You may turn in your Bibles to John chapter 10 for a meditation this morning. John chapter 10, as we focus on the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter 10, I'll pick up reading in verse one. Most assuredly, I say to you.
He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger. but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which he spoke to them. Then Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear 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 does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy.
I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.
And the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling, and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and am known by my own. As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore, my father loves me because I laid down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from my father. Therefore, there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings, and many of them said he has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to him?
Others said, these are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Amen. Well, let us pray.
Father, we thank you for this account. We thank you for this parable. We thank you for the statements concerning our Lord Jesus. How we bless you that he is the door.
How we bless you that he is the shepherd. How we praise you that he has come to save us from our sins. We pray now that you would illumine our minds and hearts. guide us in our understanding of Scripture, and for this we desperately need the Holy Spirit. And we pray that you would send him forth even now.
And we ask through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Introduction
Well, as we come to John chapter 10, we ought not to come without remembering the great truths of the Old Testament. We already read Psalm 23, where David says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In the prophet Ezekiel, in chapter 34, verse 23, God the Father says, I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, my servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd.
And we ought to remember that chapter 10 follows closely on what happens in chapter 9. Remember in John chapter 9, Jesus heals that man who was born blind from birth. Jesus healed that man and then they come to interrogate him. and they try to ridicule him, and they try to expose him. Well, John chapter 10 comes on the heels so that Jesus can explain the difference between the religion of the Jews at that time, apostate, legalistic, ungodly, unmerciful, ungracious, unkind, willing to put out blind men, versus the religion of Christ himself, the good shepherd who saves blind men, who draws them unto himself, who gives them quarter.
So, what Jesus does in verses 1 to 5 is he sets out this analogy or this metaphor, this figure of speech. And because there is misunderstanding, according to John in verse 6, he then expands on it and explains it in more detail in verses 7 to 21. And that's what we're going to take up this morning, specifically looking at Christ as the door and Christ as the good shepherd. So again, don't miss the connection, however, with chapter nine.
The wicked treatment of the man born blind by the Pharisees represents those higher links, those men who do not care. Those men who do not give any concern for the sinfulness of man and for his redemption. And then what Jesus sets forth by way of this door, by way of this shepherd imagery, is his willingness, his reception, his eagerness to receive those who need him. John Calvin says it is useless, I think, to scrutinize too closely over every part of this parable.
Let us rest satisfied with the general view that, as Christ states a resemblance between the church and the sheepfold in which God assembles all his people, so he compares himself to a door, because there is no other entrance into the church but by himself. That's essentially what's going on in verses 1 to 5.
Christ as the Door
Now, let's look specifically at his expansion of this imagery in verses 7 to 18. The first thing to notice is that Christ is the door, according to verses 7 to 10. Throughout John's gospel, Jesus says, I am several times. If you're thinking biblically, you're thinking about the Old Testament, you will realize that I am revealed himself in the burning bush to Moses in Exodus chapter 3 verse 14.
It's beautiful. When the Roman Legion comes to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus makes that declaration. I am. And the Roman troops fall down before his feet.
There are instances in the gospel, according to John, where Jesus says, I am and the Jews understand the import of his statement and they pick up stones to throw at him because he being a man made himself out to be God. Jesus confounds his enemies when he says, before Abraham was, I am. He says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. So Christ is the great I am that is revealed in both the Old and the New Testaments.
But several times in the gospel, according to John, Jesus not only says I am, but he says I am. And then he gives a predicate. Probably the kids in the church know what a predicate is more than the adults. A predicate says something about the subject.
And there are several instances where Jesus does that. He says, I am the bread of life. He says, I am the light of the world. Here, he says, I am the door of the sheep.
He says, I am the good shepherd. Later, he'll say, I am the resurrection and the life. Later, he'll say, I am the way, the truth and the life. And then finally, he'll say, I am the true vine.
And each of these I am statements are packed with meaning and significance for us as God's people. They ought to encourage us because they shine a light upon a particular facet of what Christ is to his people. And these two are no different. He is the door.
He is the good shepherd. Notice, first, Jesus contrasts himself with the thieves and the robbers. Verse 7, Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I don't think he's talking about the prophets of old. He's not talking about those who biblically and properly preached God's Word. He's talking about the Pharisees. He's talking about the scribes.
He's talking about those pretenders who tried to be the Messiah that in reality or in truth were not. The contrast is stark. Jesus says, I am not like those men. I haven't come to rob.
I haven't come to steal. I haven't come to destroy. Later on, he's going to say, I have come that they might have life and that they might have it abundantly. You see, sometimes we have the wrong view of biblical religion.
We look at what we have to give up. We look at what we can't do anymore. We look at Christianity and say, oh, it's just a bunch of rules of do's and don'ts, and I'll have no more fun. Well, if fun to you is slavery, if fun to you is bondage, if fun to you is being the servant of sin and Satan, well then, yes, Christianity isn't your cup of tea.
But what Jesus says is that I have come that they may have life. There is only life to be had in Christ. If you are here this morning, in a few minutes we're going to take this bread and drink this cup in memory of our beloved Savior. If you have not closed with Christ, if you have not believed on Christ, this isn't for you.
These are the symbols, these are the tokens, these are the representatives of everlasting life. Only those who have a participation in everlasting life get to eat and drink the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, by your own sin and your willingness to do all those things contrary to God, you have forfeited life. But you know, that's true of everyone in here.
But God is in the gracious business of saving sinners by the Lord Jesus, the one who describes himself here as the door.
The Exclusivity of Salvation
He says, secondly, that he is the door alone. Notice the exclusivity of salvation. Verse nine. Jesus says, I am the door.
If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. He's not one door among many. To go to one of those big stores and there's several doors you're walking up, am I going to go right? Am I going to go in the middle or am I going to go on the left?
Well, that's not the case with religion. It's not the case with salvation. It's not the case with God. God, the Lord, is a moral governor of his universe.
We have broken his law over and over again. He has purposed one way of salvation, and it is through this door, even Jesus Christ. This isn't let's make a deal. Many of the older people, you already remember that.
Monty Hall, do you want what's behind curtain number one? Or would you like what's behind curtain number two? The unwitting soul would say, I'll take number one. He'd get a burrow or a donkey or something weird like that.
He would have opted for number two. He would have got the new car. You know, men treat religion that way. Men look at religion that way.
They look at their souls that way. If you are not going through this door, you are going to hell. There's not two, three, four or five ways of redemption set forth by God the Lord. He is exclusive, it is particular.
Jesus says, unless you enter by this door, you will not be saved. That's the point of John 14, 6. I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Now pluralism, which means we can reach God by a whole host of ways, is very popular today. It's very common today. In fact, if you go out into Canadian society and you do a bit of polling, you'll ask people, why do you think you'll go to heaven? Some will say, well, I'm a Muslim, or I'm a Hindu, or I believe in Shintoism, or I don't even believe in heaven.
Most likely you'll find people that say, well, because I'm a pretty good guy, or I'm a pretty good gal. I've never done anything really bad. I've never committed murder. I've never committed adultery.
They're weighing or they're resting their eternal state before God on what they have done or haven't done. Jesus says, I'm the door. You don't get to heaven based on what you do, you get to heaven based on God's free grace, looking only and solely to the Lord Jesus. But realize this.
He is the door. God's salvation isn't a block wall. Sometimes you can get that feeling as well, right? Christians act like they're the frozen chosen.
There's a handful of us that have happened in. Jesus is a door. What does that mean? It means to you this morning that if you have not gone through that door, you should.
If you have not believed the gospel, you must. If you have not tasted and seen that the Lord is good, come. The door is there to be used. The door is there to be believed on.
The door is there not for you to go, wow, look at that majestic place. I'd sure like to go in, but there's no access. There is access. It is through Christ.
You come later. He'll say earlier in John six, he says, all that the father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me is what he says. I will certainly not cast out.
In other words, you're not going to be knocking at that door and him saying, ha, ha, ha, ha. No, you come to that door and he lets you in. You come to that door in faith and you will be saved. That's the beauty or beautiful message of the gospel.
God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved. That's good news. That's a blessing.
That's wonderful. Jesus Christ alone is the way of salvation, and Jesus Christ alone is powerful to say. We just finished going through the book of Hebrews on our Wednesday night study, and in Hebrews chapter seven, it makes this statement concerning Christ. It says that he is able to say to the uttermost.
Is that a beautiful statement? See, salvation in Christianity isn't he'll do his part and I'll do mine, or I'll do my part and he'll meet me halfway. If that's the case, we're dead in our trespasses and sins. Everybody with me, you should be happy if you're a believer.
You might be warm, you might be tired, you might wonder what all this has to do with anything else or anything in your life, but just follow along. Jesus Christ is the door that leads on the everlasting life. You come to him, you come only to him, and he will save you from your sins.
The Door Versus the Thief
Notice he sets forth the contrary purposes between the hireling and himself. Verse 10. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. That's what false religion brings.
That's what your work's righteousness brings. I suspect that if you're not a believer in Christ here this morning, let me just say, first of all, I don't say this as, wow, I've arrived. None of us have arrived. God saved us.
We are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and running away from God. And it is God who sought us. It is God who grabbed us. It is God who affectionately drew us to himself.
But if you're not a believer here, I doubt you're a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Muslim or any of those other sorts of things. You're probably clinging to something that you do or something that you don't do. Well, even that method, that means that religious approach to God brings stealing, killing and destruction. You will not have everlasting life cleaving to your own works.
You will not have everlasting life by your own accomplishment. You will not have everlasting life by virtue of what you do. It is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. D.A.
Carson said the world still seeks its humanistic political saviors. It's Hitler's, it's Stalin's, it's Mao's, it's Pol Pot's. And only too late does it learn that they blatantly confiscate personal property. They come only to steal.
They ruthlessly trample human life underfoot. They come only to kill and contemptuously savage all that is valuable. They come only to destroy. Jesus is right.
It is not the Christian doctrine of heaven that is the myth, but the humanist dream of utopia. Life comes through Christ. Life and that abundantly is what he has to say. That's Christ as the door.
Christ as the Good Shepherd
Now let's look at him under this happy image of Christ as the Good Shepherd. Verses 11 to 18. Again, he contrasts himself with the hireling. Verse 11, he says, I am the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep. More on that in just a moment. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf catches the sheep and flees and scatters them.
You see, he's carrying on this contrast. Don't forget Chapter 9. Jesus is doing something not real popular today. He is condemning false religion.
In his positive treatment of the fact that he is the door and the shepherd, he has a particular doctrinal enemy in view here. It's the Pharisees. It's the religious hypocrites. It's those people in John chapter nine who came to trip that man up and said, you were born entirely in sin.
And do you teach us? I got mad at the guy for having been healed. That's just amazing, isn't it? If you got healed in the first century, the Jews would get mad at you because you followed Jesus.
Jesus is condemning this approach to religion. Jesus is condemning these people. Don't miss that. Again, it's a very namby-pamby age that we live in.
You can believe anything you want, but don't denounce others, because we all have the right to believe whatever we want. You may have the legal right in Canada, but you don't have the theological right. There is one name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved, and it's Jesus Christ. You don't have the right to be theologically wrong, and Jesus deals with them powerfully.
The Shepherd Knows His Sheep
Notice. How he highlights the intimate relationship that his people have with him. Verses 14, I'm sorry, verses, yeah, 14 and 15. I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and am known by my own.
Isn't that beautiful? If you're a believer this morning, you are Christ's own. You may not have a lot of friends. Your parents may not be the nicest people in the world.
Your siblings may not care a bit for you. But if you are in Christ, you belong to him. There's a hymn that we sing in the Trinity Hymnal. It says, Jesus, what a friend for sinners.
There's one stanza that says, I am his and he is mine. This is what Christ is highlighting here in verses fourteen and fifty. That intimate knowledge that believers have of the good shepherd. I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep. and am known by my own as the father knows me.
Even so, I know the father and those who have been blessed by God to be saved are brought into this position of intimate knowledge. What a boon, what a blessing, what a joy, what a benefit of this abundant life that we possess. You see, we spend a lot of time trying to get God out of our thoughts as unconverted people, don't we? What the big crime in Romans chapter 1 is?
They did not honor God as God, nor were they thankful. God has made his existence obvious to all men everywhere. But you know what they do? They suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
They try to escape from the knowledge of God. They try to run from God. God, through the prophet Jeremiah, indicts the nation of Israel. You have turned the back to me.
What does that mean? We don't care. We're going to walk away. Imagine if you were having dealings with your son or daughter and they turn their back on you.
You'd probably be tempted to grab them by the scruff of the neck and turn them around and say, you look at me when I'm talking to you. That's what God through the prophet says. You turn the back to me. Paul will say later on in Romans one, they did not like to retain the knowledge of God in their minds.
They suppressed that truth and unrighteousness. This is what shocks me, brethren, to be quite candid when believers aren't interested in theology. It's a mark of unbelief. To not want to understand who God is...
I'm not saying you've got to show up every Saturday morning at 6.30. There's more ways to study theology than just that. I'm not saying you've got to read Robert Raymond. That might not be a bad idea, but there's more ways to learn theology than that. careless attitude?
This idea that, well, you know, that's for those people in the church. What's up with that? If a mark of the unconverted is that they don't like to retain the knowledge of God in their minds, and they're busying themselves by suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, what is a mark of the converted? They want to know God.
They want to understand. They want to learn. They want to be students of Holy Scripture. How does Jesus define or give the essence of eternal life in John 17 when he prays?
He says, And this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, who now has sent. Do you realize that you're going to spend, if you're a believer, eternity in heaven, growing in your understanding of who God is? You should practice now. You should warm up.
You're on deck. Swing that back. Learn of this, God. The psalmist says, great are the works of the Lord.
They are studied by all who have what? Pleasure in them. There's people out there who can spot a bird from a hundred feet away and say, well, that's a blah, blah, blah. Or they can go whale watching.
Oh, that's this brand of whale or that's this. You know, they study. They're studying the works of the Lord. They have pleasure in them.
I've shared before when I was in England. It used to be very common on my way to work to see British people sitting outside of the American base with a notepad and a pen in their hand. They would record tail numbers from the various aircraft that were on our base. And if you went up to them and you said, what are you doing that for?
It was like train tracking. That's another thing that they would do. Maybe they do it in Canada or in America too. This is something foreign to me.
I couldn't care one bit about where this plane came from or where it's going. As long as it's not dropping bombs over me, I'm good. But that's what they did. They were interested in it.
They liked it. It made them happy. Christian, are you happy to know your God? Do you have delight to read of Him?
Do you search the scriptures? Is that an aspect of that abundant life that you are applying yourself to? You have life. You have it abundantly.
And if life is characterized in the knowledge of God, then what are you doing? Look at what Jesus says here. I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep and am known by them. You probably all heard the stories about the imagery that Jesus uses.
The shepherd would bring his flock. He'd put them in the pen. He'd perhaps go to town, do whatever he had to do. He'd come back.
He would just give a command and his flock would respond. Another shepherd could come and say the same words, but the flock did not know him, so they would not follow him. What does that speak of? Intimacy.
Union. Communion. You know, when we go this morning, when we take this bread and we drink this cup, think of Jesus. Engage the mind.
This isn't hocus pocus. It isn't a magic light. It's not just a performance of this. It's the engagement of the mind, the knowledge of Christ, the reality that I know my shepherd and he knows me.
Brethren, that is a boon in Christianity. John Chrysostom, that silver-tongued preacher in the early church says, when he brings us to the Father, he calls himself a door. When he takes care of us, a shepherd. His flock know his voice.
They know him. He knows them. Herman Ritterbaugh says God's knowledge means that he adopts people as his own, enters into a personal relationship with them and calls them to his service. It's a beautiful statement.
Simple, brief, to be sure, but it encapsulates the glory that is Christian salvation. God's knowledge means that he adopts people as his own, enters into a personal relationship with them and calls them to his service. That's what we have. That's what's ours.
That's what we can contribute to our society. We know Christ. He knows us. And as a result, we want to follow the lamb wherever he calls us.
I want to do his bidding. We want to speak well of Him. We want to shine His lights in a crooked and perverse generation. We want to hold forth this Word of Truth, because we know that Word of Truth, if it's powerful to save wretches like us, it can save sinners in Shiloh.
Substitutionary Atonement
And then notice what Jesus speaks of. The doctrine of substitutionary atonement. I realize He doesn't use quite that language, but that's the doctrine set forth here. Verse 15b, I lay down my life for the sheep.
There's a world of blessing in that statement. You know why you're a Christian? Is it because you responded to the altar call? Because you signed the card?
Because your hand went up when every eye was closed? Are you a Christian because you're wiser? Are you a Christian because you're better? Are you a Christian because your works have sort of put you ahead a little bit?
No, you're a Christian because Jesus laid down his life for the sheep. That's why men are Christians. That's why people are saved. The basis, the ground, the very foundation of our salvation is not our words.
It's not our righteousness. It's not our wisdom. It's not our knowledge. It's not our performance.
It's the doing and the dying and the rising of Jesus Christ the Lord. This is gospel. This is good news. This is substitution.
The language of substitution is conspicuous here. I lay down my life for the sheep. What's the implication? The sheep deserve to die.
The sheep deserve to be slaughtered. The sheep deserve to be punished. The sheep deserve to go into hell. That's what the prophet Isaiah said.
All we like sheep have gone astray. The Lord has laid on him the chastisement for our peace. Brethren, substitution. If I dropped dead on the way to church this morning, Pastor Cam would have preached, and he would have been the substitute, not because he's lesser or inferior, but because I dropped dead and he took the pulpit.
You go to school on Monday, if your teacher, maybe he didn't drop dead, maybe he's got the sniffles, or maybe she's sick, or maybe she has jury duty or something, you'll have a substitute. You'll have one standing in. You'll have one in place of. That's the essence of the gospel.
The gospel isn't what I do. The gospel isn't what I perform. The gospel is what Jesus has done. He's been a substitute.
He hung on that cross. He took the punishment of the Father. He took the vengeance of God for our sins. I lay down my life for the sheep, he says.
What a blessed statement. Listen to A.W. Pink. He says the Savior gave his life not as a martyr for the truth, Need to understand that.
Not a martyr, not saved, because Jesus was that witness willing to go to the very end. Paint goes on to say, not as a martyr for the truth, not as a moral example of self-sacrifice, It's not like we look at Jesus on the cross and say, boy, what a thing. I ought to follow that. I ought to give my life self-sacrificially for those around me and for the appeasement of God.
That's not the cross. That's not Christianity. That's not the redemptive religion set forth from Genesis to Revelation. Paint goes on.
He says, but for a people. He died that they might live. By nature, his people are dead in trespasses and sins, and had not the divinely appointed and divinely provided substitute died for them, there had been no spiritual and eternal life for them. You see why we say believe, believe the gospel.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ died for the sheep. Believe on him. Come through the door. Know the joy of everlasting life.
Know the joy of abundance in life.
The Gentile Mission
And then notice what will just quickly pass through verse 16. What he's speaking here, I believe, is the Gentile mission. Notice in verse 16, I have other sheep, and other sheep rather I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd. I think in the context right here specifically, Jesus is saying that he's also coming not only for the lost tribes of Jacob, not only for the house of Israel, but he's coming for the Gentiles.
He is coming for those who are outside of Israel. He is coming to make them one flock in God. Paul the Apostle waxes on this in Ephesians chapter 2, that through Christ he has taken Jew and Gentile and made them one new man. He's brought them together in Christ Jesus.
But
The Willingness of Christ
notice something that we need to end on here with reference to the willingness of Christ, verses 17 and 18. You see, you don't meet a saver in John 10 that says, man, you know, these people are just horrible, the sheep, they smell, I don't like them, they're really bad, but you know, I'm just doing this because it's what I got to do. That's not it at all. Follow with me this morning, if you're not a believer, look at the willingness of Jesus to save sinners.
Look at what Jesus went through on behalf of his people, and if you are a believer, you should smile here, at least inwardly. You know, if we could see happy faces, hopefully in all of our hearts, I don't know where the heart is. It's on one of those sides. We'll just put it right in the middle.
Hopefully that happy face is shining brightly. You stop and think the good shepherd came because he loves you. What he says in verse 17. Therefore, my father loves me because I laid down my life that I may take it again.
Yes, Peter indicts the godlessness of the Romans. Yes, the Jews behind the Romans were the ones more culpable and guilty for handing Jesus over. It was that motley crew, that wretched mob that said away with him, away with him, crucify him. Christ went willingly.
Christ went to the uttermost. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. completely, constantly, always conscious of the mission before him. I love that decisive break in Luke 9 when he journeys for the last time to Jerusalem. He picks up the language of the prophet Isaiah.
It says he set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. When everybody would detract, when even his own beloved Simon Peter would say, may it never be, Lord, I don't want you to go to Jerusalem. Get behind me, Satan. The son of man must go to Jerusalem.
He must be tried. He must be delivered up. He must be crucified. He was a willing Savior, a willing shepherd, a willing door.
He laid himself out to death for his people. He says, I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from my father. There is a willingness in the Savior to do the work of the Father in the salvation of His people.
Again, D. A. Carson says, if Jesus has just mentioned the unique intimacy He enjoys with His Father, He is now at pains to explain why the Father loves Him. It is not that the Father withholds His love until Jesus agrees to give up His life on the cross and rise again.
Rather, the love of the Father for the Son is eternally linked with the unqualified obedience of the Son to the Father, His utter dependence upon Him culminating in this greatest act of obedience now just before Him, willingness to bear the shame and the ignominy. That's an old word that means really big shame. the ignominy of Golgotha, the isolation and rejection of death, the sin and curse reserved for the Lamb of God. So here Jesus, His testimony as to why the Father loves Him, is expressing something of His character to His people. The Son willingly goes.
The Son willingly yields. The Son willingly lays down His life for the sheep. What a blessed Redeemer we serve. What a blessed God we have.
If your heart's not happy, it ought to be. You ought to repent. If you can come face to face with these redemptive truths, at least the bare reading of them, maybe I'm a stumbling block, but in your reading of this passage, if your heart doesn't do a holy jig, you might need to be born again. You might need to come to the cross for the first time.
He laid his life down for the sheep. He laid his life down willingly for us. He rose again. He now sits enthroned at the right hand of the father.
And he calls men to believe the gospel. He calls men to believe on his name. He calls men to be saved. Heretics steal, kill, and destroy.
Jesus Christ comes to save his people from their sins. If you've not come, come. Get somebody after church, somebody that you suspect is the real deal, a real Christian, and say, what have you found in serving Jesus? I don't think you'll get, it's been a nightmare.
It's just been drudgery. It's horrible. If you do, can you have him go see Pastor Cam so he can straighten him out? What does the apostle say in Romans 10?
He who believes on him will not Be disappointed. You've parted with sin, you've received a righteousness, not your own, you've been fit to enter into heaven. To be quite honest, I don't know why we're not all skipping. I were not getting more speed tickets on the way to church, I'm not condoning that.
We have been blessed with abundance, ask someone today. What's it like being a Christian? I'm not asking trials. There are difficulties.
Jesus himself promises in John 16, in this world you will have tribulation. Be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. In fact, ask the older saints among us.
Ask the tried saints. They're usually the happiest. It's just amazing, right? He takes somebody that's had a perplexing, tried, difficult life, and you would think that his heart's perpetually sad-faced.
Now, he's usually the happiest of the lot. Why? Because he has tried and proven his God over and over and over and over and over again, and found him faithful every step of the way. You will not be disappointed believing on Jesus.
You young people and you children, there is no life outside of Christ. There is no life in anything this world has to offer. There is no life in all the things that people promote as bringing fun and joy and life. Now, Jesus is the door.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. You believe on Him early. You remember your Creator in your youth. You give your heart to Christ in your youth, and He will keep you, and you will try and prove Him to be faithful every step of the way.
Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank You for our Lord Jesus. God, a passage like this ought to promote joy. It ought to promote unspeakable joy. We thank You for what a great Savior You have sent into this world.
We thank you that when it came time for redemption, you sent the best. You sent the Son of your love, the one in whom you are well pleased. And we give you praise and we give you glory and honor for that. We thank you for His willingness.
We thank you for His mercy. We thank you for His death on our behalf. And, O Father, I pray that sinners today, here and elsewhere, would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and know the salvation of sin. And we ask in Christ's most blessed name,