The Door Of The Sheepfold

Alright, let's open our Bibles this morning to John chapter number 10. We've been in the book of John now for probably a year and a half. And we have come to John chapter 10.

We're going through the Scriptures verse by verse. I am under the persuasion that, as we shared this morning, every word of God is necessary for each of us. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

And so, I like to go through all of it, make sure we understand it. I think God, I've said this many times before, God emphasizes certain things. Do you know why He does that? Because He wants to.

He thinks certain things are important. And He emphasizes. You know, I just hit my button in the car.

That's mine. Keep your hands out of your pockets when you're preaching. That's a lesson to learn.

So, when the Lord emphasizes, that means He wants something said a lot. So, as we go through the book of John, we see things oftentimes repeated. And I don't make apology for that, because that's the heart of God.

To have certain things repeated often. Well, today I'd like to look at John chapter 10. And I know sitting there a while, it might be good for us to stand.

So, why don't we stand and read the first six verses here. I'll read them. You can stand and stretch.

John chapter 10, starting in verse number 1. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the 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 spake unto them. And I wrote down in my Bible this week these words underneath that verse 6. Blessed are your ears. Isn't that an amazing thought that you just heard those verses, and most of you understand what he is saying.

And those people heard and had no idea. Why is this guy talking? But blessed are your ears, for you hear and you can understand. Let's have a word of prayer, and then we'll open up the Scriptures, Lord willing.

Heavenly Father, thank you again for the privilege that we have to look at the Word of God, and we want to take it into our hearts and receive it, and receive instruction and live on it. Lord, there is so much vanity in the world. There is so much emptiness for our hearts and minds.

And Lord, help us to turn from that vanity, that which does not profit us anything, that which does not feed us spiritually, that which takes us down a course of blindness and destruction, Lord. But may our hearts feed upon the Word of God, and may we receive it into our hearts. Lord, bless the teaching of your Word today.

We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, you can be seated. John, here in chapter 10, Jesus gives us this parable.

And a parable, I shared this with you before, is something thrown down alongside. And so what the Lord would oftentimes do is He would throw down a spiritual truth about the Kingdom of God alongside a natural truth. And so oftentimes He would take nature, planting seeds, a woman who lost some coins, things that were common to the everyday person in Israel, and He would lay that natural thing down and throw down alongside it a spiritual truth, a spiritual reality.

And over the year, and you've heard me say this many times, I've really been blessed and oftentimes look at nature. I think if you really want to know spiritual truth, you ought to look at how God has designed this natural world, the things that are all around us. I remember moving to Houston, Texas and walking down through the city there and all these, when I was a young man, all these buildings and cement and glass and concrete.

And the thought occurred to me as a young Christian, you know, I see what man has done, but everything I see here is trying to block my view of the natural world, of the created world. And that's one of the blinders of living in the city, I'll be honest with you. In the city is man's creation, is man's work.

And man's work does not teach you spiritual realities. But if you go out here in the country and you look at nature, you see in nature spiritual truth. And God, and Jesus the Lord, He was the one who used nature oftentimes to bring out spiritual realities.

And so here we are, and the story is given or the parable is given of a shepherd and a sheepfold, and a sheepfold is something that was very common, as common as going down the road and seeing some cows out in the field or a barn. In Israel, this was a very common sight. And so he took something that was very familiar to the people in Israel, and he's teaching some spiritual lessons.

And I want to draw some lessons from this parable. We're going to look at verses 7 on down through verse 18. We're going to take a big chunk today and draw some lessons that Jesus gives here.

What I drew on the board, you've probably been wondering what that is, but that is my rendition of a sheepfold. And a sheepfold was usually a stoned pen for shepherds to bring their sheep into at night. The shepherds would take them out during the day, and they would take them into pastures and fountains of waters.

And it was fine for the shepherd because he could see the wolves, he could see the dangers, and he was out in the open in the sunlight. But at nighttime, it's very difficult for a shepherd to keep track of sheep. Some can wander off, you'll never know it.

Wolves can come and attack in the dark, you'll never see them. There are dangers in the waters and different places. So at night, the shepherd would bring his sheep into the sheepfold.

And oftentimes, there were numbers of shepherds, as I read some, that would bring their sheep into the sheepfold. And there were many different shepherds and sheep in the sheepfold. We'll see that just a little bit later on.

But this is a sheepfold. There was a covered area. That's a metal roof there.

That covered area was for night when it was raining, places for the sheep to get under. But that wall was a protection. On the top of the wall, maybe this wall was six feet, on the top of the wall was briars and things like that, to keep out predators so that the sheep could go and rest for the evening and find that protection.

And so the Lord is going to take this sheepfold and teach some spiritual lessons. And so I'd like to look at some of those lessons here this morning. First of all, the first thing the Lord mentions here in chapter number 10, in verse number 1, is He talks about the door.

And the door seems to be one of the most important lessons for us to learn. In verse number 1, He says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

And so here in the parable, He starts out with the door. And then in His explanation, starting in verse number 7, He begins with the door also. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

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 and find pasture.

Now, He mentions here first of all the door, and so I want to bring out a lesson about the door. There's a door right there that you can enter into the sheepfold. And most importantly, all these words are singular.

They're singular. You notice He does not talk about doors. He talks about the door.

There is only one door in the sheepfold, and all the sheep have to come in through the one door. And you see this throughout the Bible. In Noah's Ark, there was only one door.

In the tabernacle, in the Old Testament, if you wanted to approach God, you could only come through one door into the tabernacle. And so there's only one way to enter. And some of you maybe are sitting outside the sheepfold.

Inside the sheepfold is where there is fellowship. Amen. Could you sing here this morning? What a fellowship.

What a joy divine. The family of God, our fellow brothers and sisters, our fellow citizens, that fellowship is inside this sheepfold, but there's only one door in which to get into the sheepfold. Now I thought about our church here.

I counted five doors, and most buildings today because of codes have multiple doors to enter and to exit. But in the sheepfold, there is only one door. Only one door.

There's many ways, for example, to come to this church building. If you live in Mount Vernon, there are many avenues you could take, but as far as entering into this sheepfold, as far as becoming a child of God, the Bible teaches us there's only one way to get there. And in the Bible, we're told, Jesus said of Himself, Well, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man can come to the Father but by Me. There is only one avenue, one door to come to the Father. And here's why that is.

It's a very simple thing. What is separating you from the Father? One thing, and one thing only. The Bible says your iniquities have separated you from your God, that He will not hear you.

Sin is what separates man from his Creator. And the only way that sin can be resolved in the human heart is to have that sin washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no other option.

There's only one option. And that is to come through Jesus Christ and have your sins removed, that you then can spend an eternity with God in Heaven. Because there's no other option.

There's no other way to have sin removed. And so that's why Jesus says, I am the way. It wasn't a proud statement like, I'm somebody.

But if you want to spend eternity with my Father, you must have My own blood. You must come through Me. You must come through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ in order to find forgiveness.

We sing this song often, but the songwriter knew about this right here when he said, what can wash away my sins? What's the next word? Nothing. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

And so when Jesus says, I am the way, it's in a sense He's pleading with you, saying the only way you can make it into eternal life and to live in the presence of a holy God forever is you have to come through Me. I am the sacrifice for sin. Outside of this way, there is no other way.

And so that's why Jesus says here, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And so there's many religions, and you hear this often. If you're on a college campus talking to young people, you hear them.

What's wrong with the Muslim religion? They believe in God. What's wrong with the Hindu religion? They believe in a God. What's wrong with the Christian science? He believes in a God.

All these people believe in a God. And yes, there are many religions out there, but there is only one door into the sheepfold. There are many musts in the Bible.

Acts chapter 4 gives one of the most important. Yes, I know you must be born again, but here's another must. Peter says this, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so you must come. And I could write the big word Jesus there. You must come through Him.

And if you're not inside the sheepfold here this morning, you can't go any other way. You're going to find yourself as a thief and a robber, the Bible says, but you have to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and humble yourself and acknowledge that you're a sinner in need of washing. You're a sinner in need of salvation.

And you need to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your only Lord and Savior. That's the door. There is no other door.

And so if you haven't done that, I would encourage you to come to the Lord Jesus while you can. Notice here that there are some who seek to come another way. Look at verse number 2 of chapter 10.

Excuse me, verse number 1. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. Some people are coming around here, Jesus says, in the sheepfold, and they're climbing up, trying to get up the wall some other way, putting a ladder up there, and many different ideas of how to get into this sheepfold. But all these religions, you could call the Muslims thieves and robbers.

You could call the Hindus thieves and robbers. You could call any religious sect that teaches salvation outside of Jesus Christ and Him alone a thief and a robber. Even if it has the name Jesus on it.

If it is coming any other way than this, it is a thief. And it is a robber. And so you say, but wait a minute, Brother Jerry, doesn't those religions believe in God? Well, the devil believes in God.

And trembles. You know, it's not enough to say, I believe in God. You know, the Jews here believed in God, but we're going to find out the Jews were thieves and they were robbers.

They believed in God. They professed that they believed in God. They said they were God's children.

Yet, they rejected the Lord Jesus. They rejected the door. Now here's something I'd like you all to listen to because I know some of you struggle with this.

A few of you do. God is an eternal Spirit. God is an amazing Being.

He's an eternal Spirit. As a matter of fact, when those prophets saw God on the throne, they didn't see in a sense a human being. They saw this glorious, bright light.

Incredible visions of the throne. God is the Spirit. Jesus said God is the Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

But, God became a man. Look down to chapter 10 in verse number 30. And I'm just going to jump ahead here.

Here's what Jesus said. In John 10 verse 30, I and My Father are one. That's numerically one.

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. And Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me? Now notice what the Jews said in verse 33.

The Jews answered Him saying for a good work we stone Me not, but for blasphemy. And because Thou being a man, makest Thyself God. Now that's important.

The Jews who lived in Jesus' day, who understood the Old Testament, who witnessed the life of Jesus Christ, the Jews when they heard Jesus speak, they knew that Jesus was claiming to be God Almighty. He wasn't claiming to be an angel. He wasn't claiming to be simply a human.

He wasn't claiming to be some mystical spirit. He was claiming to be God Almighty. God manifested in a human body.

And because of that claim, they took up stones to stone Him. Now you say, well, they may not have heard Him right. Well, I think they heard Him really good.

And they knew exactly what He was claiming to be. And so when the Virgin Mary gave birth, the Holy Spirit came down and caused her to conceive. And that Child in Isaiah chapter 9, I believe it is, is called the Mighty God.

The Everlasting Father. The Prince of Peace. The Wonderful Counselor.

This Jesus whom we're talking about here who gave this parable and these lessons is God in a human body. Now so many people today, and here's my lesson, so many people today say, I love God. I believe in God.

But I reject Jesus. How can that be? How can God as a spiritual individual, how can we say we love God and then God come down to the earth and manifest Himself in a human body and we hate Him and we kill Him? How can that be? And that's why the Bible tells us if you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, you reject the Father. And so God, we cannot say with our mouth that I love God and yet we reject Jesus.

That's what the Jews were doing. You know why it is? We are all this way. I love God, especially when He's way off in the distance.

I love God. But if He comes to my door and He says take up a cross and follow Me and gives me some commandments, all of a sudden it's a different story, right? Oh, don't interrupt my life. I want to live the way I want to live and I want to acknowledge that I believe in a God because I know in my conscience that's going to be hopefully good for me in the end, but just leave me live the way I want to live.

The problem was God came to the earth and He said here am I and here's what I'm calling you to do and people lost it. Except for a few that followed Him. Amen.

And I just want to caution all of us, you know, let's just not live like most people live. Yes, yes, yes, I believe in God. Yes, I believe that Jesus thing.

Yes, I believe that. But when He comes to our doorstep and confronts us and says here I am and here's what I require, we want nothing to do with it. And so a child of God ought to love God and love the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, let's look back here at verse 7. The Lord goes on to talk about here the door. He says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 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 and find pasture. That's a beautiful picture there.

You come to Me and you want to enter in, you can come in and you can find a place of safety and you can go in and out with Me. When I take the sheep out to the pasture, you can come with Me out here and you can come back in in the night. You can find a place of security.

But He says here I am the door. Now, historians and commentators have a little bit of back and forth about this and I've read some of their thoughts, but when Jesus said, I am the door, there is this idea that there actually was no actual door there, although the porter, it's said, opens the door for the sheep and the shepherd. Some people have thought that the shepherd actually slept in the doorway.

That the shepherd actually slept there so that if anyone would come in to steal or to harm the sheep, that that individual would have to come over them to get in to the sheepfold. Well, something I thought was interesting here about this passage, look back at verse number 2 of chapter 10 about the door here. In verse 2 He says, but he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

Now, the shepherd, of course the shepherd goes in that way too. The sheep follow the shepherd in, but the shepherd has to go in first. And Jesus says, I am that shepherd and I also entered in through the door.

And what that tells us is this, that the Lord Jesus Himself, He also submitted Himself to the will of God. He submitted Himself to the cross. He submitted Himself to obey and to keep the Lord's commandments.

He says, now you follow Me into the door. I Myself have submitted Myself to My Father. You know, one of the problems that the Jews had was an unwillingness to submit themselves to their Heavenly Father or to the Lord.

I want to read to you Romans chapter 10. Here's what it says about the Jews. Paul says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel, that's the nation of Israel, that they might be saved.

For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. You know, the problem with the Jews was they were unwilling to submit themselves to this one way, to the righteousness of God.

And Jesus Christ said, listen, not only am I the door, but I'm the one who enters in through the door. I am willing to submit Myself to My Heavenly Father. My Father said, go down and offer yourself up a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

And I said, amen. And I'll do it. And those of you who want to follow Me through the door, I am the door.

Follow Me through the door. You also need to submit yourselves to the will of God. And to submit yourselves to the will of God is to not go around and seek your own righteousness, like the Jews did.

But to submit yourself unto the righteousness of God. Submit yourself unto the door that God has provided for you. And so the Lord always goes ahead of us.

You know, He doesn't turn to us and say, okay, you submit to this door. I'm not going to submit to the will of God and go through this door. No, He goes ahead of us.

And He was the one who heard His Father say, I want someone to go down to the earth and offer themselves as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. And Jesus said, here am I. Amen? And He came and He died for us. And He has opened the door because He was the first one to walk through.

And now you can follow Him through that door and find righteousness through the Lord Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. Let's go back here to John 10 and keep reading about these thieves and the robbers. Verse 7 of John 10 says this, Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers. Now there were many people in the Old Testament and even up to the time of the Lord Jesus who came claiming to be the Messiah, claiming to be the Christ, but having another way. They're thieves and robbers.

But the sheep did not hear them. I am the door by Me. If any men enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture.

False messiahs. False prophets who promote a false gospel. That salvation can be achieved by another means.

There's a lot of them out there. A lot of them out here saying, you can come in this way. You can put a ladder up over here and come in this way.

The Bible says they are thieves and they are robbers. By the way, what would be the intention to come in this way? If the Lord says you must come in this way, anyone who tries to come in any other way has a malicious intent. Would you agree? A malicious intent.

And the intentions here are mentioned in verse number 10. The thief cometh not but for to steal. You steal a sheep to kill and to destroy.

That's the intention of those who come another way. So I just want to clarify and encourage you that there are many people in this world who claim to believe in God, and yet they deny Jesus Christ as the only way. There are many people who actually have a religious system that has the name Jesus in it, but that Jesus is not the only way even in that system.

So the only door is the one that is given to us here that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. How do you think the shepherd would feel if he's sleeping here at the door, he loves his sheep, and he hears that there's someone banging around over here trying to get up with a ladder to get into the sheepfold to do some harm to the sheep? How do you think he'd feel about that? He wouldn't take that kindly, would he? You know, I believe that the Lord Jesus is very compassionate, very merciful, especially to His sheep. And He loves His sheep.

He's laying down His life for the sheep. But I'll tell you one area that the Lord does not have a lot of patience with. And you find this in the Scripture.

It's with people who are trying to come in another way. In Galatians 1, and I'm going to read to you what it says here, but there's very strong warnings in Galatians and other places about those who try to teach another way into the sheepfold. In Galatians 1, verse 6, Paul says this, I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

Now, listen to this. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be a curse. Wow.

So much for mercy there, huh? In other words, to preach a gospel that is not pointing everyone to the door, but is trying to come up another way. The Lord puts very strong words against those who preach any other gospel. Even if you get an angel come here and preach to you another way.

Climb up here. Climb up here. Let him be a curse.

And so it's very important to the Lord that we communicate to you all, to the people of God, the only way, and that is to come through the door. Back to John 10 here. I want to keep reading, learn some more lessons here.

Verse 11, Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. Here's what makes a shepherd a good shepherd. And here's what makes Jesus the Chief Shepherd.

No one sacrifices for the sheep any more than He did. Amen? Jesus is the Chief Shepherd because He gave His life for the sheep. He lost His life for the benefit of others.

And so Jesus is the example. And I have no doubt that if He were sleeping there in this picture and there was a wolf or someone trying to get in to get to His sheep, that He would fight to the death to protect His sheep because He has already shown us that He is willing to die for the sheep. And so He says here, I am the Good Shepherd because I am willing to give My life for the sheep.

And I think good shepherds are to be very unselfish shepherds. And you'll find this in the Bible that a false shepherd is always trying to please himself. A false shepherd is always trying to take from the sheep what he wants from the sheep.

But a good shepherd is one who is giving himself for the sheep. I'd like you to turn back to Ezekiel 34. There's a good passage here on Old Testament shepherds and what makes a bad shepherd and what makes a good shepherd here in Ezekiel 34.

I'm going to start reading in verse number 1. God is speaking to the prophet Ezekiel. He says this, And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, those who had authority to lead the sheep. Prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds.

This is a message to shepherds. And if you're a shepherd, I'm a shepherd, some of you desire to be shepherds, here is a message to the shepherds. Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves and do not feed the flock.

Should not the shepherds feed the flock? This is a picture of shepherds who actually eat the sheep instead of feeding the sheep. And who actually, and I use this term, fleece the sheep. Actually are taking from the sheep for their own benefit instead of giving themselves for the sheep.

So if you're a part of a church, you're a part of a church here, anywhere you go, you ought to feel that the shepherds, that the giving is going from here out and not give me this way. You know there's so many of these prophets that are always wanting you to give them. They fly around in airplanes, they live a luxurious life, and they are taking, taking, and taking.

And so that's not a good shepherd. A good shepherd is one who is feeding the flock and not feeding themselves. Look at verse number 3. You eat the fat.

What fat are they eating? The sheep. You eat the fat and you clothe you with the wool. They're taking the wool from all the sheep.

You kill them that are fed, but you feed not the flock. And so they're fleecing the sheep. They're getting rich on the sheep and not the sheep getting rich on them.

So instead of feeding the sheep, they're eating them. That's the picture. Verse 4, the diseased have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost.

In other words, you've taken this very self-centered view of the sheep. It's a picture of a self-centered life, but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them. Here's another caution for shepherds.

Not to rule the sheep with force and with cruelty, leading them and not forcing them. Not as 1 Peter 5 says, not as being lords over God's heritage. I've talked about that before.

But being examples to the flock. So not with cruelty. I think we shared this a few weeks ago, but do you remember Samuel? When Samuel told the people, and I can say this to all of you here, when Samuel told the people, God wants to be your king.

Do you know that? God wants to be your king. God wants to rule your life. God wants to walk with you day by day.

He wants to be the king of each of your lives. And Samuel told Israel that God wants to be your king. But what did the people say? We don't want God to be the king.

We want you to make men like the other nations. Let men rule over us and make our laws, and we'll follow men. And what did Samuel say to them? You guys don't understand what's going to happen.

Because men are infallible, or men are fallible, and men have evil hearts and evil thoughts and intentions, what's going to happen to you is those men, they're going to make you slaves. They're going to rule over you. They're going to take your sons and daughters.

They're going to steal from you. They're going to oppress you. Isn't that what happened in Israel? And men haven't changed.

Amen? And so, even today, oftentimes people reject the Lord ruling them. Just give me some men to tell me what to do. But if you accept men as your rulers, then you're going to find that men are going to take a position of cruelty and force over you.

And so, as a shepherd, you want to have shepherds that encourage you to follow the Lord and to allow Him to be your king. And it goes on here in verse 5, and they were scattered because there is no shepherd, and they became meat to all the beasts of the field. When they were scattered, My sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill.

Yea, My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. And you know, when Jesus came to the Jewish people, that's exactly what He said in Matthew 9. He said He was moved with compassion upon them because they were as sheep scattered without a shepherd. That's how He saw them.

There were no shepherd hearts. There were no shepherds who were laying their life down for the people. All the leaders, all the shepherds were taking from the people.

They were devouring widows' houses, we're told. If you're devouring widows' houses, whose others' houses are you going to be devouring? And so, shepherds. Let's go back to John 10.

Jesus says He's the Good Shepherd. He gives His life for the sheep. In John 10, verse 12, it says this, but he that is a hireling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth, and the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep.

The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling and careth not for the sheep. What is a hireling? A hireling is just like it sounds. Someone who is hired to keep the sheep.

So someone comes to you. You interview them. Okay, I'll give you the job.

You sleep with the sheep. You watch over the sheep, and I'll give you $10 an hour. Oh, that's great.

I'll take the job. And so you're working, and all of a sudden, a bad situation comes. You've got a pack of wolves, and your life is threatened.

And so you say, enough of this job. I'm out of here. And you flee from the wolves, and the wolves devour and scatter the sheep.

The Bible says the hireling fleeth because he is a hireling. He is there for the purpose of the money. Remember when the Bible talks about the qualifications of an elder? One of the qualifications is this, not someone who is greedy, a filthy lucre.

Not someone who is a shepherd because of the money or the hireling. The hireling has no investment in the sheep. So you think about this.

Who invested more in the sheep than anyone ever invested? The Lord did. He laid His life down. He invested in the sheep, and because He had an investment in the sheep, He was willing to give His life for that investment.

If you don't invest in the sheep, then there's no reason for you to lay your life down for the sheep. You know in life, if you've invested in something, poured your money in, poured your energy in, and you've built something, you won't let that thing collapse very easily. Because you're invested.

You've got some skin in this fight, and so because you've invested in it, you're not going to allow that to be destroyed easily. And so the shepherds of Israel, who were good shepherds, they had invested themselves in the lives of the sheep. And so when the wolf came, they're not going to leave because they've invested in the sheep.

But when the trouble comes, the hireling flees the sheep because he has self-interest. And so shepherds ought to be invested in the lives of the sheep. I remember reading a story of a little boy, probably three or four years old, climbing up a tree.

He got way up high in this big tree. He started crying up there. He couldn't get down.

He got out on a limb. And people started to gather around. Some people tried to get ladders up.

Nobody could get up there to get him. He was up there crying and panicking, and there was some concern and multitudes of people had gathered around there by the tree. And all of a sudden, this woman came and she burst through the crowd and got to the tree and got on the tree and climbed the tree and went up the tree and went out on the limb and came out and grabbed this little boy and took the boy back and came down the tree.

And the people were amazed. And they asked, how did you do that? The lady said, that's my son. I'm invested.

You can do a lot if you're invested. Of course, the hireling wasn't invested, but the Lord is invested. And we ought to be invested too in the sheep.

Let me just give you a little graphic here. Two things you don't want in a shepherd. The first one is someone that fleeces the sheep.

Right? He's always taking. And the next thing you don't want is someone who's fleeing when the wolf comes. He says he flees.

So those two words, remember, fleecing and fleeing are two words for a shepherd that is not good. Let's keep reading here. In John 10, verse 4, And when he putteth forth his own sheep, I like this, when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

Now here's good shepherd leadership here. The first thing that Jesus mentions is he goes before them. So what happens is maybe the sheep are all in here and the shepherd heads out and the sheep follow him, but the shepherd is always out in front.

It says he always goes before. And that means the shepherd is the one who first and foremost is to be an example. To be an example.

To show by way of example in his own life. A good shepherd should not say, hey, you people need to do this, and I'm not going to do it. A shepherd ought to say, I'm going to do this first, and then you follow.

And so Jesus always went before. Acts 1, verse 1 says this, the former treaties. This is the first verse in the book of Acts.

Have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach? Do is always first. Watch me, then hear me. Watch me, then hear me.

We're going to see how the shepherd uses his voice in just a minute. But the first thing he says is, I go before them. I lead them by example.

And so oftentimes in the Bible, you hear Jesus say, follow me. I will be an example for you. He is not behind them with a whip.

He is not driving them from behind. He is leading them by an example. Well, the Pharisees and the Jewish leaders, they made two great mistakes in their leadership and it's because of their own faults.

But in Matthew 23, the Scripture says of them, they say and what? Do not. They say and do not. That's the exact opposite of Jesus.

He did and He taught. He did first and He taught. They say first and do not.

That was one mistake. And then the other was they were driving the people from behind. They were using measures of fear to drive people.

Notice here in verse number 4 of chapter 10 the two things that the Lord does as an example of a shepherd. It says when He put forth His own sheep, He goeth before them. That's His example.

The sheep follow Him for they know His voice. And so there's also some voice involved here. He is going before them with example and He is teaching.

He is teaching or giving instruction with His words. I'm going to read an illustration here. I like this illustration.

It talks about how a shepherd not only goes before, but He has a certain way of speaking that the sheep know Him. You know, in these sheepfolds, oftentimes there would be a large sheepfold have 5, 6, 7, 8 shepherds and all the sheep. There could be hundreds of sheep in this sheepfold.

In the morning, the shepherd, one of them would walk out and he would speak or he would make noises and the sheep that were his would hear and they would follow in line. Let me read to you something here. Travelers have noticed the wonderful readiness with which the sheep of a large flock will recognize the shepherd's voice.

Though several flocks are mingled, they speedily separate at the command of the shepherd while the word of a stranger would have no effect on them. Horder, this is a man's name, thus describes a scene he witnessed among the hills of Bashan. The shepherds led their flocks forth from the gates of the city.

They were in full view, and we watched them and listened to them with no little interest. Thousands of sheep and goats were there grouped in dense, confused masses. You can picture that.

The shepherds stood together until all came out. Then they separated, each shepherd taking a different path and uttering as he advanced a shrill, peculiar call. The sheep heard them.

At first, the masses swayed and moved as if shaken by some internal convulsion. Then points struck out in the direction taken by the shepherds. These became longer and longer until the confused masses were resolved into long living streams flowing after their leaders.

Can you picture that? So the shepherds start leaving the sheepfold and they start making certain sounds or their voice. And this mass starts to slowly separate and everybody's hearing their shepherd and they begin to form these lines, all of them divided up on the basis of the voice of the shepherd. What is the Lord's voice for us? Jesus said, if any man will hear my voice.

What is his voice? What is our shepherd? Does he make some sort of a funny shrill? Is that what you hear? Do you follow him? We have a beautiful example of him in the Scripture, but what is his voice? What's his voice? This is it right here. The Word of God. Specifically, the New Testament is his voice.

If you picture this, maybe this can minister to some of your hearts, if you picture this, our shepherd, the Lord Jesus, His voice is the Word of God. And He is calling to the sheep. Calling to the sheep.

Even this morning, the Word of God is calling to His sheep. And you know, you can have a mass of people. You can have Catholics and Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestants and Anabaptists.

You can have all these people that claim to be followers of Jesus. But ultimately in the end, as the Lord is walking and leading and giving His voice, those true sheep are going to get in line with the Lord Jesus and start following Him. It is not possible.

I don't believe this. It's not possible for us to say, I'm a follower of Jesus, I'm one of His sheep, and yet not follow His voice. Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice.

A stranger they will not follow. And so the shepherd, he goes forth by example. Then he speaks the Word of God and the elders here speak the Word of God and we teach you the Word of God and we try to live an example before you and as an under-shepherd we point you to the chief shepherd.

But those who are true sheep, and I trust many of you are true sheep, those who are true sheep will not only see an example, but they'll hear a voice and they'll start following. And here's the voice right here. And Lord willing, we preach the voice every Sunday.

More voice. More voice. And those who are His sheep, let's go this way.

Let's go this way. I can hear my shepherd speaking to me through the Word of God. Now let me ask you a question.

If some of the sheep don't want to follow the shepherd, what does the shepherd do? So he's leading, he's out in front and he's making sounds and he's calling his sheep to follow and some of the sheep aren't following him. Does he go back and try to drive them to follow him? Well, it seems like if they don't follow it's because they're not his sheep. And so they don't follow him because they don't hear his voice.

The fact that they don't follow is evidence that they're not his sheep. Now I'm going to make this statement and I believe in it from the Scriptures. Shepherds don't have to determine who the sheep are or not.

That will be manifested by who listens to the voice of the chief shepherd. And you just preach the Word of God and the true sheep will rise to the occasion. They will follow the shepherd wherever he goes.

It says here in verse number 5, and a stranger will they not follow. There's a lot of voices out there. There's a lot of false prophets and doctrines.

But the true sheep, when they hear that in their heart, they say there's just something not right. And they will not follow. But they will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.

1 John 2 talks about they went out from us. And that's talking about us as a church, but the church as a whole. They went out because they were not of us.

If they would have been of us, they would have no doubt continued with us, but they went out that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us. They're listening to a different voice. And so let me just say this, if your life is not growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, you're not hearing, and I trust that we hear the voice of God when we read the Bible, amen? On Sundays we preach the Bible, that the voice of the shepherd is going out.

And if you're a sheep of that shepherd, you're coming in line. Do you agree with that? You're coming in line. And you say, I hear the voice of my shepherd, and I want to follow him and get in line.

And there's a whole line of us sheep that are following the shepherd. Well, I want to give one more thing here before we close. Verse 16 of chapter 10.

It was mentioned here or read this morning. I think Brother David read a little bit about it. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

Do you know the Lord was speaking to the nation of Israel? That was the sheep He was talking about. And many in Israel heard His voice, and they followed Him. And in the early church, there were many Jews that heard the voice of the Son of God and began to follow.

But we Gentiles are that other fold. And another fold, he says, I'm going to start speaking to this other fold of sheep, and some of them are going to come out of that fold and follow me. And I'm going to make them one fold.

And that's where the church is. We're one body. Both Jew and Gentile are one body in Christ.

And so you can just picture the Lord and the preaching and teaching of His Word. And as the Word of God goes forth and the Shepherd speaks, His sheep hear. They start to get in line.

And I'd just like to ask you here this morning, is your life more and more getting in line with the voice of the Shepherd? The Chief Shepherd. I trust it is. That you're hearing His voice and your heart says, Amen, that's my Shepherd.

My Shepherd who loves me, right? Who laid down His life for me. And is leading me into eternal life. And so, friends, there's only one door here.

One entrance into the sheepfold. Do you want to be a part of the fellowship of the sheepfold? It's a great place to be. You have a wonderful Shepherd who's laying His life down for you.

You fellowship. By the way, what a fellowship, what a joy divine. This is my favorite day.

I hope Sunday is your favorite day. Because we can come and fellowship together with the sheep that are like-minded. But I know that there's some here today who are outside of the sheepfold and you're out here and you're all alone and you're wondering and you don't have the fellowship, you're not hearing the voice of the Son of God.

You don't have a Shepherd. You need to come right here to this door and acknowledge who Jesus is. You are the God that created everything.

You're the God who came in this world and laid His life down for me. And I'm going to worship you. And I'm going to humble myself and acknowledge that I'm a sinner and I need to be washed in the blood of Jesus.

You know, the Bible says that we're not to worship anybody but God alone. Right? Thou shalt worship no other gods but Him. Why then did Jesus accept worship? People fell down and worshipped Him because they recognized who He was.

Doubting Thomas, when he saw Jesus in His glorified body, he said, My Lord and my God. He knew who He was. And so there is a door for every one of you and I want to encourage you to go in the door because once you're in the door, then you can go in and out and find pastor.

All right. Let's close with a word of prayer.