Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he is brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. A stranger, they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Let us pray. Father, I pray this morning that you would teach us the gospel. I pray as we consider Jesus our shepherd that we would see our need as sheep for him. I pray that you would open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the death. I also pray that you be in my head and in my thinking and my heart and in my understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking in Christ's name, we pray these things, amen, and amen. You know, as a kid growing up in South Florida, the thing that I enjoyed doing more than anything else maybe was fishing. I mean, I would wake up in the morning every morning that I could and just go out. I lived about a hundred meters away from the intercostal waterway and about half a mile away from the beach and I just loved fishing. I had some of my fondest memories as when I got to be in high school, when I could drive, especially during the summers, my buddies and I, we drive to the beach at about 4.30 in the morning with casnets and rods and we catch cast for greenies, those are little minnow-type fish. And we would just stand in the surf, just wearing nothing but shorts, stand in the surf and fish for snook and watches the sun came up. And that was awesome. And then we moved out here. You know, I thought, yeah, I'd like to start, I'd like to fish again. I just, you know, where do you start? First of all, you gotta wear a lot more clothing and probably about two years ago, Judy chartered a boat for my 40th birthday and she took me and the girls we went salmon fishing in Canada off the coast of Victoria. And you know, it was interesting to me, especially given my background because basically at least the way our guide did it is, you know, we went out into these channels fishing and basically there were only two things that needed to happen to catch the salmon is for one, you had to set the hook and the second thing you had to do is once the hook was set, you could not release tension on the line. Part of that, I assume, was because they made issues, barbulous hooks. You know, I remember, I asked thinking to myself, what's up with that? And with a guide, I said, well, it's to give the fish a chance and it says, he's got a home court advantage, man. And so anyhow, so you have a barbulous hook and the fish comes by and the fish nibbles, you set the hook and it is completely up to the fisherman to keep tension on the fish. In other words, if you release tension, if the fisherman does not hold on tight, then the fish will get away. And that's exactly how the gospel works. Jesus is the great fisher of men. We come along sort of nibbling at the gospel, but not unless Jesus is the great fisherman. Sets the hook. Unless he is the one who actually sets it, you won't be caught. And unless he is the one who holds on to tight to us, you'll be let go. You'll get off of the hook. But the promise of the gospel is that once he has set the hook, he'll never let you go. What's it have to do with our text today? Well, that same principle applies in our text today, except instead of Jesus being this great fisher of men, he's a shepherd, but he does the exact same thing. So we're going to look at three things from this text. This morning there's a lot in it. It's a very familiar text, but really, we're going to look at three doors today. There's actually three different doors in this text. There's the first thing, there's a door out, there's a door of, and there's a door in. There's a door out, there's a door of, and there's a door in. There are also two different sheepfolds, two different kinds of thieves, and of course a shepherd. But we're going to look, we're going to build this whole thing around the three different doors. The door first is the door out. Let me read you just the first line of that. Jesus has truly, truly I say to you, he would not enter by the sheep, enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way. That man is a thief or a robber. The first thing in order, in some sense, if you're reading through John, and you read chapter 9, and then you get to chapter 10, it seems like all the sudden Jesus is changing gears. But you have to, if you understand the context, he's not changing gears at all. In fact, he's elaborating on something. To understand John 10, you need to understand for some macro context, and then let's, what I'm going to call a micro context. What's the macro context for John chapter 10? What's Ezekiel 34? It's the passage that I read during the call to worship. And I actually read you the good part. Let me read you just a few lines of the first few verses of Ezekiel 34. This is God basically rebuking those who should have been shepherding Israel. He said, the word of the Lord came to me that's Ezekiel, son of man, prophecy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds, thus says the Lord God, ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves, should not shepherds feed the sheep. You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. Okay? He's pretty serious, and then later on he goes to say, I am myself will shepherd my sheep. And he said, in fact, I myself and my servant David, and everyone would have understood that to be one of David's sons, one of David's sons will come, and he will be the true shepherd of the sheep. So that's the macro context. God is frustrated with Israel's shepherds generally of the flock, and he says, one of David's sons will come, and he will be the true shepherd of the flock. And now that what's the micro context here, well the micro context is John chapter 9. Many of you know John chapter 9 is the story of the man who was born blind, and he's healed by Jesus. And so Jesus comes, and he heals this man who has been born blind, and he immediately goes home, and his neighbors say, what happened to you? You used to be blind, now you can see, and he says, I don't know, this guy came along and he put some mud on my eyes, he told me to wash it out, and next thing, you know, bam, I could see. And his neighbors apparently ratted him out to the Pharisees because the Pharisees then come, and they want to know, they can't dispute the fact that his eyes have been open, but they can ask him, they say, how can this man who is a sinner have healed you? How could he have done that? He did it on the Sabbath of all things, how could he have done it, and the man says, I don't know. And so they go ask his parents for evidence, was he born blind, they say, yep, he was born blind, but he's an adult, you can ask him yourself. And it says they said that because they were afraid of being excommunicated, or cast out of the synagogue, and they go back to the man again, and they say, you know, so tell us the truth, how could this man, a sinner have healed your eyes, and the man, you get the idea that he's just sort of tired of dealing with these guys, and he says, you know what, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know, but what I do know is that I was blind, and now I see, and they keep coming after him, and eventually he asks them, he says, why do you ask so many questions? Do you want to be his disciples too? And it says, the Pharisees said, you were conceived and sent, and they cast them out of the synagogue. The Pharisees were the shepherds of Israel. They were the under-shepherds, under God, the Pharisees were the ones who were supposed to be taking care of the sheep, not using the sheep, taking care of the sheep, not feeding upon the sheep, taking care of the sheep, not casting them out of the flock. And so here they've taken this sheep, one of the weak, one of the wounded, and they have given him the boot, if you will. And so the man goes and finds, Jesus actually seeks and finds the man, listen to what this dialogue I love this. Jesus heard that they cast him out, and having found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of man? He answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? And this next verse is probably one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible, the first part. This man was born blind, Jesus has healed him, and when Jesus says, you believe in the Son of man, and he says, where is he that I might believe in him, and notice how Jesus responds, he says, you have seen him, get it? You've seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you. And he said, Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him, and Jesus said, for judgment, I came into this world that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, are we also blind? And Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you'd have no guilt. But now that you say we see, your guilt remains. And then immediately, Jesus keeps, he says, truly, truly. So it's the same conversation that he's having with the Pharisees. And what you need to get, we've talked about when Jesus says, truly, truly, it's Amen, Amen, and he's basically confirming his own word, but also when Jesus begins and says, truly, truly, it's a demarcation. And whenever you see truly, truly, what that means is you have made a switch from dialogue to monologue. In other words, it's Jesus' way of saying, right, you know, my family, when the kids are going back and forth and they want to talk back or something, everyone has their own way, but you know, mine's sort of like, I'm getting ready to talk now. When Jesus says, truly, truly, what he's saying there, among other things, is that the dialogue is over. What I'm going to say to you now is what matters. You've said your piece, and so when he says, truly, truly, and what does he say to them? The first thing, that's our first point. The first point thing he talks about is the door out, the door out. Let me read that to you. He says, truly, I say to you, he does not enter by the sheep, enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs him by another way. That man is a thief in a robber, but he who enters the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hears voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he is brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice, a stranger they will not follow, they will flee from him. And Jesus has just told them what everyone knows. You see, in the ancient neary, apparently there are two different kinds of sheepfolds. For the sake of discussion, I'm going to call one of them the city fold and the other one the country fold. And the city fold is basically this. If you went into a village in the ancient nearies, typically there would be a large sheepfold, a large enclosure in the middle of the city, or in the middle of the village, and in that large enclosure. It would be large, apparently, ten or twelve-foot walls, it would be very big, and it would be a place where every family stored their sheep, or kept their sheep. So each family might have ten sheep or twenty sheep, but there might be a hundred or a thousand sheep in this thing. But it was a conglomerate, everyone would keep their sheep in this one place. No big deal. And a thief, that makes sense, the shepherd, the true shepherd, enters by the door where a thief would have to climb over the walls. Everyone knew that, okay? What everyone else also knew is that when Jesus said that the shepherd that goes to the gate, the gate keep recognizes him and lets him in, it's not rocket science. Shepherd Allen, I recognize you, senior ID, you can come in and fetch your sheep. And then what's interesting to me is that the shepherd literally, apparently, calls his sheep by name, that in a flock of a thousand sheep, if there were ten different guys, and each of the ten shepherds had a hundred sheep, the shepherd could walk in, and if he didn't know them each by name, if it was a big flock, he had his particular signal that he would whistle or do something, and his sheep, and only his sheep would gather to him. It's pretty amazing if you think about it, because sheep are pretty stupid, but they know that. So that's true, and everyone would have known that. You can imagine the Pharisees looking at their watch, and tell them, tell them, we don't know, the shepherd comes, he calls his own sheep to himself, and notice he calls his own sheep. When the shepherd goes in, he doesn't call all the sheep. The only sheep that he calls are his own, and his own recognize his voice, and they come to him, and once his sheep come to him, then he leads them out. And remember, he says, when a stranger comes and calls them, not only will they not come, but they'll run from a stranger. That's true. Everyone would have known that. So the question is, why verse six, does it say this figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they didn't understand what he was saying to them. Everyone knew that. In the ancient Near East at least, the shepherd comes, he calls, only his sheep respond, once his sheep respond, they walk out, why didn't they get it? The problem is, is because they understood what Jesus was talking about, but they didn't understand who he was talking about. That's what they didn't get. Jesus is talking about himself. He is this great son of David, and he is the true shepherd. And the true shepherd comes, and he comes to seek his sheep, and he enters the fold by the gatekeeper. He's validated, if you will. Who validated Jesus? Who was the gatekeeper that said, this is the guy? It's either one of two things. It was either the Holy Spirit. I tend to think it was John the Baptist. The John the Baptist was the gatekeeper, if you will, for all of Israel, and Jesus, the true shepherd comes and John says, you're the man, come on in, and what does Jesus do? Jesus calls his sheep. Let me make that more specific. Jesus doesn't just call any sheep, Jesus calls his own sheep, and only those sheep. In other words, when Jesus calls, only those people who are his sheep respond to him, only those people who are his sheep respond to his voice and come to him. Remember in John chapter 6, Jesus says, all whom the Father has given me will come to me. In other words, what Jesus is talking about here on one hand is his ministry. He goes about and calls people. On the other hand, very specifically, doctrine, at least speaking, he's talking about the doctrine of a factual call. What does that mean, according to most theologian, basically a factual call is this, that the call of the gospel goes to everybody. I tell you every week, I tell every person in this room, trust Jesus, put your faith in him, believe in him. The effectual call is that call which those whom Jesus has chosen actually hear. Jesus comes and he calls his own sheep by name. He doesn't call all sheep, and it's not up to the sheep as to whether they come. It's whether or not they know the shepherd, and if they know the shepherd, they come. Once they come and they follow Jesus, he leads them out. In the specific context here, he's probably talking about Judaism. That Jesus has come to Judaism, and he has come to call his flock out. He has his first candidate in chapter 9, at least in this book. That this blind man who now sees is one of Jesus' sheep, and he is now out of the synagogue. He is out of Judaism. Jesus calls his own out, and he says he leads them out. Where does he lead them? He leads them to his flock and his fold, and into his enclosure. You see, because on one hand, Jesus is the door out of wherever you are now. Whether it's Judaism, or whether it's just a lascivious life, or whether it's just this mundane, you don't know what to do with yourself. The question is Jesus calling me out of where I am now to follow him to where he is going. Only you can answer that. Will you answer it? Because to not answer it is to say no. So Jesus is calling. So that's on one hand. Jesus calls his own sheep out, but the flip side of the doctrine of Jesus calling his own out is that once Jesus has embraced you, once Jesus has called you and made you one of his own, he will never let you go, and you can never, ever escape from his loving care and protection, no matter how bad it feels. And that's the next point. That's where Jesus goes next. So on one hand, he calls sheep out his own. On the other hand, he protects them forever. It says they didn't understand what he was saying in this figure of speech, and notice what as we talk about the door of next. In verse 7, they didn't understand. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep, all who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. Okay? They didn't understand that Jesus was apparently referring to himself, and so Jesus makes it a little bit more clear. And so what he says is, I came to call my own sheep out, but then the next thing he says is truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. There's an important distinction between him saying, I'm the door of the sheep, and I am the door period. What does he mean when he says, I am the door of the sheep? And there's a sense of geography here as well. Remember in his parable, he has called his own sheep from this great mass of other sheep. And so now he calls them out. He leads his own sheep out into pasture. And now we move into what I'm going to refer to as the country fold. What is the country fold of particular shepherd? Once he had led his sheep out, and he had taken them out to pasture at night, apparently he would pile up rocks in a big circle. And he'd pile up rocks in a big circle high enough so that the sheep couldn't get out, and he would leave one place where there would be entry, entry and egress, I guess, where you could go in and out. And then the shepherd would lead his sheep into his own particular fold, and when the night came, the shepherd himself would lay down in front of that opening in the rocks in order to keep two things from happening. It would keep the sheep from getting out, and it would keep wild animals and predators from getting in. And so when Jesus says, I am the door of the sheep, that's what he's talking about, that I've not only called my own sheep out and made them into my own particular flock, but now once I've made them into my flock, I lay down in front of the door so that nothing can harm them. Nothing can get through that door that doesn't come by my hand. In fact, we're going to find out next week that the shepherd is so serious about being the door, that he will be the door, even at the cost of his own life, that the sheep are more important than himself, so the shepherd lays in front of the door. What's Jesus talking about? Well, he's talking about what theologians might call the perseverance of the saints. In other words, once Jesus has called you unto himself, and he has made you part of his flock, he will never, ever let you go, and he will never let any harm come to you that is not for your own good. The thing, if you don't have an understanding of the sovereignty of God, or the fact that God is in control of all things, including your salvation, then you are going to be a very worried person. Right? You're going to talk more about it if the women's conference, shout out, but what is the basis of you not being able to worry? What's the basis of you not having to fear? If nothing else, then you know that the shepherd is constantly, consistently watching over you. If you don't know that you have a shepherd who is constantly laying in front of the door, if you will, and keeping the predators away, and you know that there's not a shepherd who's doing everything in his power, which is incredible and meant to make sure that you make it to the end safely, how could you not worry? And as a prescription for worry, if you don't have a shepherd, if you're not sure that there is someone who is going to take care of you and cover your back all the time, then you should worry. Let me just leave it like that. You should be worried. Because Jesus says, if you either have me as a shepherd, or you have two other people, you have thieves and robbers, and what do thieves and robbers do? He says, all who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. On one hand, thieves and robbers, he's probably referring to the Pharisees and those bet false shepherds. But for our, for sake of our discussion, I want to talk about two different thieves that you and I probably have much greater struggle with than just the zealotry of the Pharisees. And what are the two thieves of the gospel? There are two thieves of the gospel. In fact, Tertullian said it back in AD 400 plus or minus. Tertullian said, just as Jesus was crucified between two thieves, so the doctrine of justification is also constantly assaulted and crucified between two thieves. What is the doctrine of justification? The doctrine of justification is just this, is that Jesus comes and he lives the life you should have lived, he dies the death you should have died, and in that death, God, for those who trust Jesus, God not only takes all of your sin, but he gives you all the righteousness of Jesus. And he promises he'll never failure forsake you and never let you go. And what are the two thieves that Tertullian says the gospel is constantly being crucified between? And the answer is pretty simple. Tertullian said it was moralism and in his language, liberalism. Or another way to put it might be legalism and relativism. That the gospel is always assaulted and crucified by either legalism or relativism. What is the difference between the two? On one hand, there are tremendous differences. On the other hand, they both take you to the same place. What is legalism? A legalist basically wants truth without grace. A legalism wants truth without grace. All that matters is that you follow the letter of the law and a legalist seeks to save him or herself by virtue of their obedience to the law, which tells you right off the bat that the legalist really doesn't understand the law very well. Because God is much more holy than the most ardent legalist could bear. On the other hand, you have the relativist and relativist, while the legalist might say I want truth but not necessarily grace, the relativist would say I want grace but not necessarily truth. In other words, all truth is the same or nothing is true, which of course both those statements are self-defeating, so it's impossible to be a relative to this ultimately. The relativist says, yeah, I think God loves everybody and it'll all pan out in the end. He wants grace but not truth. And what is the truth? Well, the truth for both the legalist and the relativist is this fact is neither one of them really understand the depth of their sin. Right? The legalist thinks that somehow he or she can just, if you work hard enough, you can actually achieve God's standard. Let me give you a news flash. You can't. And if you're honest, think about it. Go through an hour and think about whether or not you've done something wrong in thought word or deed. You can't do it. The relativist on the other hand says it really doesn't matter. If I'm sinful or not, God's still going to take me in and love me. Well, that's not true either. What you need is something that can join both of those things. And do you remember what the gospel of John says about Jesus? Jesus came with the law but Jesus came full of what? Grace and truth. Jesus Christ full of grace and truth. That Jesus is the place where God's grace and God's truth intersect. That he's the place where God's justice and God's mercy intersect. God is completely just for punishing sin. He must because of his justice. And he does it on the person of Jesus at the cross. Because Jesus borers in and not us, we are able also to experience God's mercy. And what's interesting about the gospel of John is John wrote his whole gospel that says I write this thing so that you might be seeing Jesus. You might believe on him and have life in his name. You see the end of this text talks about he says I came to give you abundant life. You know what? You can't have abundant life until you first have just life period. That's as I wrote this so that you might believe and have life. And what I love about the gospel of John is John has this great tension on one hand between the doctrines of grace. In other words, the fact that God has a certain number of sheep that he is calling to himself on one hand. And on the other hand, John says, I'm writing to everybody so that you may believe. So with the doors we looked at so before you had a door out, you had a door of. And the last thing Jesus talks about is that I am the door in. Let me read that to you. Jesus says in verse nine, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. So Jesus says to the Pharisees, hey, boys, if you haven't got it yet, I'm not just the. I didn't just enter by the door. I didn't just become the door of the sheep, but I'm the door period. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. From what saved from his sins, saved from his self-righteousness, saved from himself. In other words, Jesus is saying here, he's making a very bold statement that saying, if you want a relationship with God, there is but one way to have it. If you want to be in the flock of the true God, there is but one way to enter. And that's through me. It's not through following my example. It's not through following my teachings. And it's certainly not by being good. It is through me. You've got to come in and through me. How do you do that? Well, if you want to enter in, do you hear Jesus calling the only way you can enter in to this flock through Jesus is you've got to be like a terminator, right? Arnold Schwarzenegger, have you seen the movie? I don't recommend it. It's a little violent. But the only way you can enter in to Jesus flock is you've got to enter in like the terminator travels through time. If you've ever seen the terminator movies, if you remember, when he travels through time, when he enters through a portal, he can only go through naked. So you'll see Arnold Schwarzenegger sort of, you'll hear this in lightning flash, and then you'll see Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's a very large man, naked, huddled down because you can't pass through with anything of your own. You've got to go through naked. And if you want a relationship with Jesus, if you want to enter his flock much like that, you have to enter naked. What do I mean by that? You have to leave everything of your own behind, and more specifically, I mean, you have to leave your sin behind, but you also have to leave the thing that is killing more of you than just your sin, and that's your self-righteousness. You cannot enter in by Jesus if you're willing to still hold on to your self-righteousness, and if you're a Christian and you have entered in and you're miserable, that's why. Because Jesus has brought you in, and he said, I told you to leave that stuff outside. You don't need it here. You know, I'm re-reading Charles Spurgeon's autobiography, and he had more great one-liners by the age of 16 than I will have in my whole life. He had just become a Christian, and he goes to church and someone immediately begins to berate him and ask him and say, my son, what have you given up for Jesus? And he said, what do you mean? He says, have you left your family, home, possessions? What have you given up for Jesus? And Spurgeon at the age of 16 says to him, well, my friend, apparently I've given up the one thing that you haven't, and he said, what would that be? And he said, well, my self-righteousness, think about it. Spurgeon gave up the only thing that mattered. You see, everyone in here, if you're honest, you know that you're a sinner, you're willing to admit that. But the bigger thing are you willing to admit, are you self-righteous? And I don't mean just snooty and snotty and self-righteous, but do you rely on yourself for your own salvation, or are you relying on Jesus this great shepherd? Are you willing to let him take you in, because if you are, you've got to come naked. And some of you have been Christians for years, and what I'm telling you is you've got to get rid of some of this stuff. Think about it. Let's pray. Father, I pray this morning that you with them, as we consider Jesus as not just the shepherd, but Jesus is the door. He's the only way that we can have a relationship with you. I pray that you would help us as a church, as individual shed, our sin shed, our self-righteousness, that we might have life, that we might have abundant life through Jesus by not holding onto those things. But in fact, opening our hands, everything he gives us, he prays these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.