Jesus Christ is presented as the sole door to salvation, contrasting with the Old Testament's focus on Israel and its laws. The sermon highlights seven Old Testament shepherds—Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David—as foreshadowing Christ's role as the Good Shepherd. While the Old Testament sheepfold represented Israel enclosed by law, Jesus, as the true shepherd and the door, offers salvation to all who believe, regardless of nationality. This salvation is not dependent on human works, ordinances, or living a perfectly holy life, but solely on faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice and resurrection, providing security, peace, and eternal life.
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In order to get to the entire message, you might read John chapter ten, verses one, two, nine. There are two doors in verse two, and he that enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. That's the Lord Jesus. But now in verse nine he says, I am the door. Now, he couldn't, both of them couldn't refer to Christ. He couldn't enter into himself and show the door in verse two is another door from what you have in verse nine. We'll seek to point that out when we get to it. The Bible's a wonderful book, and if you were to read Psalm twenty three, that classic Psalm, that Psalm that been such a blessing to the Lord's people down the centuries, If you were to read the twenty-third Psalm with John chapter ten, you would get a remarkable comparison, and I hope you will.
The Bible, as I say, is a remarkable book, a lot about shepherds, about sheep, about flock, about land, and about sheepfold. I think over two thousand times at one time I took the troubles and looked it up. you have reference made to shepherds and the lives of shepherds in the East. There are seven remarkable shepherds in your Bible, and they all point onward to Christ, the Shepherds. For instance, as your Bible opens, the very first man, Abel, was born into the world, he was a shepherd.
It says that that Abel was a keeper of the sheep Cane was a killer of the ground, and Abel was an offering shepherd. The time came when these two young men began realizing they had to do dealings with God, and so Abel he took a lamb, and he went and offered it unto the Lord. And you remember how Cane he took the fruits of the earth, and he presented his offering. God accepted Abel's offering, but he rejected Cain's offering. And the Bible says later on that Cain was of that wicked one and slew his brother Abel the Shepherd.
That's very significant. Why did God accept Abel and did not accept Cain? Abel offered a living sacrifice. He offered a little man. Realizing that one principle, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. And that's the scarlet thread that runs throughout your whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation on the very doorstep, the very foot of the beginning of divine inspiration, a shepherd, offers a lamb. And that was Abel.
The reason God rejected Cain is because Cain brought the works of his own hand. And all God could say, Cain, that's all you did. I do not see a drop of blood in your offering, fruits and vegetables and things like that. And I'll not accept all your good works. I reject you. And I don't want all your good work. The only way to approach me is on the basis of sacrifice, said Blunt. Abel, I will or accept, but not you, came.
So right in the beginning of our Bible, the first shepherd, Abel, was an offering shepherd. He offered himself. Well, he's a type of Christ. The Lord Jesus offered himself without thought to God. A number of lovely scriptures in your Bible. He offered himself without thought to God. He made himself an offering for sin, the Bible says. And he made one sacrifice for sin forever, the Lord Jesus. One offering. And Christ made that one offering for sin forever, and he sat down.
Think of all the animals that were offered to God on Jewish altars in the Old Testament. The number runs into the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. How those sacrifices were offered unto God. The time came when the ones who fulfilled all those prophets, the supreme sacrifice of Lord Jesus, he made one sacrifice for sin forever. He sat down. God says all those other sacrifices pointed on to this one and only sacrifice that I would accept.
And so Abel was the first shepherd and the offered a lamb. Christ is the great shepherd he offered himself. In the Old Testament, sheep were offered up for the shepherd of that flock. In the New Testament, the shepherd offers himself for the sheep, just the offer. And this is the good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. And so Abel is the first shepherd to offer separating shepherd. Then Abraham is the next shepherd you read about in Genesis thirteen.
He is the separating shepherd. He and his nephew Lot became very prosperous as shepherds. Their flocks became so large they could no longer abide together and so they decided to separate. Abraham said to Lot, now he says you can lift up your eyes and Make your choice. And you go one way, and I'll go the other. Lot, he lifted the well-watered plains of Jordan. Oh, he said, this is the best. I'm going to get a good deal this time. I'll pull it over on my old uncle. And I'm going to take the well-watered plains of Jordan.
And he did. And Abraham said, all right. Lot, that's your choice. Take your flocks and go. And what did God say to Abraham? Abraham, that night, Abraham looked north, south, east, and west. I'll give you the whole business. What happened to Lot's choice? Destroyed when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot became a politician and sat in the gates of Sodom. And, you know, what happened to him? Only he and his two daughters have stayed. the Holocaust.
Abraham was the separating shepherd. He wanted nothing of Sodom and Gomorrah. He wanted nothing of what Lot wanted. Abraham left his choice with God. He let his choice. Abraham says, I'll let God make mine. Look not far on. Each moment sweetly read. Let God but two, and you shall have the best. Abraham was a separating shepherd. The Lord Jesus was holy, harmless, undefined, separate from sinners.
Christ was the separated shepherd too. There were things he was separate from. And he said to his own in John seventeen, referring to his own sheep, applying to us in this day, for their sake I separate myself. I want them to follow me, my sheep, and be separate from that which is dishonoring to God. Then you come to Isaac, and he's another shepherd, the third one, and he's a peaceful shepherd. Isaac was a man of peace. You know, it's remarkable when you think of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Isaac lived the longest of all three.
He was a peaceful man. When he dug a well and Abimelech came along and said, I want that well. Abimelech waited until Isaac got through building it. Isaac said, okay, take it. He built another one. And Abimelech followed them up. How many got too big in that one? He said, I want this one. Isaac said, okay, I want. He was a peaceful man, a peaceful man, either a peaceful shepherd. The Lord Jesus is a peaceful shepherd. He's the Prince of Peace. His name should be called Wonderful Counselor the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Jesus Christ is the one that gives peace. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. How wonderful. And he is the coming Prince of Peace. What a turmoil our poor world is in. You don't know which way to look. I've about got to the point. I don't want to look at the TV because you can't see anything edifying or worthwhile. Everything is disturbing. Christ is coming and he's the only one that's going to establish peace. God says, I'll overturn, I'll overturn, I'll overturn until Christ shall come, whose right it is to reign.
He said, I'll give it to him. That's why the nations can't settle down and have peace. They make covenants and break them. This world can't have peace. because it crucified the prince of peace nineteen hundred years ago and chose a murderer and the world has known bloodshed ever since murder crime or what have you christ is the coming prince of peace then you have jacob jacob was a wandering shepherd he was a pilgrim and he was a stranger that was true of christ poor old jacob who went here there and yon The Lord Jesus had nowhere to lay his head.
He says the birds of the air have nests, the foxes have holes, the son of man hath not where to lay his head. The disciples went to their homes. He went to the mount of olives. A pilgrim, a stranger, a wandering shepherd, in the very world his hands have made. So Jacob was a wandering shepherd. Speaking of Christ, the wandering one, Joseph was the despised shepherd. His brethren despised him because he was the choice of old Jacob, the father. Joseph was despised and sold into Egypt.
The Lord Jesus was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was sold for thirty pieces of silver. Then again you come to Moses. Moses was a leading shepherd. He led the children of Israel through the wilderness for forty years. How he led them. How he fed them. My, he was a wise shepherd, Moses was. He was a good shepherd. He was faithful, says the New Testament. a faithful shepherd. Moses, a leading shepherd.
Christ today, he leads us, he feeds us, he protects us, and we can say like David in Psalm, put to say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. When you come to the seventh in the Old Testament, David, he was the raiding shepherd, the shepherd lad. who in the backside of the desert like Moses, he took his sling and he would kill the lions and the bears and other animals who would attack his flock. And he was so faithful and so capable and so gifted and dedicated as a shepherd. God says, I want you, David, you learned how to use that sling.
I want you to go up to the valley of Elah. I want you to kill a great big giant. And he knew how to use that sling. because he threw a stone and he got the Goliath that giant right there. Nothing had ever entered that man, Goliath's head like that did before. Right there. And the big giant fell because little David had learned to be a good shepherd. Then he went to the throne and David, the reigning shepherd, and how he reigned over Israel. David is the one who penned the twenty-third psalm, and it'll warm your heart to read it.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall arise. Now these verses we've read together, the first five verses that you'll notice are a parable. Verse six will tell you that. Verse six, this parable, said Jesus. So he's telling them a parable. What is the parable? The Lord is talking about here. Well, he mentions a sheepfold. What's this? It's an enclosure. It speaks of the Jewish nation. And the Jewish nation were separated from other nations. In other words, in the East, you find these sheepfold.
And at night oft times, three or four shepherds may gather there. The night's coming on, the area is dangerous for sheep at night, and so they leave their flocks into that fold. One may have a hundred sheep, one may have fifty, but they leave them into that sheep fold, and there they stay all night. And in the morning the shepherd leaves his flock out. Israel was God's flock in the Old Testament. And they were in an enclosure of what? They were enclosed with the ritual and the religion, the law, and the doctrines of the Old Testament.
That's what held that nation together. God selected them from other nations. And there you have the sheepfold, Israel as a nation. They had a law that other nations didn't have. They had a ritual that other nations didn't have. They had a religion that other nations didn't have. They had a ceremonial law that other nations didn't have. That God blocked Judaism to Jews. How wonderful to think that today God has changed from that thing. We'll see that later on. Here is the sheepfold, and that enclosure that embraced the children in Israel as a nation.
What about the true shepherd? The true shepherd was the Lord Jesus. He came to that sheepfold. He's the only one who had a right to pass through that door into the sheepfold. The door, what does the door of this sheepfold mean? The door to this sheepfold means that someone is to come, a man is to appear, that is legitimately the man to enter into that door to the Jewish nation. That nation, God promised them they were going to have a king, a shepherd, a messiah.
But he had to come through that door only to the Jewish nation. That door simply meant just the legitimate entrance into the nation of Israel. He came with his credentials. In other words, the Lord Jesus was the only one that came to the Jewish nation. Nineteen hundred years ago, they had all the credentials and the qualifications and the attributes. to be accepted by them as their comings, Messiah and disciples. He's the only one. For instance, when you start to think about the scriptures that he fulfilled, he's the only one that fulfilled all the Old Testament scriptures.
To be Israel's shepherd and Messiah, the seed of the woman, says God in Genesis. when he was talking to Satan, the seed of the woman shall bruise thy head. Who is the seed of the woman? The Lord Jesus. And as to the soil, the land where the Messiah, the coming shepherd, was to come up, it was the land that God gave to Abraham, the land of Palestine. And that's where Christ appeared. Not only so, he was to come out of the tribe of Judah. The kingly tribe. And Christ came out of the tribe of Judah.
And he was to come out of the little town of Bethlehem. And he did. His name was to be called Jesus. His name was to be Emmanuel. God, get up. He read that away over in Isaiah. And that's exactly what happened. He was to be born of a virgin. And he walked. So the Lord Jesus fulfilled all these prophecies that related to him, the coming shepherd, no one else fulfilled them. But they all converged on Jesus Christ to prove that this is God's coming shepherd for Israel.
God's coming king for Israel, the coming Messiah. And so that's the door. No man would be accepted by the nation of Israel inside that enclosure unless he came through the door of fulfilled prophecy. And Jesus Christ did that. But what about the porter? John the Baptist is the porter. The porter is the one who stands at the door. He's the one when he stands at the door. He's stationed at the door. to the gate or to the fold to assist or introduce the one who is the right to one to enter into that door to the nation of Israel.
And John the Baptist is the one who introduced the Lord Jesus Christ. He was appointed. When he said, Behold, the Lamb of God would take us away the sin of the world. John was appointed. He introduced Christ to Israel, that nation. within the confines of Judaism. He was reported. John's message was back to Israel. John says, I'm just the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Just stand as one among you whom you know not. And to back up John's declaration that this is your coming shepherd and Messiah and his baptism, the Spirit of God descended and lit upon Christ, God is endorsing him.
This is the only one who can go through that door and to be received by the Jewish nation, qualified to bless that nation and lead them into what God had in store for them. What about the recognition of this shepherd to Israel? Some receive them. Some receive him not. The Hanna, the Simeon, and you'll notice verse three of our text. To him the porter opened it, and the sheep hear his voice, and he called his own sheep by name, and made it from us to the king of Judea.
There's a lot of arguments about him. We've been picking that up enough. opening chapters in John, there were scribes and parishes that wouldn't accept him as the qualified ones to be Israel's Messiah and shepherds. But there were those who did, Peter. Amore mentioned Hannah and Simeon and others. And there were a few others. He called at his own feet. He called themselves disciples. He called them by their name. Peter, John, John, James and Matthews, he were one that he knew believed in him.
He called him. And what did he do? He led the mountains of old, the sheepfold of Judaism, showing them that the law could not save them. The Ten Commandments could not save them. All the ritual and religion of Judaism couldn't save them. The end of the Old Testament, you see, chaos. Manachi. That's where the law and all the Old Testament scriptures brought Israel. Not that the law was wrong, but they were wrong as a nation, and they rejected the law. They broke the law. And they were under the curse of the law. And the last verse of the Old Testament is, curse, as might the earth be the curse.
So the Lord Jesus has been introduced to this nation, he was, by John the Baptist, and there were those who accepted him, and there were those who would not accept him. But then you come to verse nine, and here you have an entirely new beginning. Notice, I am the door by me, if any man, not Israelite only, if any man You are Gentile alike. This is the whosoever of the gospel. If any man hear my voice, I am with all by me.
If any man entered in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. Isn't that wonderful? When the Jewish nation rejected Jesus Christ, God said, all right, I turn to the Gentile. My message will go out now to the world. Not to tell them to keep the law. Not to tell them to keep the Ten Commandments. Not to tell them to offer up animal sacrifices. No. The Lamb of God has come. The true shepherd has come. And now the message is concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ.
The gospel is for whosoever will. For God so loved the world, in the Old Testament he loved Israel, one nation, now because Israel rejected their coming shepherd and king. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten sons, but whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. If any man enter them, he shall be saved. How wonderful all this is. But it's not to think of those four words. I am the Lord.
Here is Christ presenting himself as the Lord into salvation. Salvation. Not into Judaism. But into a salvation that is complete and eternal. That is unto whomsoever will. Any man, any woman. Notice that personal pronoun. I. I am the door. It refers to Christ. That very pronoun, personal pronoun, I, excludes everything and everybody else. That's remarkable.
It's not the law. It's not the Ten Commandments. It's not the... the ritual of Israel, the ceremonial law, the priests and all that. That's not it. No, he says all that is excluded. I am the door. Hence the church, although a divine institution is not the door, the church is not the door. A lot of people say you've got to get to Christ through the church. Nonsense. you get into the church through Christ. He says, I am the door, not the church.
A lot of people have got into churches. They just joined them, and they didn't know what it was to have Christ as their personal Savior. And then again, the preacher is not the door. In other words, he is able to point hearers to the door. That's all I am, the Lord. pointing you to the door. One who says, I am the door. Ordinances given by the Lord are not the door. The Lord gave the ordinance of baptism. He gave the ordinance of the Lord's Supper.
Neither one of them is a door. Christ the person says, I am the door. Good work. are not the door, although good works are enjoined upon believers. After they're saved engaged in good works, what good works are not the door to heaven? Christ says I am the door. I've been receiving literature for a number of years from a certain man, and several times I read over it, sometimes almost led to give him a little fellowship. I thought he was found. But this past week I got some of his literature and I found out he was not found.
His track is entitled, Someone Died and Left Due a Fortune. And then he says, this is, these are the terms of the will. He said, the term, first one, believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I can go along with that. Then he said, Repenteth, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise serve. I will own up. Then he says, Confess. And he quotes this text in Matthew ten thirty-two. Every one, therefore, who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven.
Very good. But why didn't he quote A more complete verse than that in Romans ten and nine. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Period. That's what the Bible says. If you accept Christ as your personal Savior with your heart and confess him with your mouth, God says thou shalt be saved. He didn't stop there. Here's his fourth point or requisite for salvation. Acts two-thirty-eight.
And Peter said unto them, Repent ye and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. He adds water baptism to one of the things necessary to enjoy the will I don't believe a word in it. Baptism by immersion is for people who get saved after they save. They should be baptized by immersion. But baptism has nothing to do with a person getting his sins forgiven, nor has anything to do with him being saved.
Baptism marks a Christian. It doesn't make a Christian. By the way, here... Peter is speaking to Jews over, and the only time remission of sins is associated with baptism is to Jews, not to Gentiles. And he's making it very plain that you get baptism, or to baptism, you get the remission of your sins, and you get the Holy Spirit. That's not so. You turn to Acts chapter ten, where you have the household of sinning, and you hear of Gentiles. And what did he say? While Peter was preaching, the gospel, the Holy Spirit fell upon them that believed.
They hadn't been baptized. They got the Spirit the moment they believed, the gospel. And afterwards, they had been heavily left. They did obey the Lord and Baptist. And you were saved then through the blood of Christ over. and your faith in the blood of Christ and your confession that through Christ you are saved. And here is where this misleading business comes along. And he adds up this. He says a holy life. You've got to live a holy life where you're not going to live.
Well, there are not any of us here going there on that basis. Not that I'm belittling. Christians living a godly life. It is incumbent on Christians when they're saved to try to live godly. Try to live for Christ and to show the world that you're a child of God and me, preach it. But friend, if getting to heaven depends one percent on Lester Wilson, I'm not going to get it. I believe there's anyone else. For every Christian still has the old nature within him. He has a new life in Christ, and that's what's taken him through.
But every Christian does have the old sinful nature, and God says the very thought of foolishness is sin. Show me a Christian who's never had a foolish thought. In other words, this man says you've got to live a holy life, then why did Jesus die? If a holy life is essential to getting to heaven, that's worse. That's not great. And so I've got my eyes open about this fellow. He'll never get a dime out of me and his legal interest is going in the garbage can. Because it's misleading.
My Bible makes it plain that Jesus Christ is the only way to go to heaven. He says, I am the door by me. If any man enters in, he shall be saved. And Jesus Christ said nothing about water baptism, nor did he say anything about a holy life. And the prayer of the sinner is, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now after you're saved, if you want to be a happy Christian, you obey the Lord in these ordinances. being baptized and remembering the Lord on the first day of the week. And he does want you to live a godly life as the Spirit enables you.
But without the Holy Spirit and your attendance to the reading of the Bible and daily prayer and getting out to the meeting, you're not going to live a godly life. If I could from this day forward, never have an evil thought Never say a wrong word, never engage in a wrong deed. That wouldn't take me to heaven. My life doesn't have one thing to do with my gold hand. But I was saved at the age of nineteen. I knew I was a Christian. And although we've had the joy of preaching in these forty-six years and have seen hundreds and thousands of people led to Christ and a number of churches established, I'm no more saved today than I was when I was nineteen except in Christ as myself.
I know a lot more than it is. A lot more than I do. And I accomplish the healing. But that has nothing to do with my salvation and my glory. These are things that I've done for the grace of God and for the health of God are the outcome and evidence that I'm saved. That is it. and living a holy life are the evidences I've been to. They don't call salvation. That's what your Bible says. And so is it. I am the door and I want you to notice that. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only door.
He says, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Neither is there salvation in any other. For that none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved, he builds the whole scheme of salvation around his personal pronoun, I. I. Then he says, I am the door. Not I was, as if something passed, or I will, as if it's something that might happen in the future. He says, I am the door right now.
That's the point. I am the door. Right now. In the present. I am. I am. He says, come now. And let us reason together, shall come in. Enter now. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. It's the present now. He says, I am right now. I'm friendly, saying that to you. I am. Five minutes from now, you may not be able to accept Christ. If that little picture were to stop, you'd be gone. You'd lost your presence.
Or Jesus Christ could come with the Holy Spirit to cease striving with you. And the present aspect, the present aspect of God's salvation, you've missed. He says, I am right now. And he says something of, I am the door. There's a definite article. I am the door. Not a door, one of many. No, he's the only door. There is none else there. Look unto me and be ye saved, but I am God, and beside there is none else.
No one else. No man saved Jesus only. He says, I am the door. There's no one else. Nothing else. Church ordinance is out. He says, I am the door. And the door, the fourth word, simplicity, our door. A place of emphasis. A portal, an access, a child, and what a door is. What's that door? That's something to go through. Jesus Christ is the door on his soul simple.
It's so simple. He is the door. And, friend, if you go through this door, you'll know something of salvation, peace, eternal life. You'll know something of glory, heaven, and home. All this is on the other side of this door, Jesus Christ. It's very fitting that the Lord Jesus should say, I am the door. Why? He's the only one who died for sin. He's the only one in the world who died for sin. So isn't it fitting that he should say, I am the door?
Furthermore, he's the only one who rose again. No other man ever wrote again after he died, he's buried, making it more emphatic that he is the door. He's the only one. He's the only door. It was his blood and his blood only that was shed to the remission of no other man's blood. All these tricks make it impractic and plain that Jesus Christ is what he said he was and is the door. He needs no contribution. Nothing about your life can enrich God's salvation.
It's rich through the blood of Christ. And that only I am the door. And he is the only one in the universe of God that can say, by me, is any man into this. There are a lot of false prophecy speaks. You'll see more about this maybe next week. He says, Others came before me, they're just thieves and robbers, and they're still common, thieves and robbers. Men who tell you the day, if you look to them, send your contributions to them, they'll pray for you, and you trust in them, and they'll see you through the door, they won't. The door they'll see you through is the ones going to hell, not to heaven.
False prophets. Christ is the only one who can say, by me, If any man, any woman, any boy, any girl, rich, poor, old, young, wealthy, unwealthy, educated, unleashed, educated, if any man entered in, he shall be saved. Absolutely definite. Be saved. No pressure, brother. Not your hope to be saved. You will be saved. When you enter into this door, through this door, you'll find yourself on the inside with the family of God.
In the Old Testament, it was the Jews. This in the New Testament, the Pentateuch, it's all who believe, Jew, Gentiles, like. And inside the enclosure of Christianity, there is a family. And it's a family of born-again ones. They've come through the door, Jesus Christ. And they're in there. And when you accept Christ, and as he was going, you find yourself among the family of God. The family of God. They're of all nationalities, washed in the blood.
Is that a nice congregation? Then he says they shall go in and out and find pasture. What liberty. We go in to worship. We come out to serve. They shall go in and out. We're in for security. We come out to serve. When those shepherds have got their flock inside that pole, It's for security during the night out. One man went to the Middle East and he saw a shepherd, and he wanted to explain the meaning of that folder.
Well, he said, you can see it. The wall is about ten feet high, and he said you've got the four encloses, the four walls. But the man says, where's the door? I don't see any hinges there, no door to shut. No. He says, I'm the door. He said, when those sheep go in, I lay across that door, that space. No sheep will get out unless he goes over my body. No wild animal gets in unless he goes over my body. I am the one that protects all that's in there against all that's outside. And that's exactly true of the Lord Jesus.
When I have Christ, He protects me. I'm under this constant protection, but he knows I need to swear, and he leads us out to the green pastures of his word, and by the waters of quiet. End to be saved and worshipped, fellowship. What a wonderful fellowship they get into. And in the enjoyment of that fellowship, you go out to service, out into the highways and hedges, the offices, the homes, to tell of you about this wonderful shepherd savior who is the door, the only door, the sufficient door to heaven.
When you this morning take this step of faith and be saved, Jesus, I am the only step of Jesus, why not take it now? Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has come to thee and asked thy blessing on thy words, we thank thee for every one who has entered the fold of Christianity, the family of God through the door of Jesus Christ.