In this sermon, the speaker begins by discussing the importance of entering through the door into the sheepfold, emphasizing that anyone who climbs in another way is a thief and a robber. He then connects this concept to John the Baptist, who validated Jesus as the shepherd of the sheep. The speaker highlights the significance of the sheep hearing the shepherd's voice and following him. He also mentions the blind man who heard Jesus' voice and was healed. The sermon concludes with the speaker emphasizing the importance of understanding the true meaning of Jesus giving his life for the sheep, not just in a political or human sense, but in the context of receiving his life and becoming like him.

In Zimbabwe, when I lectured to the students there, they have a terrible habit, it's in their culture, never do it, coming, turning up on time, never, never, they never turn up on time. So they did it to me the first morning, you know, I was, lectures were starting, I would give them the first turn, always, I'd like to take the first turn, then I can get past any headaches I might pick up and be ready for tomorrow. Unfortunately, that's how it's been with me, but, and I can generally, nearly everybody gives me my own way, it's bad for me, but there it is. They turned up, some of them, about a quarter of an hour, I said, I want you all to understand, that if the lectures start at nine, you must be here on time, if you come late, tomorrow morning the doors will be shut, you will not be allowed into the lectures. They all turned up on time. You see, that's fine. Hebrews, what am I looking at Hebrews for? John, let's go back to John. You say, we see. Therefore, your sin remains. Big sin it is. Terrible. Verily, verily, there's no chapter break, understand that. Verily, so let's connect it up. You say, we see. Therefore, your sin remaineth. Verily, it's not a banal statement. Verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were, which he spoke unto them. Now that is the only parable in John's gospel. The others record parable after parable after parable, but John did not. Just one, but it's a vital one. You always say it's a loving one. I love this about the Good Shepherd. Of course, you know why you love it, because it's so basic. You might not have realised that was the reason, but it is. It's so basic. Now let's see if we can get to the Lord's meaning in it, shall we? There's a name left out of this, because the Lord is in the parabolic realm. He's not in direct speaking. He speaks directly of this man, but John the Baptist, and the baptism of repentance, followed by water baptism, was that Porter, he opened the door for Jesus Christ. He, Jesus Christ, was the Shepherd, and he announced him. John the Baptist was the Porter. And you know what happened when the Lord was baptised? This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Nobody else that's ever breathed has ever had such a thing happen to them. That was the Annunciation. You probably think of the Annunciation as talks about the BVM. You know who the BVM is, don't you? Well, in Catholic law, it's the Blessed Virgin Mary. BVM. But do you call that, or at least the Catholics, all Catholics do, and the world, usually follows the most popular and best attended religion. If it's in India, they follow that one. And if it's in this, it's that. They all think that they have national religions, and they believe it's the best one that there is. They do have national religions, but not the children of God. This is the great thing. The angel gave the Annunciation, as we say, to Mary. It was John the Baptist. Listen to him. What sayest thou of thyself? We read it in our first time together, John 1. I am the voice that makes the Annunciation. One crying in the wilderness. That's right. Filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb. A burning and a shining light. The light burned and burned. The gate glowed with the light and with the fire. That's right. And he opened the door to Jesus Christ. That's right. He was the physical or human being. OK. I knew him not, he said. I didn't know him. Although he was his cousin by natural birth. He didn't know him. He said, I didn't know him. But upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit alighting and remaining on him, the same is the Son of God. I saw. That's it. It happened. And God said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. He opened the door wide. From that day, or not that same day, that occasion, it was the next day actually, refreshing your mind, when Jesus was walking by Jordan again, two of John's disciples left John the Baptist and started to follow Jesus. Alright. So the door was opened wide and Jesus didn't climb up some other way, like others had done. You will remember that Gamaliel, the great teacher in Israel, said that when they were getting panicky about the spread of the gospel, it was alarming to the Jews tremendously. He said, oh don't worry, there was this man rose up and led some people out into the wilderness, and there's another man came. It's all fair. If this isn't of God, he said, he was at least wise enough to say this, and possibly a believer. I don't know. But, you see, they'd all climbed up some other way. But this was the way, the dove and the voice, from heaven. Right. So, he goes straight in, and from the day that John Baptist was put in prison, pretty well, almost the same time, now for a lapse of a little time, and then executed, Jesus began to take up John's theme. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Alright. He validated John, as John had validated him, and Jordan, he now validates John. He was the porter, the one that opened the door of the Jewish nation, so that the Lord Jesus, God, could come in the shepherd. Right. Now we've got it fixed. And now he said, my sheep hear his voice. The sheep hear his voice. Verse 3. Right. That's what happened. You've had an illustration of it. Jesus stood in front of the blind man, and he spoke to him. The blind man heard him, and said, well, there's clay on your eyes, the man's mad, normally. I mean, who'd go anointing blind people's eyes with clay? I mean, you go to a doctor and ask him. He did an absolutely outrageous thing. Fancy ill-treating a blind man that couldn't defend himself. I know all their arguments. Haven't you listened to the working of their minds and their arguments? Well, Jesus did. He said, I'll go to the pool of Siloam. Who's going to take me? Well, I'm going to get there. He just heard the voice. There was something in the voice. And you were in your voice. Did you know that? Would you speak up? Something in your voice, brother, sister. And I listened for that. More than I listened to what you say. I listened for the voice. It tells me everything. You say, I have the gift of tongues, or I have the gift of interpretation, I have the gift of prophecy, I have this, that and the other. I won't take any notice of that. I should just listen to you. The voice, the tone, the degree of authority without bossiness, the meekness of it. And I know you. I know you. So don't try and put anything on because I shall hear that as well. This is the thing. The sheep have got to be certain. You've got to be absolutely sure. Oh, he's got the gift of prophecy. I've heard them. I've heard them. It all comes there. Oh, well, we're Lancastrians, or we're this, that and the other. It makes not a scrap of difference. Not a scrap of difference whether you were born on the equator or whether you were born on the North Pole or the South. Makes no difference. Understand that. I'm going to cultivate the right kind of voice. You can't. It will come if you're a child of God. It will be there. That's how we move. So don't talk to me if you want to stay hidden. Because I shall listen to your voice before I listen to what you say. My sheep hear my voice. Not what I say. Why did those two men follow, detach themselves from John, dear man that he was, full of the Spirit and a fire for God. He was burning and shining like, says Jesus, absolutely distinct, the man. They left him. They left him. There was something. It's what Jesus said. You don't need to read this gospel if you want to stay comfortable. Although if you get into its truth it will comfort you more than any other. You see, he says, no man can come to me except my Father draw him. You like to read the other text. Come unto me, oh ye, and there you are, you see. Just bear it in mind. Say, the man's a Calvinist. Well, if that's Calvinist, then I am one. You say, you're a man, he's a whatever his name is, Arminian. Although, yes, right. But it doesn't matter, beloved, what you think. The same one that said nobody can come to me except the Father draw him said, come unto me, oh ye that labour and are heavy laden. So there's a mix up. The gospel is designed to mix you up, I mean on basic things, unless you're knowing God. Did you know that? Well, I thought it was to be simple and I like to read the simple stories. But the simplest person in the world is nothing to do with simple minds and haven't learned anything and haven't been to school or anything like that. It's got nothing to do with it. Some of the greatest minds you've ever been and you've never been to university. You understand that? Jesus himself, for instance. Just keep it clear. There's something about what in the musical world they use, the timbre of the voice. You understand that word, do you? Spelt t-i-m-b-r-e. Put it down. The timbre. It's what you listen for in a person that's a singer. So when these people get up and go, ya, ya, ya, ya, well that's the timbre. Be careful, be careful. Don't take their lying deceptions because that music appeals to you. Here is the thing, beloved. You and I have to see what this is all about. They hear my voice. They may not hear what I say. They're not in the place where they can take that yet. Do you know people like that? Just in your acquaintances. There's something. Must be a lovely person. Even she can hear that. Isn't it wonderful? But then I'm not preaching to you on this parable, am I? Well, I am, but then I'm alone. When he put, and see what he does. That man who had stuck up for Christ. You can't open my eyes. So what? They'd excommunicated him. So now he was out in the wilderness, pictorially, of course. He got no hold, no go-to, can't come to God, because you've got to come according to the way of your religion, and so on. Alright. Jesus just goes and speaks to him. Who is he? He couldn't trust him. You've both seen him and heard him. Lord, I believe. He didn't say, will you believe? He said, I believe. He heard it. Same voice. So you know who's talking to you this morning. Nothing to do with whether their name's North or South. Here is the thing to get hold of. How wonderful it all is. They weren't far as strangers. So you're not getting, isn't it, about the next wind that blows, and the next theme, and the next sort of, how do you call it? Blessing, or revival, or whatever word you want. You do understand, don't you? And always remember this, that Paul says that all the blessings, listen, all of them, every one, you can give them a name, because you want to make it distinct from other things, and all kinds of things. Listen, you are only blessed if you're a child of God with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, in Christ. Ephesians 2, you keep that clear. Whatever the physical actions, reactions, the people talk about that, you see, they jump up in the air a mile, or they kick, and they do, it's a wonderful time. They may be, I'm not criticising, but don't get carried away by those things. Whatever they are. I can remember, well, perhaps I'd better tell you stories, I'll never stop. Because the Lord poured out his Spirit in the place I was, and a dear black brother, it wasn't this one, he was in the meeting, we had a real mixture, the better the mixture the better it is, and here, he came up the front to give his testimony. And he gave his testimony, and the next thing he did is jump over the table. I mean, I'd never seen a white person, you know, kind of thing, but this fine young man, and he sang Fellowship with Jesus as part of his testimony, and he jumped so high I didn't think it was possible to do it from a standing position, he never took a flying run at it. But you've never heard that before, you see, you don't talk about the outward manifestations. You keep that clear. Don't worry about that. I shall listen to you speaking, and I shall know. That's what it's about. If people move off the basic thing that came out of Jesus' mouth, they're away into the woods. It's your fault. If you say you're a child of God, you say you're born of God, it's your fault. Because God does exactly the same for all his people inside. I'm not saying he makes everybody jump over a table. You understand? You're no different from me. I've lived a bit longer than most of you, that's all. And you're to go on with the Lord, it's very wonderful. Listen, he putteth his own sheep forth. He puts them out of the nation. Keep that clear. They are not to live in their first birth at all. That is their human birth. They're to follow me. Isn't that wonderful? Be careful, be careful, he'll lead you to the cross. Be very careful, you don't want to be crowned with thorns nailed to a lump of wood, do you? Be careful now. Know what you're doing. Oh, he loves me, amen, he does. Are we blind also? Yeah, you're blind. Are we deaf also? We can't hear your voice. Yes, my sheep have. So they're blind, they're deaf. So they're left with themselves only. Can't see anybody, can't hear anybody. I'm left to myself. Gradually you will find that there's death to you all. This death covers the whole of the human personality, using the terms we understand, deafness or hearing, sight or blindness. And when you get to the next chapter, it's death also, which talks about raising Lazarus. You see the skill of John, under the power of the Spirit. He's choking it all, one by one, he deals with it. That's the value of John's gospel. It's a simple gospel, it's only for simple people. People who believe in basics. So wonderful, isn't it? My sheep. I put them forth. He calls his own sheep by name, giving a demonstration of this. No name in John 9, he's just a blind man. In John 11, he takes it up. Lazarus, come forth. You understand, it's very scientific, John's gospel. When you know what science is. Science is then not all about learning how to build bridges, or eight roads, or all that business you see. Get degrees in it, all that. Have some of this, but not unless you're born again. Here's the big thing to go into, beloved. Shall I call this the science of God? For you know the word science only means knowledge. That's all it means. Did you know then, that's all the word actually means? Did you know that that word, translated word in John 1, you know, in the beginning was the word, in it's fullness of working it out in the Greek, it can mean science. Did you know that? For all the sciences were in Jesus. He didn't become a scientist working out how to build bigger and better bombs. Not everybody, thank God, but you know we're being ruled by that, don't you? They all talk about peace, peace, peace, when there is no peace. And you know, that even now, when they're all talking about it, they've got their backroom boys trying to discover another way to kill another nation. They are, sounds horrible, but it's true. And they get more money than anybody else. So you, paying your taxes with me, are helping to pay them. That's the world, you've got to come out of it. Leave it. That's the big thing for us to see. Lest we, being blinded by our own knowledge, never see the truth. How wonderful it is for us to get into this. Now I must go and look at 522? No, well don't look, let me look at that. I'll try and stop in time. Here then, in this 10th chapter, beloved, we've hardly got into it, have we? Now listen to the Lord Jesus. Note the change in what he says. He's talking about the door of the sheepfold being opened to him. Now listen, here we are. John opened it wide. And then Jesus said, in verse 7, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. So when he calls his own sheep, in the Jewish nation, this is now he's talking nationally, which we might be able to work it out before we part. Tomorrow if I don't. Now, nationally, they were the people of God. The remainder of Israel, all the other tribes were scattered in the nations from the Babylonian captivity. Right. So there's only a fifth of the entire nation there. And five, I may remind you, is the number used for grace in the Bible. So a fifth of them, about, don't say to every single man, maybe to every single one, I don't know, but I'm not making that point. I'm telling you the truth of God. And he's not gone to them. You remember at one time they said, is he going to know for the lost sheep of the house of Israel? They knew that they were lost, gone. All right. He says, I'm the door of the sheep. So he's called his own sheep by name. The other illustration is Lazarus, of course. The people like that. They were fallen. All right. He puts them out. You are neither Jew nor Gentile. Do you understand? You're neither black nor white or any color in between. That's merely skin deep. Don't make any difference. That is a judgment passed by God way back in Noah's day. That's according to him. The Jews were descendants of Shem. All right. So now you call them the Semitic people. If you want to talk in that realm. You have to understand this. He's called his own sheep out of that. And he's called a lot more, of course, after Pentecost. But he's giving the specific teaching. Now, he turns into, in your language, into the door. I am the door of the sheep. And literally, if the door was opened by John and he stood in the gateway, shall we say, and he called his own sheep and they heard his voice. He was the door. He was standing right there where the door should have been. Okay. He led them out. And now you can't get into his flock unless you go through him. He's the door. Clear, isn't it? Simple once you start to think what it is in the spirit, of course. And there it is. It's so wonderful. Which is important because I shan't get there this morning. Verse 16. You note this. Read it. It says, other sheep I have which are not of this fold. That's the Jewish fold. All right. Them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one flock. You might have it translated fold. That is a mistranslation. You can find it yourself in the Greek. One flock. There aren't any folds on earth. One flock and one shepherd. There's neither male nor female. There's neither Jew nor Greek. Let me say for our precious brother, there's neither black nor white. It does not matter about the colour. It does not matter about whether you say, well, I'm a Jew or like my precious tea lady there, a Jewess. I'm an Englishman. I'm not an Englishman and I deny it. But you were born in England. Yeah. Quite an accident as far as I was concerned. That's why you've got to be born again. That cuts out any national divisions at all. Every one of them. It's glorious, glorious, glorious. I revel in it. I love to go abroad and preach it to them and say, you think an Englishman's talking to you. I'm not an Englishman. That's right. I tell them. You talk this nationalistic talk and you're talking yourself out of 50% of truth, if not more. Drop it. No Germans in this room. German ladies, I think, or wherever you've come from. A bit of the name of Orwell. Yeah, it is, isn't it, as that one, our precious sister born in another country first time. Doesn't make any difference. Let's rejoice in it. This blessed fact. You're not a missionary. You cannot be a missionary if you say, I'm an Englishman come to China. You should throw away. I mustn't dissertate on this situation, but this is the failure of our modern day's missionary talk. There aren't any missionaries today. Missionaries go abroad and they live in that country and they die in that country. They've become part of that country. I had a missionary lady in China. You get alerted to all these things gradually. And she said, my greatest ambition, I think she was, oh, I was quite a young man then. And I'll give her 40 years in advance of my age. She said, my greatest ambition is to die here. How about that? Why don't you come home to your family? The family of God is greater than your natural family. Missionaries have never learned, so-called missionaries. Listen to Jesus, to his own mother, what have I to do with thee? She was his mother. This is the thing to understand. Half of us have never come to a proper understanding of what these things are. Do you know, there are hundreds and thousands of missionaries, I would think, in the world, so-called, they pack up and come home because they've got to get their children. They've got to get their children properly educated. I could start naming them to you, the families. You'd better be uneducated like I am, it's good. You see, to go on with God. And into this great heart, you've got to mix with them all in heaven. Do you know that? You say, I wish I'd done you the favour of dying and being buried in your country. Even normal explorers, they were buried in their country. I can name them, I don't want to. They did take his heart out and bury it in a certain place. I'm not giving you a geography or history lesson. It's this. Do you know the early, you know how I love John Wesley's poetry and hymns and love to sing them because they're so full of eternal truth. You see, not these modern gee-gores and things. Do you know why he ever lived and preached like he preached? His famous 44 sermons, do you know why? And they wrote those marvellous hymns. Do you know why? And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour's blood? Died he for me, for all my pain. You see, all this business. Do you know why? John Wesley, who thought he was a missionary, Church of England. OK, so God was a Church of England person. He went to America and came home defeated and a broken man. Failure. And on that ship there was a man called Peter Buller and he knew what true new birth was and holiness. The difference between, by the way, I'm not giving you a history lesson, but you should know this. Some of the lecturers forget to tell you. Lecturers forget more than they remember, you understand that. Unless they sort of go on with their notes on the back. Here is the thing, beloved. You see, Buller was one of the Moravian brethren and they held a hundred years prayer meeting, day and night. At a place called Heron Hut. Did you know that? Hundred years prayer meeting? Can you stick an hour in a prayer meeting? You see? Alright. And the difference between the great man that broke from the Roman Church. You know who I'm talking about? Martin Luther. He went to Martin Luther, so did John Wesley. I don't know whether you know this. And they parted from him. Because the essence of Luther's teaching, though he knew justification by faith, a wonderful thing in those days. He thought they should come in, get baptised, come to church and that was about enough. And by the way, it was a German brother that opened my eyes to this. He told me, because Luther was a German, whether you like it or not. And Zinzendorf, the leader of the other people, Buller's lot. Zinzendorf believed it was not enough, they got to go on for what he called a second work of grace then, if you like, and become holy unto the Lord. Luther never insisted on it. And that's why John Wesley parted from him too. Wesley and Zinzendorf believed more then, all upon the basis of dear Luther, who stood for truth on props to keep his head on his shoulders. He stood for truth as he saw it, but he never seemed to get beyond justification by faith. Never part from it, beloved. But understand, if you want to go up, you put your foot upon the first step and it's called justification and then the rest of the stairs go up. But that's where he stuck. On justification by faith. I don't know, I'm not judging him, I'm simply telling you the facts. But Zinzendorf said, no, we've got to go up unto holiness of life. And Wesley too taught it in a wonderful way. I'm just saying that. Because you can stick, you can have made up your mind, in your heart you're going to stick on the first step. But you've got to leave it and never leave it because all that's above that is an extension from that. It's always there, basically. The bottom step. Don't try and go up two steps at a time if you're anything like 80 years of age. Just go up. Know the truth. Here then is the tremendous thing. How wonderful then to understand the truth. You come out the door. No, I'm the door. I let you out of your compound. He called his sheep, they came. He led them forth and he became the door. There was no way into the flock. There still is to this moment. No way of entering into the flock of God. Then by Jesus Christ, via him. Amen. That's your greatest enemy, or mine. And here's the thing. I am the door of the sheep. I am. Wonderful, isn't it? All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out, that is, among men and women, nations and this, that, go in and out. That's right. Wonderful, isn't it? And I'll find pasture everywhere. I've put everywhere in, because that's what he means. I'll find pasture. Say, I'm living in a very barren land. There's a famine of hearing the word of God. You can quote it all. Okay, and I agree. I'm not quarrelling about that. It's such a shame. You'll find pasture. If you really are hearing his voice, if you really know him, the tragedy with sheep, it can be either way. No brains about it, is it? One sheep goes in, and the other one follows, and the other one follows, and the other one follows. It can be very good, or it can be very bad. How about the lost sheep? This is the thing for you and I to grasp and move in it. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they, that is, the sheep, may have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am a good shepherd. A good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Now, don't interpret that wrongly. In the teaching, although it's true, giving his life, do you mean, never make that mean exclusively that he laid down his life, he died for us. Giving your life. You can see that on war memorials. They gave their life for us, honestly. But they didn't. Of course, I haven't got a gift. I haven't got life from some dead soldier. You see what I mean? It's thinking in political terms. It's thinking in accommodation to human ideas and ideals. The Lord came from heaven, beloved, to show you heaven's ideals. The ideal thing, and this is what we shall see tomorrow by the will of God, is that he laid down his life that you might have it. That life. His life. Do you understand that? And be on earth what he was as a man. Now, that's what it's about. We'll work that out tomorrow by God's grace. Unless you don't mean it, working it out, because you're in possession of it. God bless you. Ministry. The great thing about the Bible, it's like my actual New Testament here. It's suffered at the hands of men, me being a man. I ill-treat all kinds of things, Bibles, Testaments. But, you see, beloved, it's wonderful for you to understand what it is. This is another way of teaching you, accept your life where he said it in chapter 6, and drink my blood. You're not alive. You're dead. You have no life anymore. And this is taking it another way, like parables do, they give you angles on truth. Lost sheep, lost coin, lost son in Luke 15. They're different angles on the same truth. And so the Lord would teach us, and God bless you, and goodbye from me for today.