheep will hear his voice.

[37:29] One more verse. The thief comeeth not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundant.

[37:44] The thief and the robbers, they come for a completely different reason than what Jesus Christ came for. The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy.

[37:57] They would steal the sheep when they would, I'm talking about physical sheep folds, they would steal the sheep, they would steal them to sell, they would steal them to kill them, to butcher them for their meat and for their wool.

[38:09] They would steal them for different reasons. But either way, it would destroy the sheep. Praise God, our shepherd did not come for any of that. Our shepherd came that we could have life.

[38:21] But not only that we could have life, but that we could have it more abundantly. How can we have more abundant life? I've heard this one preached way out of context too, mainly by prosperity preachers.

[38:34] It's not talking about having an abundant supply of money and abundant supply of houses or vehicles, or anything along those lines. Folks, that abundant life is eternal life.

[38:47] It is eternal life. He says, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. He that is life, Jesus Christ, he says, I'm the way, the truth and the life in John 14.

[38:59] He that is life came that we could have that abundant life, that eternal life. That's the reason that he came was to save people from their sins, to reconcile them to God.

[39:13] He says, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. And that brings us as far as we're going to get today. Anybody got any questions or comments on any of that?

[39:28] God bless you all, I appreciate you.