In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the Christian secret of a happy life, using John chapter 10, verse 10 as the text. He emphasizes that Jesus is the door of the sheep and through him, anyone who enters will be saved and find pasture. The preacher reflects on the longing in God's heart to have someone like himself, made in his image, to share all that he is and has. He shares personal experiences of realizing that beauty and material possessions alone do not bring fulfillment, and how the mind can be easily tempted to desire forbidden things. The sermon concludes with a story about the preacher's son's persistent desire for a bicycle, highlighting the power of our thoughts and desires in shaping our lives.

Return please to John chapter 10. This week we are thinking together on the general theme, the Christian secret of a happy life. Our text for the morning are the words that are behind us on the wall, taken from the 10th chapter, 10th verse, the gospel of John. I read them again. I want you to note each one. They are from his heart to yours this morning. I am the door of the sheep. By me, if any enter in, he shall be saved. He shall go in and out and find pasture. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Shall we bow in prayer? Father, we come to thy word. We thank thee that the very Holy Spirit brought back to the mind of thy servant John, 50 years after he heard thy son utter these words, just the way he gave them, that we might have them. And we ask that thou will apply them to our hearts and to our minds today. Give to us, then, a sense of thy presence. Give to us an openness to thy word and a preparedness to deal honestly with everything we find out thou hast for us and everything we find out that we need. We will give thee all the thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. A shepherd knows the needs of his sheep. And the Lord Jesus Christ knows the needs of his people. He made us. And he knows exactly how he made us. And he intended that had we walked in fellowship with him, that everything we needed would have been adequately supplied for us to live useful, happy, successful lives. But of course, we had this thing of sin that intruded. We'll have to think about that. And during the course of the week, we'll study it more closely. Right now, perhaps it's enough to just go back and remind you of the way this one who here calls himself the good shepherd, but we know to be the creator. Remember, the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. And he's the one who made us. And when he had made man, he looked at the one who he'd made, and he said, it is good. Now there were some things that that man had that you have. For instance, he was made in the image and the likeness of God, and so were you. He was a microcosm of God, as a miniature, if you please, possessing on a finite level, the attributes and capacities that God had on an infinite level. And he gave to us certain drives and urges and appetites. For instance, he gave the appetite for knowledge. He is infinitely intelligent, omniscient, he knows everything. He made us with a capacity for knowledge, but he knew that we would have to learn in sequence. One day they teach us two and two makes four, the next day they'd spoil it all by trying to tell us that two and three makes five. And then when they get to my generation, they don't even go that logically anymore. My little daughter told me when she was in the second grade that if I helped her one more time with her arithmetic, she was going to flunk the course. But he knew that we'd have to learn in sequence. And so he gave to us an appetite for knowledge, an urge for knowledge. Then he gave to us an appetite for food. He doesn't depend upon nourishment. So he put in us certain drives and urges and propensities, certain combination of nervous responses that we interpret as hunger. Some of us have interpreted them too literally, too often perhaps, and have had to pay the price for that. Nevertheless, he's the one who gave us that drive. And he gave us an appetite for pleasure. Isn't it amazing that he put into our ears all of these capacities for nuances of sound and colors? How many colors can the human eye distinguish? And he made that with the colors. He could have given us the eye that he gave to the dog, which we were told, I don't know who told the one who said it, but someone said dogs only see black and white. That may be the case, but he could have done that with us. But instead of that, he gave to us all of these marvelous capacities. And then he gave to us taste for things, you know, sweet, sour, salt, and bitter, and everything else beside that that you call taste is actually odor. That's why when you have a quote, well, I don't taste anything. Friend, you taste just as much as you ever did, but you don't smell. You're olfactory nose, and then faculties are impeded. Now he gave us this wonderful capacity, and then he gave us the watermelon. Have you ever wondered about that? How utterly unnecessary it was for him to have made watermelon? We could have survived beautifully without it. And yet, in his concern, he gave to us all of these things. We might richly enjoy the capacities and powers, the abilities that he had implanted into us. He gave to us the capacity for pleasure. And then he gave to us a sense of need for security. Because, you see, as a father, he would care for his children, and he wanted to give to us the ability to understand his concern and his care and his provision. He gave to us an appetite for sex, because by this means he was intending that this family that he had created, this being, this one who was to be the object of his love. Have you ever wondered why God made man in the first place? I was asked that question years ago when I was a student at the University of Minnesota. Why did God ever make man if he knew that there were going to be a Hitler and going to be all of this and all of that? This young student just took after me. Well frankly, at the time I didn't have very good answers, so I used this as a goad to drive me to the word. And after months of study, I concluded that the reason that God made man was to have someone like himself, to whom he could reveal himself, and with whom he could share all that he is and all that he had. You see, the God of the Bible, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is one God. And this God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is love. And love is incomplete in a sense without an object. And so from eternity past, there'd been a great yearning, longing in the heart of God that he might have someone like himself, made in his image, made in his likeness, to whom he could reveal himself, and with whom he could share all that he is, and all that he has, and all that he's doing. I remember years ago I was driving from Malta, Montana, or from somewhere out in the West, through to Minnesota, where I was living, and I passed a lookout point there in the Black Hills. And they described it on the sign that it was a beautiful point and one should stop to see it. But you know, I was alone, and I was tired, and I had a long way to go. And that was the first time I became conscious of the fact that it's no fun to look at it alone, just no pleasure. Last year, from September 70 through August 71, I was out of the U.S. for 31 weeks out of 52 in the work we're doing. And in the course of time, I was 35 miles for 10 days from the Taj Mahal, and I had no desire to go. It's just no fun to go alone. And so in a sense, this was this, what God experienced from eternity past, great yearning, longing in his heart, that he might have someone who understood him, who needed his love, who wanted to be with him, who'd enjoy him, to whom he could show himself, with whom he could share all that he is, and all that he has, all that he's doing. And so he made someone. And he gave to him all these remarkable capacities and powers and abilities. And he called him man, and he looked at him, and he said, with all that he created, it is God. Now, the next question is, well, why did he make him so that he could sin? Well, what is sin? Well, you can't understand sin till you understand temptation, because after all, a sin has to do with yielding to temptation. And what's temptation? Remember, I just talked to you about these appetites, these urges, these drives. Well, see if this works in your thinking. Temptation is the proposition presented to your mind, to your intellect, to satisfy a good appetite in a bad way. Now, I better try that on again. Temptation is the proposition, the idea, presented to your mind, to satisfy a good appetite in a bad way, a forbidden way. Now, the appetite isn't bad. Temptation is the proposition to satisfy this good appetite in a way God's forbidden, because it will harm others, harm you. And sin is the decision to satisfy a good appetite in a bad way. You notice I didn't say sin is doing it. It's the decision to do it. That's why the Lord says, he that hates his brother, hate is the intention to harm. He hasn't gotten around to doing it yet. He's just intending to do it. And the intention is sin. So, if God made man, he gave to him a proper way to satisfy his appetites, and he gave him the appetites, and he said it is good, but he gave to man an intellect. And so what Satan did, what Lucifer did, was to come to man and present to his intellect, to his mind, to his imagination, to her imagination, in this case, the idea of satisfying this good appetite in a bad way. Oh, we left out one appetite, the appetite for status, for position, for authority. Now, God gave that appetite, because God intended man to rule over everything that he'd made. And so it was necessary for him to put into man a desire to do the thing that that God wanted done. So we're not surprised to find it. And he intended it to be properly satisfied. But what happened was that into this scene came one who presented to the mind through ideas of Mother Eve, a proposition to satisfy this good appetite in a forbidden way. And the consequence of that was that she thought about it. Now, what you think about is what you want. That's right. And what you want is what you get. This is true. I remember when we were living in Orlando, Florida years ago, my son, now 25, was then about 11, 10 or 11, and he wanted a bike. Friend, we had bicycles for breakfast, for lunch, and for dinner. He would say to say, Sonny, would you say the blessing? For all we eat, and for all we wear, and our bicycle, when I get it, we give, you know, that sort of an idea. There wasn't a meal that went by, a conversation. That was amazing how every conversation could end up at bicycle. I'd come to there and under my, open my napkin, and there would be a cut out of a bicycle. Oh, yeah, he was a promoter. Because, you see, he wanted a bicycle. He wanted it very, very, and he thought about it. And the more he thought, the more he wanted, the more he wanted, the more he worked. And he said, finally, all right, well, you're going to have to earn it. That put him off for a while. We'll match you 50-50. You put in 50 cents, I'll put in 50 cents. One day he came back with $2 for my bike. Where'd you get it? He said, I sold flowers. Where'd you get the flowers? He said, out beside the house. He picked up the poinsettias and peddled them down the street. But, you see, he demonstrated, he demonstrated the way this thing works. All Mother Eve needed was to have someone come along and suggest to her intellect that maybe God wasn't her friend. And maybe God didn't really love her. And maybe God didn't really want her to be happy. Maybe he was trying to keep from her the best. And maybe she couldn't trust him. And maybe she'd have to take things in her own hand and decide how to be happy. And so she thought about what she wanted. You see, it was good to look at, it was good to taste, and it would make her wise. And those are the three main drives, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. And so she thought, and it was a reflection on the character of God, I can't trust him to make me happy. He's not the good shepherd who knows what the sheep need. He's my enemy. He's going to keep me from the best. And if I'm going to be happy, I'm going to have to do it my way and take it into my hands. And so it was a reflection on the character of God, the desire to have these appetites satisfy in the bad way that had been suggested. And there came a moment, now it was temptation. Now, temptation isn't sin. I remember talking to someone about a life of victory in Christ, and they said, it doesn't work. Don't work. I said, why doesn't it work? I'm still being tempted. Friend, if you ever come to the time that you aren't being tempted either as they've done something and taken away all your human personality, or you just turned out to be a whole lot holier than the Lord Jesus was, because he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. And there's nothing in the scripture that promises you that you won't be tempted. But he did say with the temptation, you'll make a way of escape that you'll be able to bear it. But we're trying to understand now what it is. And temptation is the proposition presented to the intellect to satisfy a good appetite in a bad way. And there came a moment when she thought about it, she weighed it, she remembered what he said, and she said, the only way to be happy is to take it into my own hand. I will do what I want to do. I will eat. And at that moment, sin became a reality in the human race. And this is what it is, the decision to satisfy a good appetite in a bad way. And of course, that brought consequences. You know what they were, don't you? Well, the first kind of, he said the day thou eatest thou shall die. Now in the first place, physical death resulted from sin. She went back and told Father Adam what she'd done, and he had a choice. He either stayed with her and went with her and died, did what she did, or else he stayed with God, and he couldn't see God at the moment, and he could see her. And so he decided to stay with her, and he did. He did it deliberately. She was tempted, but his was a little different. It was open rebellion and defiance. And so the consequence was that he sinned, she sinned. And we know the results of it. The day thou eatest thou shall die. Well, four kinds of death resulted from that you ought to know about. First is physical death. I believe God made us in such a way that he never intended. Man could live a thousand years or longer. We know they live 960 plus. The word tells us that, but there's no reason why we should live, because you see every few days, every cell in our bodies is replaced by a new cell. You say every seven years, every seven years every cell is replaced. The process is going on continuously. Cells are dying, new cells being made. And so scientists looking at the studying the nature of the human body say, well, why does man get old? What is there that causes man to get old? You recall man lived to be 900 years, and then he got down when later on he said, oh, that's too long. Look at the deviltry they can get into and the mischief they can get into. And so after the flood, he said 120 years. And then that was still too long. And so later on, said 70 per chance of perhaps 80. Because God just had to set a limit. He set a limit to the sea, and he had to set a limit to man. Physical death is the proof that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every breath I'm drawing you with me, every time we breathe, we're saying you're dead. You're dead. Because we'll never draw that one again in that space and time. Physical death is the proof that all have sinned. And then secondly, legal death. Man died legally. You see, up until that time, God was responsible, the shepherd was responsible to care for the sheep. Provide them verdure and pasture and protection and everything that was needed. But when, when Father Adam said, I'll do what I want to do, I'll be God in my life. That's yes. From that moment on, God had no legal responsibility. Have you ever seen an end of paper speaking of a tragedy in a hole? As of such and such a day, I assume no responsibility for so-and-so having left my home, my bed and board and so on. And this is an announcement to predators that anything, any debts incurred in the name of this person are no longer responsibility. Legal responsibility ceases when the relationship is broken. And so the sinner has no legal claim upon God. There's only one thing a sinner can demand of God and expect to get, and that's justice. And you say, well, I'll get my desserts, oh friend, you will never fear, fear not, you'll get them. Because God, and that's the only thing you can ask of God, is he'll be just when he judges you, just when he judges you. You have no grounds to ask anything else. That's the only thing that a sinner can demand of God. Because all legal claims have ceased because of man's rebellion. That moment, God had no longer any, any responsibility to let the sun shine, to let the rain fall, let the seasons come to hold the sea in check. He could have just withdrawn because man had sinned. So that's the second aspect. And the third aspect is spiritual death. By that I mean to say that God had made man for himself. He carved into man an empty space so enormous that only God can fill it. Oh listen, you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Solomon did something that all of us would like to do and none of us will ever have the opportunity. He, for all of us, just as Christ tasted death for every man, so in a sense Solomon tasted all the known means of satisfying the human mind and spirit for every man. Here was a king's son that was given the opportunity. And so he pursued such areas of experience as power. And so that all nations of the world who keep his friendship sent tribute to him. No one wanted his armies to come against him, his chariots to dash in upon their forces. He was a mighty potentate. And he had power. When there was no one else to challenge his rule, he said, so are you satisfied? You're the king of all the kings and they all respect you as such. Did that make you happy? And that lonely soliloquy of the empty heart came back vanity, a vanity. Oh, you know what that word vanity means? Soap bubbles, emptiness. Then Solomon tried things, things he could create, gardens, stables, palaces, beautiful. And when the queen of Sheba saw one, just one of the scores he had, said the half has not been told of all that he'd done to make it beautiful. And when he looked at all the things he'd made, he said now he's satisfied. Amen. Then, then he tried wisdom. He brought to his courts the teachers of the world from the east, from the west. All who had anything to share, any knowledge. He gathered them, brought them, honored them, learned everything they could teach. And then when he had the wisdom that men could bring, it wasn't enough. And he went to God and he asked God for the gift of wisdom. And when he became the wisest of men, so that now the teachers were sitting at his feet as his pupils and learning from him. He looked and said, now that you are the wisest of men, has this accumulation of knowledge, of insight, of wisdom made you happy? Have all these degrees that you've earned so laboriously and sacrificially made you happy? The answer came back, vanity of vanity. Oh, his emptiness. And then he tried pleasure. People sold their souls for pleasure, physical pleasure, mental, emotional pleasure, stimulation. He brought musicians to his court, actors to his court, voluptuaries of every sort. He said he kept not back anything that his ears had heard, his eyes had seen, or his mind had imagined. A thousand wives and concubines until he was so jaded and satiated, exhausted by all of this that had come to meet the demands of the senses. And he said, now are you happy? And the answer that he got was the pathetic whale. Vanity of vanity. Oh, his emptiness. But why? God made us for himself. And nothing in the universe, and Solomon would say, and everything in the universe is incapable of satisfying the human heart. You're made for God, not heaven. I've been sitting on platforms for 34 years, 35 years now, watching congregations sing when by his, his grace and when we all get to heaven and so on, that, that will be glory for me. Well, friend, listen, if you get to heaven, what they tell you is heaven. You arrive there, and there's a beautiful mansion in the street of gold, and a river, and tree, and leaves, and your friends are there. And if you don't, if the Lord Jesus isn't there, you're not in heaven. You're just in a beautifully upholstered mill. That's all. That's all. Because the thing that's going to make heaven, heaven isn't a match. It's the presence of the Son of God. You were made for God. Some people think salvation is, is a thing. No, no. Some people think that the Lord Jesus sends salvation, no. Salvation isn't a decision, or a scheme, or a plan, or a system of logic, or scripture. Salvation is a person. A person. He that hath the Son hath life. For what? Because life is in the Son. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear. That's why Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. They got mixed up. They thought salvation was a decision, or a scheme, or a response, or something. And he said, examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves? How that Christ be in you, except you be reprobate unto as many as received him. Salvation is a person. Now, sin caused spiritual death. That's an estrangement, a separation. Death always means separation. Physical death, separation of the spirit from the body. Legal death, separation from responsibility. Spiritual death, separation of the human spirit from God, who is spirit. So that God didn't communicate. In him we lived, and moved, and had our being as close as the air we breathe. And yet, because of sin, no communication. No fellowship. That's what spiritual death did. It didn't send God up to heaven. It just cut down all of the communication. Have you ever gone to the radio and put it on to get your favorite program, and you do the only thing that a layman like myself knows how to do. Hit it, you know, a couple of times. If it doesn't come on, then what do you do with it? And it doesn't come on. And some say, what's the matter? Why don't you get to fill me in? Well, I can't, it's dead. What do you mean? All the little parts in it rusted down the bottom and filled it out the whole ventilator hose? No, I didn't mean that. What's it mean? It just means the connection is broke. All parts are there, they're just not operating. Death does not mean annihilation. It means separation. Does that mean that the radio stations aren't broadcasting? When your radio doesn't receive it, no, they're still broadcasting. Well, why don't you hear? Because there's something wrong. Why do that? If God is as near to me to you as that, why don't they, why doesn't Mao hear and meet God and these men that the president's been seeing and so why don't they meet him? Because of their attitude, because of sin. Why don't your sons and your daughters and daughters-in-law and sons-in-law and your grandchildren, your friends and your family meet God? If God's as close as the because they're spiritually dead. What's that mean? Their attitude is one of I'll do what I want to do. They're sinners. They're living to please themselves. Now what's got to happen before they can, they can know God? Well, what happened? What took place? What caused this? Well, we understand that it was a decision. Sin is the supreme choice of the life to satisfy good appetites in a bad way to please oneself. So, if they're ever to know God, then it's going to be necessary for them to realize the nature of their crime and to repent of their sin, which is to change one's mind about living to please oneself, to pleasing God, and opening one's heart to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior. And what happens when that takes place? When there's repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, when you reach out with the arms of faith 2,000 years into history and wrap them around the man who hung upon a cross and died a shameful death, what happened? Well, in response to that faith, they're born again. God just sort of breathes in his omnipresent spirit into our hearts, and where that receiving set has been out of kilter and out of adjustment, he puts it into adjustment. What's the first broadcast you get from the antenna of Calvary? What is the thing that happens when you really receive Christ and truth? Well, you know. You have the witness of the spirit. You've been born of God. How do you know? Well, how do you know you're alive? The part of a man that knows the things of a man is the spirit of man that's in him. And when you've been born of God, you know, because he tells you. Oh, it's wonderful to know that. You don't have to tell people they're saved. You tell them how to be. You tell them how sinful they are and how holy God is, and you tell them how much God loved them and what he did and what they must do, and then what will happen. And then you don't have to just leave them alone with God until it happens. And when it happens, they'll tell you. They'll tell you that you've been born of God. They've been born of God, and they'll know because you tell them. You'll tell them. Now, all that began right back there, this thing of life, life abundantly. See, it stopped. Spiritual death was the consequence of man's committing of his will to the purpose and the principle of pleasing himself and gratifying himself. That's what sin is, supreme choice of the life, to be God in one's own life. And repentance is that change of mind, that change of intention or purpose from pleasing self to pleasing God. And faith is that response of totally committing ourselves to this one Jesus Christ who loved us enough to die for us. Receiving him is the one who paid the penalty of our sin and the one who's going to be God in our lives. Just as the Jews said, we will not have this man to rule over us. Faith in Jesus Christ said, my Lord, rule over me, my God, control me. Receive him as he's presented, Prince and Savior, Lord and Christ. And then he tells you. And how do you know? Well, you know because you know you know. It's just that simple. You have the witness of the spirit. You know why they closed the churches to John Wesley in England 200 years and 250 years ago? Do you know why? Not because he was orthodox. Oh no. Why the Anglican Church of England was just as orthodox then as its 39 articles are today. They have the truth historically preserved in the articles. You know why they closed the churches to John Wesley? Not because he was a great preacher. There were other great preachers. But do you know why? Because he had the rashness to say that no one has the right to know that they're born of God until God's spirit bears witnesses to them that they're born. Now this can come in early youth. This can come later. But this is how you know. This is how you know. And so they closed the churches to him. Shut the doors to him. Sent him to the fields. Now you see this is what spiritual death is. The death of the capacity to know God because of sin. Separation of the human spirit from God. And of course there's one other kind of death and that's eternal death. That's the separation from that rebellious sinning impenitent person who having counted himself worthy of nothing else reaches that point where he spurns the grace and mercy of God and goes out into time from time into eternity. So four aspects of death. Physical death, legal death, spiritual death, and finally eternal death. The soul that sinneth it shall die. Now what does it say? I am the door. By me if any man enter in he shall be saved because the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I am come that they might have life. So what is it? Why look at it? It's the lawgiver. The one who said the day thou eatest thou shall surely die. The lawgiver in the fullness of time takes off the diadem of his glory and the robe of his majesty and the scepter of his power. The one who made us now becomes flesh and dwells among us by the miracle of the virgin birth clothed with human personality a vehicle to get into time and submit himself to the law so that he can be weary and foot sore and tempted in all points like as we are sharing our youth our physical frame and he can remember that we're dust he knows how he made us and then at the end of that pilgrimage hear the father say this is my beloved son and whom i'm well pleased now the lawgiver who became a law keeper can take the place of the lawbreaker that's you me and so to the cross he went made to be what you were made to be sin for you that you might be made the righteousness of god i am the good shepherd the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep and he so perfectly identified with you when the father saw him on the cross he saw him as you oh dear friend you may choose to go out of life unsaved but you can't choose to go unloved because he loved you and he gave himself for you and he entreats you and begs you even in these closing moments to open your heart to him and to invite him in he came that he might give life life john bunyan said the pilgrims want life life eternal life and that life is in the son is he in you do you know him shall we pray the father of jesus see us as we are this morning now let's make us understand us let us know all about us let us love us you made us for yourself sometimes our god we've forgotten this we ask that we may be reminded and should there be those that now are experiencing the horrible loneliness and emptiness of solomon who from their hearts could cry if they were with that scream and wail vanity of vanity empty cause emptiness father this is the case of everyone who does not know him whom to know his life and just as thou didst give us nerves that withdraw from the hot stove thou didst give us a spiritual nervous system that leaves us discontent until we know him who loved us and gave himself for us and so might it be in this beginning session as we think of the christian secret of a happy life and we focus on this word life that everyone who does not know him whom to know his life will honestly face it and admit it and begin with thee there there and how wonderfully ready thou art to bring life to everyone who but open the door near thee i stand at the door not any man will open the door i will come in is up with him is he with me and so might it be that even now there are some who open that door and invite him in i'm going to ask that we do something just a little differently that we stand i'll pronounce the benediction and then when you'll be seated again shall we stand as you stand in his presence in these closing moments let us all remind ourselves that on another day sooner far we know not when we will stand before him all that might be to be accepted in the beloved now may the god of peace that brought again from the dead our lord jesus that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make us perfect in every good work to do his will working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight through jesus christ our lord to whom be the glory now and forever amen