Let me invite you, brethren, to take out your copy of the Scriptures and turn with me to John chapter 10. I want to read through verses 10, 1 through 10 today. Though we are beginning a new chapter, I don't believe according to the narrative that the scene has changed. I will make note of this later, but we continue now picking up in verse 1 from our time of our Lord in Jerusalem about six months before He was to be crucified. Hear now the word of God. 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, and 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. And Jesus said to them again, most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All whoever 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." This is our word of God that we've read and we want to go to our God in prayer now. Join me, please. We thank you, Lord, for your grace and mercy upon all of us in here this morning. What a gracious, merciful God you are. We thank you for preserving your word for us. It is a living book. When it is exposed to the hearts of the regenerate, Lord, it feeds, it creates faith, it encourages, it blesses. And Lord, for those who have not even yet been born again, it has the very power to bring saving faith to them. May that be the case here this morning in this room. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, brethren, I've made reference now several times to you in our walking through John together that John loves showing various contrasts in his gospel account. Contrasts consist of such things as truth versus lies, evil versus good, or God versus Satan, the children of God versus the children of the devil. Over and over again, the gospel here could not make it more plain to all of us, brethren, that John loves to see us show us him making all of these contrasts. And by these contrasts, we're to see that there's a real heaven, there's a real God, there's a real Savior, and there's a real devil. And these contrasts make it so clear. You see this one thing that looks like this, and this other that looks like that, and it shows you what is right, what is wrong. There's water that gives life, and water that keeps you thirsty. There's bread that gives you life, and there is bread that keeps you hungry. Last week, we looked at the fact that there are those who can spiritually see the kingdom of God, and that there are those who remain blind and cannot see the kingdom of God. And all of these contrasts are given to us by John as if they're screaming off the page to us, saying to us, look, it's right here. It's clear. Here is the way of salvation. Here is the way to hell and damnation. Just read it. Just look at it. Just meditate upon it. It's right here. The contrasts could not be any clearer for you. And so the God who inspired John to write this gospel could not have made this more plain to us. What better way to show sinners the way to eternal life than to show us these contrasts of what is true light and what is true darkness? What is true sight and what is true blindness? Brethren, I say all of this to you this morning to tell you that the contrasts are continuing. Today's contrast primarily concerns those who are true shepherds and those who are false shepherds. A true shepherd who cares for the sheep, and a false shepherd who cares not for the sheep, but would rather abuse and disregard them for their own personal gain. It is a narrative that, as I said earlier, comes right out of...from 9 to 10, the people haven't changed, the narrative, the context of who's there has not changed. The Pharisees who had been claiming to be God's shepherds over His people did not love that blind man. did not care for that blind man. You see the Pharisees, these false shepherds, being cruel to him, robbing him of his right to be in the synagogue and to receive the benefits of worshiping God, while we see Jesus being compassionate to him, caring to him. And of course, that part of the narrative concluded with Jesus saying to the faces of these Pharisees that at the end of the day, they were truly the blind ones. And this meant that they not only were still sinners under God's wrath, brethren, it meant very much more importantly that they were in no condition to shepherd God's people. And that is because they were still spiritually blind, they were not qualified. because their hearts were still bent towards their own desires, their own bent towards sin. Their interaction with the sheep would only be to use them, only be to abuse them for their own sordid gain. And we see this in the text. And so in the narrative in chapter 10, Jesus are going to call the Pharisees thieves and robbers. And there's a difference. Thieves, they just steal, but a robber will use violence to take it from you. And so they do this with the blind man, and they do this with his parents. And it's very important that you understand this parable, this narrative that we're getting ready to look at today. In verse 6, the new King James calls Jesus, what he says here, an illustration, if you have the new King James. It is the word that's often translated, or it is translated in the King James, a parable. If you have an English version like in New American Standard, NIV or ESV, it's simply the words, a figure of speech, but it's the one word which often is translated parable. Probably, however, it's not so much a parable as more than it is just simply an allegory. Either way, the sheep, the shepherds, and the thieves, and the robbers, they're all metaphors or symbols to three specific groups who were standing there that day in Jerusalem. They are all part of our Lord's allegory here. And we're going to use these three as our three main points today. We will have here the false shepherds who are no shepherds at all, but are referred to as thieves and robbers. Then we're going to look at a focus probably which is the primary focus in the allegory, and that is the description of true shepherds. And then we'll have some time to look at the sheep. And they represent the true people of God, beginning with those who came out of the nation of Israel, like the blind man. And it concludes, because this goes all the way to verse 21, this allegory of our Lord, with him also telling us that he has other sheep that are not of this fold, and them too I will bring in, in verse 16. Speaking of you and me, Gentiles. And so with these three characters being the focus of our passage, as I said, it goes all the way to verse 21, we're only going to cover verses 1 to 10 today, but we need to stop here, brethren, to discuss and to talk about the agrarian scene as being shown to us by our Lord's allegory. In verse 1, Jesus speaks of a sheep bowl. Now, a sheep bowl was this large walled-in corral, if you will, where the sheep would go in at night in order to be protected from wolves and particularly wicked men who wanted nothing but to steal them for their wool or for their meat, to kill them. To steal and to kill. The walls were usually made of stones stacked up several feet high, and for obvious reasons, there was only one door in and out of that sheep bowl. And because sometimes there would be so many different shepherds who had sheep, and not everybody had their own sheepfold, they would collectively bring them to this one large one, and they would hire someone to, perhaps even another shepherd, to stand guard over that doorway at night to keep guard. And then that morning, something amazing would take place at that sheepfold. Each shepherd would show up, and because the gatekeeper or the doorkeeper knew who the true shepherds were, he would allow him to go in to get his own sheep. And then something great, marvelous would take place. How would he get his own sheep out of the sheep bowl? Well, the shepherds in those days, think about it, they were not like how they do it today. They had very close connection with their own sheep. They would give each one of their sheep their own name. They knew the ways and they knew the temperaments of every one of their sheep. But each one of them would go into this corral, as it were, might be a hundred of them or so there, and they'd go in, and how would they know how to get out their own sheep? But, well, it worked both ways. Not only did the shepherd know intimately his sheep, the sheep knew intimately his or her, not her, but his shepherd. And so as he walked into that sheep bowl, let's say there were a hundred of them in there and only 25 belonged to him. What he would do is he began to call out each one of his sheep by name, and they would immediately hear and know the tone and the voice of his shepherd. The other 75, perhaps, they would hear that voice and they would run to the back of the sheepfold, fearful, scared to death. They didn't recognize his voice. But the one who came in to get his own, they heard him. Soon as he spoke, they knew it was him. They came to him and he would walk out and they would follow him. Each sheep would respond to their own particular shepherd as they would recognize his voice. And so, brethren, this is the scene that Christ uses to show us the contrast between true shepherds who'd come to get their sheep and those wolves, thieves, and robbers who would come over or seek to come over the wall. Now, our Lord is saying this to you and I, and He's telling us it's extremely important that you get this allegory. In verse 1, He says, most assuredly, I say to you, it's that King James, verily, verily. It says, listen up. This is very, very important. And so we have verses 1 to 5, the illustration, verses 6 to 10, the explanation of the allegory. But he begins that explanation with the same words, most assuredly I say to you, again, listen up, this is extremely important. Well, let us begin, brethren, now with looking at our first group. We want to look here at the thieves and the robbers, verse 1. Jesus says, "'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.'" In verse 5, you'll notice that they're called strangers. These thieves and robbers were the self-appointed spiritual leaders of Israel. And Jesus is referring not just to the Pharisees who were standing there that day, but all of the spiritual leaders of Israel of the past who were like these guys, false shepherds. Verse 8, you notice Jesus said that all whoever came before him are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. God often referred to the wicked spiritual leaders of his people Israel in the past as shepherds who did not fulfill their duty. One of the most well-known passages in Ezekiel 34, I'll read it to you. God says to Ezekiel, son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God to the shepherds, woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool. You slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. That's who these Pharisees were. Our Lord is saying here that these men who had rejected the blind man, practically blackmailed his parents, were just like those false shepherds of old, thieves and robbers, whatever they could get out of them for their own gain. They only wanted the money of God's people, the resources of God's people. They wanted the honor and the praise of God's people. They did not want to be bothered with sacrificially caring for God's people. Our Lord tells us plainly there, true intent in verse 10. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I can imagine with you, brethren, that Jesus, as he begins in verse 1, chapter 10, though there were no verses and chapters when he wrote this, obviously, that he had the blind man and that man's parents in his mind when he spoke these words. Here was God's sheep who needed acceptance, who needed love, who needed care, who needed rejoicing with over his newfound miracle. But because he believed in Jesus, because he trusted in Jesus, the one who was a threat to the Pharisees' authority, the one who was a threat to their continual receiving of the praise and the honor and resources of the people, they therefore excommunicated him. And they blackmailed his parents. Because such a threat they could not deal with. They couldn't continue to fleece God's people. They couldn't continue to do what they were doing to get from all the people if they all follow Jesus. And that's why they did what they did. They wanted the resources of the sheep. They didn't want to care for the sheep. The word thief here in verse 10, although it's a true description of the devil and often quoted as a reference to the devil, it is more readily a reference to false shepherds. And obviously, they're heavily influenced by the devil, but nevertheless, that's what the thief is, that's who it is, it's the false shepherds. And brethren, I want to tell you this morning that there's still plenty of these false shepherds in our own day. We all know of those health and wealth prosperity preachers who care nothing for their flock. only that they might continue to sow a seed into their ministry. They fly around on their own planes while many of their parishioners barely get by. These false teachers then have the nerve to blame these same ones for being poor because they don't have enough faith. They're wicked men and wicked women because there's a lot of women preachers in those kinds of places, fleecing the people. But brethren, I would have to say to you this morning that these false shepherds are not just found just in health, wealth, prosperity, Pentecostal-type churches, they're found in every denomination, even probably among Reformed Baptists. Men who are drawn to the honor and the praise of the pastoral ministry, but are not given over to the care of God's people. Men who refuse to study hard in order to properly and truly feed the people of God, but yet they want to get paid full wages. I knew a pastor, but after writing about my conversion, I asked him one day, I said, how do you prepare every week for one or two sermons every week? Oh, he says, it's no problem. He says, I just take whatever experiences I have through the week and put a sermon together with that, and that's what I go in the pulpit with. Apostle Peter warned us of men who claim to be shepherds but use their authority to lord over God's people. Brethren, having been a pastor now for almost 20 years, I can tell you that there's some things in this job that are extremely tempting and subductive to the flesh. The respect and the honor that people will give a pastor can easily go to a man's head. There is respect, and yes, there is authority that the Bible gives elders in the church. Even Paul had to defend the apostleship that God had given to him. But Paul always held something very close to his chest. Whenever he thought about the stewardship of the authority that God had given him, and we would all as pastors and potential pastors in this room would do well to mimic, he would quickly, humbly confess that he was the least of all apostles and that he was not worthy to be an apostle. that ought to be the mentality of every called shepherd. Brethren, a sure sign of a false shepherd is their need for honor and praise. If anything threatens their position, their livelihood, they will lie, they will cheat, they will do whatever they can to keep it. Sadly, there are men in pulpits across this country who believe in the doctrines of grace. They at least intellectually believe it. They believe in election and God's predestination, but they refuse to preach it because they know they'd get run out of the church. Now, I'm not saying all these men are false shepherds. The Lord knows those who are his own. But some just want to keep their place of security, and they will compromise all the way to their graves rather than come out of the closet and preach the whole counsel of the Word of God. Ultimately, brethren, the Lord knows those who are his own, who are true shepherds of people, his people, and those who are not. But in many ways, it is like the blind man's parents, brethren. who refused to publicly confess Jesus Christ because they didn't want to lose their position at the synagogue. And there are people who are behind pulpits who don't want to lose what's been given to them in the church. I'd rather lose it. It was grace that came to me. I don't deserve it. Jesus is warning all who have ears to hear that there are such men as this out there, brethren. who do not love his people, who do not sacrificially care for his people, who by their deeds prove they're only about themselves, about the glory that comes with the position, building it up. And that was what was taught me when I came through early on is building it up. How many are you running nowadays? How many are in your church? And if you had below 100, they looked at you like you were not doing God's work. Every pastor has to constantly, constantly mortify the selfishness of his own heart. Thomas Watson said once, selfishness is the reigning sin of the world. I know how selfish I am. I know. And just imagine with an unconverted heart how selfish one might become like these Pharisees. But in contrast, brethren, we now turn our attention to what a true shepherd looks like. First, we're told in verses 2 and 3 that a true shepherd enters by the door and the doorkeeper opens it to him. Verse 2, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice. And there's no definite article there in the Greek, so it could simply read that he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. And so, as I move through these verses with you this morning, I see no problem with referencing that Christ's words here are speaking not only about himself ultimately, as we'll see later, but his under-shepherds. Under-shepherds while holding himself, again, as the good shepherd, as we'll see later. And so, with that, as the doorkeeper would be hired by shepherds to guard the sheep, when they returned the next morning, he knew who to let in and to who not to let in. And so here, brethren, though, we must be careful with the allegory. We can go to seed, as they say, on some of these allegories. There are some who say, and R.C. Sproul was one of them, that the doorkeeper was God the Father. And of course, it may be something true to that. He knows who to trust to let into the sheepfold to go get his sheep. Obviously, his own beloved son who is the great shepherd and the good shepherd. But it certainly is true that God has called under-shepherds to come into the sheepfold and to minister to the sheep. Ephesians 4.11, He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. But what we have in John 10 is Christ showing us how to spot a true shepherd from a false shepherd, the contract. And first of all, we see here, brethren, that true shepherd calls his own sheep by name. Now, as undershepherds, they should not only know the names of the people which God has given to him to care for, but as they pray for them, and as they labor in the word for them, and as they care for them, those names ought to mean something to him. And it gets harder and harder if all you keep having these babies. Because if new names come up and it's, I got to remember this, and they go, which one is this and which one is that? But we'll get it, just be patient with us. It's a wonderful thing. But we need to, as pastors, to think more of just the name of the child or the parents. We need to be acquainted with you. One of the reasons Pastor Timothy and I want to try to do more better at that when we come in your oversight meetings, we want to love you, we want to care for you. And this is what is being communicated here about these shepherds. But the Pharisees, they may have knew the names of many of the people in Jerusalem, but they did not know them intimately and did not care for them intimately. And this is the application of how we would have spot a true under-shepherd. Not only that, but how much more, brethren, the true shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing the names of his own people. He calls his own sheep out by name. He knows them intimately. How does he do it? Well, brethren, he does it, first of all, through the effectual call. He opens up our eyes, our ears, and our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, and he grants us the gift of faith. We see him for the first time as our shepherd and not our enemy. We call on him as Lord and Savior because he first called on us through the gospel. This is the first reality of the new birth. You begin that very first time with your Savior, you have that personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. Brethren, listen to me, in the beginning, it was just you and Him. You may have been in church a while, you may have gotten saved before you came into church like me, but when you were converted, it was just you and Him. He called you by name and you began to love Him because He began to first love you. Secondly, we see the true shepherd leads his sheep out, leads them out. Nowadays, sheep farmers, they don't lead them anymore. They practically drive them and they do a pretty good job of it with those sheep dogs that they have. But in ancient Israel, the sheep were trained to simply follow their shepherd wherever he went. True pastors should never drive the sheep. He's called to lead them. When a pastor starts trying to force the members of the church to do this or that, he's no longer being a shepherd. He needs to lead. The Lord Jesus, though He has the right to force us, He simply gently, lovingly leads His people. Does He use the rod? Yes, but it's out of love. He goes before them and He shows them by example the right way to go, according to His word. Thirdly, the true shepherd not only leads the sheep, he leads them out to find, F-I-N-D, pasture. Brethren, for years, my ears only heard the word F-I-N-E, good pasture, fine pasture. True shepherd will always seek to lead God's people constantly to all that is in Christ Jesus. through faithful teaching and preaching of the Word of God, the sheep are fed, the sheep are nourished in their faith, which is what I'm trying to do with this text with you this morning. He's always leading the sheep to find peace and salvation in Christ. He's always leading them to find their comfort in the promises of Christ. Sheep have a tendency to wandering off sometimes, and by many cares of the world, they get easily distracted. Therefore, it is the duty of a true shepherd to always lead the sheep to the green pastures of God's Word. And ultimately, it is through the under-shepherds that the true shepherd is doing this to you. We're stewards over it. This is how your Savior, the Lord Jesus, the true shepherd, is shepherding your soul in here this morning right now. And he describes these pastors in verse 10. We might envision these green and plush hillsides, but in verse 10, we could say it this way, they have come that they may have life and they may have it more abundantly. The true shepherd leads his sheep into green pastures of eternal life and abundant life. The words more abundant here is just one word in the original. It just literally means super abundant. This describes the kind of life, brethren, that Christ leads all of his sheep in day by day. Some of you are sitting in here today thinking, I don't know so much about that. But it covers this life and it covers the life to come. This is what Jesus said that he gives his sheep. A whole sermon could be preached on what is all of this abundant life that Christ says that he gives his sheep. Well, I don't have a whole sermon for you, but I got some, or I have some. Number one is this, and that begins with the forgiveness of all your sin and all of its eternal consequences. That's where the abundant life begins. You, brethren, get to walk around sin-free before a holy God every day of your life. Wow, that's pretty good. Verse 9, I am the door, if anyone enters by me, he will be saved. Verse 10, abundant life, you shall have life. It's more than that. We have earthly blessings that now, as Christians, we know that they're from our Father from above, where all the good gifts come from. As the psalmist said, I would have lost heart had I not known the blessings of the Lord and the land of the living. Look at us, brethren. We're so rich. We've been given so much. Children, grandchildren, some of you. Homes, jobs. Look at AJ, the surgery yesterday. It went well with Julio. It went well. Our brother gave a report at prayer meeting. Our pastor did, that the report is good, that he's healing up. God is good. The abundant life is here, brethren. We just have to open up our eyes of faith and see it. Think about the continued blessing of the guilts from sin. Yes, we continue to sin as Christians, don't we? And it makes you feel guilty, but you need not stay there. Every time you sin and every time you confess, it's forgiven. Every single time. What a glorious Savior. You, brethren, never have to walk around with any guilt in your conscience ever. Now, sometimes there's residual consequences because of your sin. We all have some of that. but you don't have to walk around with it. And here I have another one for you. How would you like to walk around, brethren, with a worry-free life? A worry-free life. Oh, doesn't that sound like an abundant life? Did you not know that Jesus says that's what He says He's given you? Three times in the Sermon on the Mount, He says to the people there standing on that hillside, do not worry. His last one says, do not worry about tomorrow. And if you need more, he told the Apostle Paul to tell the church at Philippi, be anxious for nothing. Wow. That's how you get to live, brother. That's how you get to live, sister, if you believe Jesus's word. He told you, and it's a command, it's in the imperative, do not worry. Well, I still do it. Yeah, I know, I do too. Every time my girls are out, gone somewhere in their cars, they're not home yet, God uses it to make me pray. And he answers that prayer, and as soon as they pull in the driveway, I'm praising him. But what an abundant life it is that now that everything works together for your good, if you're a sheep, every single thing. But there's more. Another part of this abundant life is our shepherd's promise to always preserve us all the way to glory in this life and in the life to come. You know this verse, Psalm 121.8, the Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and forevermore. As he leads you in the sheepfold at night, you're watched over. As he brings you out in the day to the hillsides, you're watched over. He leads you going in and coming out. Verse 28, down later, we'll get to it at some point. I have given them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. That's abundant life. Oh, brother, every sorrow, every pain we experience in this cruel, sinful, fallen world of our true shepherd will always, always lead us some to some to find some green pasture of his grace and mercy in which to feed, no matter how much and how difficult it is. It may be answers to prayer. It may be nothing but the hope that you have left to get to glory. But it will be, you will be as His sheep always. He will lead you to find some green hillside of grace and mercy to cling on to and to feast upon. In Christ, all the promises in Him are yes and amen. Brethren, we've looked at the spot, how to spot a false shepherd. We know how to recognize a true shepherd, but there's one more character in this allegory, and that is how to recognize true sheep. First of all, true sheep, notice it, brethren, in the text, hears the voice of the shepherd. And again, why do they hear? Well, because he calls them supernaturally and effectually through the gospel. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he called. Just as our Lord opened the heart of Lydia in Acts 16, so He must open our ears, and it is the fruit of regeneration. We learned this lesson back in chapter 8 when the Lord said to those religious Jews who were rejecting Him, He said to them, he who is of God hears God's words. And then He said this amazing statement, therefore, you do not hear because you're not of God. You don't get the sermon. You don't care about the sermon. Take it or leave it. You go weeks and weeks without reading your Bible, that's not affecting me all that much. I feel the same whether I read it or don't read it. There's a reason for it. You just told Pilate in John 18.37, everyone who is of the truth hears his voice. Do you hear his voice, brother? Now, what does this mean that true sheep hears the voice of their shepherd? It means that they can understand for the first time in their lives the Word of God when they read it. It doesn't mean that you understand everything, but it does mean that because you now have the Holy Spirit, he makes known to you, he makes known to all of his people what the Scriptures are about, and they're about the Son of God. The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will show you things that which Jesus has taught. And so, without the Holy Spirit, you're not a sheik. Without the Holy Spirit, you don't understand the Scriptures. And this is what happened to this crowd that day, these Pharisees. Notice verse 6 there, Jesus used this parable, illustration, but they did not understand the things which he spoke to them. Brethren, it's what we've been saying through our study of John. We've used 1 Corinthians 2.14 several times now, where Paul says the natural man doesn't know or understand the things of God because the things of God are spiritually discerned. It simply means if you don't have the Holy Spirit, the Bible is boring. If you don't have the Holy Spirit, you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ where you intimately love him and you can hear his voice and you want to follow him. But Paul gave that in the negative, but the opposite of that is positive, which is, as the spiritual man, you do receive the things of the Spirit of God. You do understand these. They are not foolishness to you. It's the testimony of every one of you here in here, isn't it, brethren? All of you, most of you, if not most of all of you, bear this testimony that before you were born again, you read the Bible and you didn't get much from it. And I've heard some of you tell me personally that after you were converted, all of a sudden, the truth began to jump off the pages of the Bible. You loved it. You didn't quite understand it all, but you loved it. For the first time in your life, you truly were interested in the sermon. You want to hear a sermon. You can't get enough sermons. You're wearing sermon audio out. You just feast off of it all the time. You want to grow more. You want to learn more. Every newly understood doctrine when you became a Christian was just wonderful, embraced, believed, and loved. And you loved it because it was the voice of your shepherd. I remember when I was first converted, not having grown up in church, I was just lost but not found. I was found and I could see for the first time in my life. Going to Liberty, I remember learning about the doctrine of justification, sanctification, glorification, the three shuns. I thought I was smart and knew something when I got those three things down. And they are important, very, very important things. I still need to grow in my understanding of all of them, but it was wonderful. And then understanding the doctrine of the Trinity as best as I could. Nobody understands it perfectly, but you never reject it. Glorious, still learning. But brethren, there's a second way to recognize a true sheep, and it's in verse 4. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep notice it, follow him, for they know his voice. What is the meaning of this word, follow, but simply the word to obey? Every sheep that hears the shepherd's voice and then follows out after him, they only do it because they want to. They want to because they know the shepherd cares for them. They know that wherever he goes, there's going to be a green pasture. They know he will protect them. They know that in him is safety. Whether he puts us up in the pen at night, guard it, or he takes us himself and guards us on the hillside, it is safety in the Lord Jesus. Brother, there are times in my life when I terribly think about horrible things that could happen. It's that I don't live the don't worry thing like all the time. And I can't tell you how often all I do is just bow my head in prayer and confess, Christ, you're the Lord, and my peace returns to me. I'm so fearful about so many things sometimes. Fearful, am I going to finish the pastorate faithfully? What's going to happen to my girls? What's going to happen to Trinity? You know, your brain just starts going off in all kinds of directions. The devil can get behind it and just put fire under it. And I just look to the Lord, Lord, you're the sovereign God, you know, you're the shepherd. and peace returns. Every sheep that hears the shepherd's voice and then follows him, they do it because they want to. And it is an act of obedience. I've said it to you many times from this pulpit through the years, brethren, that no Christian ever obeys Jesus Christ perfectly, but they want to. I hope that's at your heart this morning, that you really, if you could, wouldn't it be great that you always said the most righteous thing every time you spoke? That you did everything by whether it was the things that you don't want to omit, the things you're supposed to do, Would it be a wonderful life? We won't get there until we get the glory, but what a wonderful life to be able just to live without ever sinning, to always do the things you know you're supposed to, to be so kind and loving and to rebuke where you're supposed to rebuke in a righteous way. Oh, true sheep follow the shepherd wherever he goes. The Baptist hymnal we used to use years ago, it had this little song in there, wherever he goes, wherever he leads, I'll go. Wherever he leads, I'll go. I'll follow my Christ who loves me so, wherever he leads, I'll go. It's a very shallow song. I think that was the whole thing, honestly. One more verse. But it's true. It's true. This is the heart of a true shepherd. Because the shepherd has proved his love and staying near unto him, or true sheep I mean, they stay near to him because it's the safest place. It always leads to abundant life. You will show me the path of life, the psalmist. A third way to recognize true sheep is that they will never follow a stranger. Verse 5 and verse 8 both say it, yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him. In verse 8, all who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not follow them. Though no sheep has perfect discernment, nor know all the Bible doctrine perfectly, but yet generally, brethren speaking, all things pertaining to salvation and the doctrine of who God is, a true sheep will never waver off into heresy. This is the promise of Christ. He said, there will come a day when there will be false shepherds who will do signs and wonders and seek to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But it is not possible. You may lead them astray into dangerous paths, but the shepherd will go get them. It's so interesting to see, brethren, when you read through the New Testament, and sometimes when you're in a solid church and the solid Bible doctrine, you're like, why is all this in here? But there's this bright thread that runs through the New Testament, and it's this thread of always warning, always warning against false teachers and false prophets and false doctrine. Here we have it here, and Paul is worried about it, Peter is worried about it in his epistle, Jude, all of them. This shall be the main concern of our church today, brethren. People who come into the church and get carried away with some intriguing new doctrine contrary to Christ. We have to always be diligent in this area. But at the end of the day, brethren, true sheep will not follow after these strange things. But let us never forget, the only reason you and I do not go into the Watchtower Society or join the Mormons, Not because of your ability, your native ability to think through those things, it is because of the Holy Spirit of God who warns you. There's an internal red flag. Oh, that's not the shepherd's voice. It doesn't go and coincide with what's in the Scripture. Brethren, it doesn't mean we don't use our minds and our brains. Paul warned the Church of Colossae against those who would seek to cheat them through vain philosophies and such. Brethren, we need to be careful. Now, this text has been primarily about sheep and false shepherds and true shepherds, thieves and robbers. But if we look closely, I believe our Lord is also speaking of another potential fourth group, those who may yet become sheep but haven't yet come through the door. In verse 7, Jesus says that, I am the door of the sheep. Verse 9 again, he says it, I am the door. And those of you who know about John's gospel account, that there are the seven great I Ams. This is the third one. It's a statement of our Lord Jesus declaring himself to be the true and the living God standing right there incarnate in the flesh, the God of gods, the true God. And I was taken back as I went back over looking at all seven of his I Am statements in John and how the majority of them come with this sort of We could call it an invitation, but it's more of a promise, really. John 6.35 was the first one, I am the bread of life. And then he says, he who comes to me shall never hunger. And then John 8.12, we know this one, I'm the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in dark. What a promise. And the one we have here, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved. And then the last one, which is I think the seventh one, John 11, 25, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. It's Jesus saying, I am God. I can promise you this and pull it off. It's true. So if you come to Jesus by faith, if you become his follower, if you believe that he is the son of God, you will prove that you too are one of his sheep. But you must know, you must know that what Jesus is saying when he says that, I am the door, it means that he is the only way in to be saved. It's the only door. They didn't have multiple doors around that sheepfold. The only way to escape eternal judgment and hell forever and ever is through Christ as God, as the God-man. He said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but through me. There's only one door to the sheepfold, no one can enter it, except by faith you believe he's the Son of God. This is the only way that you can have your sins atoned for, and they must be atoned before you die or you will suffer in hell forever. These things are written, you may know, you may have eternal life. Jesus is saying to you, I'm the door, come on in. By faith, believe who I am. and I'll lead you to find true passion. Brethren, again, this is an invitation, but I think by way of anything else, it's really a promise. In closing, I trust that there were some applications throughout the sermon, but to wrap them all up into one, I would ask if you, brethren, are following close behind your shepherd this morning. Can you still hear his voice today? Or has some sin clogged your ability to hear the voice of the shepherd? Has the Bible reading become dull again? Has the voice in the sermons preached week in and week out? Is it just, you know, have thieves and robbers come over the wall to steal your joy and your comfort and your peace in Christ? Well, this is his voice to you this morning. From his word today, the door is right here. Follow Him again through word, through prayer, and through confession of whatever sins you have, and He will promise you to take you back out to the hillside. And I'll use it this time, in F-I-N-E, pasture, in fine pasture. Come to the shepherd's hillside, And rejoice, come to the Lord's table this morning, dear brother, dear sister, and find grace again to remind you of why you love your Lord, why you're committed your whole life to Him, why you're willing even to die for Him. He, reminding yourself that He died for you and rose again. And then you'll see also in the supper this morning, His another promise to come back, to come back like that shepherd does in the morning to the sheepfold. and call you out of the corral of this world and lead you to the fine pasture of eternal life and the new heaven and the new earth. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you. Thank you for the true shepherd who is the good and great shepherd of our souls. Lord, you are kind to us. You have every right and cause to never call us out. and to leave us when we wander astray, but you bring us back time and time again. You leave the 99 and nine to go. We thank you, our God, for the grace and the mercy that is ours in Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray for those in here this morning. We think of the children, perhaps even some adults that have not come through the door. We pray, our Father, that by the work of your Spirit, you would open their eyes to see the true shepherd, the one to whom they must go to and to go through to be saved, that you might be glorified in this, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. And at this time, I'd like to ask the deacon