Ooh, a couple of messages from this chapter. John chapter 10. Truly, truly, I say to you, and actually in the original language it's amen, amen. Most affirmably, most affirmably, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door Into the fold of the sheep but climbs up some other way. He is the thief and a robber now if we go back to The messages before six seven eight and nine Jesus is laying it on the Pharisees, especially the Pharisees and the scribes and he's telling how they are bad and he just healed a boy born blind and And he told them, you want to be blind, you wish to be blind. And the boys saw, and they would not believe it. And this was a truly, absolutely the only miracle that Jesus did, healing the blind, was no other one had ever done this. The dead were raised, the lepers were healed before, but the blind were never caused to see and healed. And so this is a specific Messianic credential, but they did not want to hear. They did not want to see. The blind man saw, the blind men saw, but they threw these people out of the synagogue because he said Jesus healed him, and he didn't know who Jesus was. So here now he goes, he's talking about John, the 10th chapter, and we have to go back to Psalms. Go back to the 23rd Psalm. Psalm 23, a Psalm of David. I didn't mark this beforehand, I should have. Psalm number 23. John 10 and Psalm 23 are the same words, so to speak. Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. Now we know a sheep is afraid of running water. They have to have a still pool of water or trough where they will drink. He makes me lie down in green pastures and he leaves me beside quiet still waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Now, the very first verse here says what? The Lord Jehovah is my shepherd. Jehovah is my shepherd. The Jehovah is my shepherd. Now, Jehovah means he who shall become. And John 1.14 says, The Word, or the Jehovah, flesh he became, and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This is he, right here. John has introduced these Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, the Sicarii, all of these people, the Levites, the priests, he had introduced them to Jehovah. But they did not want to hear him, or they did not want to see him. He retires my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me. In the presence, thou prepares the table. I will feel no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. And every one of these means something. the rod of correction and the staff to rescue us. Comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and then in the New Testament and John the 10th chapter we have Another setting of this beautiful 23rd Psalm when the real the real Shepherd Jehovah the Jehovah my Shepherd is among us. This is the one David talked about That Psalm 23 was David's idea of heaven. It was his idea of heaven We're not going to look at everything here today Truly I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs over some other way, he is a thief and a robber. Who are the thieves and the robbers, Marilyn? The Pharisees. The scribes. The high priests. These are the thieves and the robbers. These are the thieves and the robbers. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. Now, he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. I remember a man going, and I have pictures of this when I was in the land of Israel and Arabia, Sinai, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, You would look out, and way out in the country, these people, these Bedouins are still living out there, and there is a sheepfold. And it's big around, some of them smaller, some of them bigger. And they have a little door there, just an opening, a gate. Now, one old man went out there, and he walks up, and he asks this shepherd out there, and this was a long time ago. He said, is that a sheepfold? And he said, yes. He said, is that the door? He said, yes, that's the gate. But he said, where is the door? Where's the door? How do you lock the sheep? And he said, I'm the door. I'm the shepherd. I get the sheep in there. There'll be other shepherds in there. And they'll drive them all in there. And I drive my sheep. They drive their sheep. Because this sheepfold protects sheep from all the wolves and lions and people that will steal and kill. And he is the door. The shepherd is the door. The title of this message is The Door and the Porter. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out. Now, verse number seven, Jesus says, and therefore He said to them again, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. I am the door. I am the door. No one goes to those sheep or gets over there, they've got to go over me. If a lion or a bear or a tiger go after the sheep or a thief, they've got to come over me. I'm the door. He said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. I am the porter. And all who came before me are what? Thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and might have it abundantly." Now let's go to our book. page 324 1 through 4 and 9 Although the bulk of this renowned chapter is taken up with a parable of Jesus as a good shepherd The title that we're going to use right now in the illustration we're going to use is the porter or the door Jesus is the porter or the door The porter and the door, thieves, robbers, and hirelings, all of which are part of the imagery of the shepherd of the sheep, but which, like them, are used in a spiritual sense. The opening formerly, Verily, Verily, which John uses over and over again, a very important statement Truly truly. Amen. Amen Now when Israel was on at the foot of Sinai Moses come down as he read the laws of them They would say amen, or we will keep it or we'll stand by it. But now Jesus said amen truly truly I say to you you lied you never kept the law and he repeated that in the last message You did not keep the law you say you are Moses students. You're Moses disciples and you don't know who I am You didn't keep Moses law Verily, verily, I say to you, which John alone gives Jesus as using in his teaching, which occurs 25 times in this gospel, amen, amen. And proves that he was an acute listener, John was. The double affirmative actually means amen, amen, and introduces truth of tremendous importance and urgency when he says that. Usually the formula occurs in the midst of other statements, and was resorted to by Jesus to arrest and focus attention on the new aspect of truth about to be expounded. Here, verily, verily, John 10 and 1 does not commence with a fresh discourse, but acts as a development out of the Lord's deeper teaching in John 1 and verse 51. His teaching commenced in the previous chapter 9 and 35, which arose out of the miracle of the blind man, which caused the Pharisees to realize their spiritual blindness. We are not blind, are we? They said. Yeah, they were willingly blind. We want to be blind. Jesus follows on to teach that those that he spoke to, the Pharisees are thieves and robbers and hirelings. They're just hirelings. Much to their anger. The door, the common figure of the door, is not only used literally in Matthew 6 and 6 and 27 and 60, but in various metaphorical ways. W.E. Vine says, the door is of faith by acceptance of the gospel of grace. That's the door into the family of God. The door is the opening of the ministry of the word of God in 1 Corinthians 16 and 9 and 2 Corinthians 2 and 12 and Colossians 4 and 3 and Revelation 3 and 8. The door of entrance into the kingdom of God, Matthew 25 and 10 and 13, 24 and 25, is the door of Christ's entrance into a repentant believer's heart. It is a door to the nearness of Christ's second advent. It is a door of access to behold a vision relative to the purpose of God. It is a door of access of prayer as we come to the Father by the right as Jesus our Savior. It is the door of Christ by which we are saved, the door of grace. By the door into the sheepfold and through the shepherd enters, we are to understand a door to the sheep, not for them. Jesus takes up this material provision for the shepherd and applies it to himself. I am the door. I am the door. I am the way, the truth, and life. No man comes unto the Father except by me. He's using the Psalm 23 and John the 10th chapter to tell them that he is Jehovah, the king shepherd of Israel, the shepherd king, as David was. He is the son of that shepherd king. He says, I am Jesus. I am Jesus. I am Jehovah saves. A door has a two-fold function. It admits and it excludes. It admits and it locks others out. A door admits people and it also locks people out. It can shut out all who are not welcome and shut out those who are not desired. When the door was shut at the marriage feast in Matthew 25 and verse 10, it shut in the five wise virgin and shut out the five foolish virgins, didn't it? Christ is the door and we enter in and we are saved. It is only through him that we have access unto the Father through prayer, Ephesians 2.18. The figure of the door is parallel to that of the straight gate, the narrow gate. and the narrow way in Matthew 7, 13, and 14, and Romans 5 and 2. We cannot narrow the door to the fold, nor yet may we widen it. We can't narrow it and we cannot widen it. Christ is the door for all those excommunicated by the religious authority of the Pharisees. He was the door of that man's healing site. He was kicked out of the synagogue, and his family was kicked out of the synagogue, and they shut them out. But they also shut themselves out of the kingdom of God. The man who had received his sight was cast out, and Jesus asked him, Do you believe on the Son of God? And the man said, Who is he? And Jesus plainly said to him, That I am him. And he said, I believe. I believe. I believe you. Then Jesus offered himself as a door into a new life when he said, it is he that speaks to you. And receiving him, the once blind man found to him the entrance, the doorway into eternal life. When Jesus addressed the religious rulers who cast out the man whose sight had been restored, he condemned them for being excommunicators. Woe unto you, lawyers, for you take away the key of the knowledge, and we enter not yourselves, and them that are entering in you hinder." He said, you go around, see a land, and you make two times a son of hell those proselytes you make, and you lock them out and close the door to the kingdom of God. With the Eastern Shepherds, the door was not actually a door with hinges, as we understand the term, but an opening in the fold, which was an opening into the walled enclosure of the palisade. Into some high enclosure, the sheep were taken in the evening, and the porter took over the watch and was responsible for the safety of the sheep. They were thieves bent on stealing the sheep, and robbers out to slaughter the sheep. And if the porter at the door of the fold was not alert, the thieves and robbers would climb over the well and take the sheep. These were thieves and robbers who proceeded Christ. They were thieves and robbers. All of these big time priests, Ananias, All that ever came before me cannot apply to the Old Testament prophets and teachers who faithfully witnessed to Israel that He was going to be Jehovah their Savior, but to those that rejected and killed the prophets. And these were sons of those that killed the prophets. And now they would kill the prophet, the King of Israel, the Jehovah Shepherd of Israel. He was figuratively representing the priestly caste which emerged in the Old Testament, and these religious teachers usurped the place of the true prophet's schools and claimed for themselves the position of the door to the kingdom of God, but by their self-made additions to the law, the Mishnah and the Talmud, they were exclusionists and they plundered and raped and pillaged the oppressed. These were the thieves and robbers, wolves and sheep's clothing, stealing into the flock of Christ and rending those who were true sheep. Acts 20, 29 and 1 Peter 5 and 2. On page 326. Oh, I am the door, Jesus said, didn't he? Plainly, he said, I am the door to the sheep. The sheep go inside, and I come there, and I lie down across the threshold, and no sheep shall get out except over my body. And no wolf can get in except over my body. No lion and no bear can get in except over my body. How rich in spiritual suggestion is this telling illustration, Christ is the door, and we cannot go out except across his body. We cannot go in that sheepfold except across his body. None can pluck us out of his hand. Luke 10 and 28 and 29. At the door, Jesus himself preserves and protects his sheep. They can go in and they can go out and find pasture. Entering through Christ, we find salvation and service and sustenance. To go in and to go out is an expression frequently employed by the Bible to designate the free use of a house. Nobody can come and go in this house except we allow them. And Roger, your house is the same way. Just not everybody can just walk in there, can they? You have locks on it. It excludes people and yet the people that live there go freely in and out, don't they? A free use of the house into which one goes or from which one departs unceremonially because one belongs to that family, of that house, because one is at home in it. Are you at home in Christ? Is he your door? Is he your entrance into eternal life? To go into expresses a free satisfaction of the need of rest. The sheep rested in the sheepfold. They possessed safety in that sheepfold. We possess safety in our Christ, in our Lord, don't we? To go out suggests a free satisfaction of the need of nourishment. They went out to eat. They could lay there and chew their cut, but they went out to eat. The easy enjoyment of that rich pasture. He leads me, he makes me lie down in what? Green pastures. He leads me beside still, quiet, not scary waters. This is the reason why the words shall go out and immediately followed by the words explaining it and shall find pasture. We go in for salvation and go out to serve the one who saved us. As Jesus is the door, on which side are you in? The outside or the inside? Let me tell you this also. He is the porter. He is the porter that leads us in. He is the shepherd that leads us in. Sometimes several shepherds would go and put their sheep in one fold. Now, when the shepherd would leave and take his sheep out, he would call them by name. Come here, Missy. Come here, Puddin, whatever he might call them. Marilyn, you had sheep. They trusted you, didn't they? They'd follow you around. And that man came out to shear the sheep, and he said, how did you do this? How do you make them mind you like this? How do you make them mind you? Because they love you and they know you. We know Jesus. He loves us and we love Him. And He calls us all by name, doesn't He? And we call upon Him by name. The doorkeeper and the door opener, all who belong to the Good Shepherd should be spiritual porters, guarding the door or defending the faith, also active door openers, active soul winners, As a Christian, are you functioning in a double sense as a porter? How many of you led into the Lord, into that shepherd? Are you helping to carry the burdens of others? Bear you one of those burdens? Then you're always on watch to open the door for the Savior. If you have never opened the door for Him, or in other words, never won a soul for him, yours is not the abundant life which he speaks in his parable. This is a beautiful story, a beautiful story. And we're going to go on and look more at it, about it. Jesus is our savior. He is our shepherd. He is our door. He's our sustainer. He guards us. And He takes care of us. He protects us. And He defends us. But a harlequin won't do that, will it? Somebody's just going in and watching the door. He's not going to lay his life down for the sheep. Jesus died for us, did He not? Jesus died for us. He was a good shepherd. He laid down His life for us. And I don't want to get into the other part of the message too far. Our Father, we send this message out that if there's one out there lost and doesn't know you, Father, I pray that they will go to the door and to the door which is our Savior, Jesus Christ. That they'll believe in their heart that He died for them, that He is truly God incarnate, that He was buried and that He was raised again, as baptism portrays, the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. So we look to Him. And we learn to love him because he first love us. And he said, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He calls his sheep by name and they know them. He knows them and they know him. Father, I pray that those out there listening to this message might want to have this eternal life that they want, might want to have Jesus as their shepherd and their doorkeeper and their porter. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.