The Exclusivity of Jesus, Part 3

Hello, my name is Alex, and I just wanted to share an encouragement that I'm currently on a drive from Nashville, Tennessee, back to Atlanta, Georgia. And I got a chance to listen on the radio outside of Chattanooga to a message about Dr. Yousef encouraging us to be a witness, to use our Christian witness, and explain the difference between that and the gifts of evangelism. What a powerful message from the Word of God. Thank you, Dr. Yousef.

Thank you for sharing. Thank you for the faithful stations that broadcast the message and share the gospel through the power of leading the way. God bless you. And a prayer is that Leading the Way will continue to leverage you, Dr. Yousef, and the different ministry arms of Leading the Way to bring so many to Christ, both here in the United States as well internationally as well. God bless you. Stand with Dr. Yousef as he takes the gospel to neighborhoods and nations today. Learn more when you speak with a ministry representative at 866-626-4356 and online, ltw.org. We thank you for joining Dr. Michael Yousef for Leading the Way, where you will always hear him passionately proclaim uncompromising truth, standing firm on his lifelong commitment to God and His Word.

Listen together now as Dr. Michael Yousef continues his series, The Exclusivity of Jesus, on today's Leading the Way audio. In John chapter 10, beginning at verse 7, 8, 9, and 10, I am the door of the sheep. When he says, I am the gate of the sheep. Door and gate, by the way, in the original interchangeably, see? Gate or a door, doesn't matter. What is Jesus saying when he says, I am the door? I am the gate. He was communicating something far deeper even than what doors and gates represent.

Now, let me take you to the first century Israel, okay? Back then, the shepherds did not have solid mahogany doors or even iron gates for the sheepfold or the sheep pen, where they put the sheep to rest for the night. They did not have electrical arms, electronic alarm that would go off when an intruder comes nearby. They didn't even have a flimsy gate. Not even a flimsy gate, as we would understand it. You would say, Michael, why would Jesus say, I am the door, when they didn't even have a flimsy gate?

I am going to tell you exactly why I am glad you asked, because I am more anxious to answer than you realize. Back then, shepherds had some sort of a flimsy enclosure. Now, the very wealthy ones who had many sheepfold, they can have a stone built enclosures, but that is very rare.

Most average shepherds had a very flimsy enclosure. In the place where the door or the gate should go, it is not very wide. It is enough for one or two sheep to go through, but it was open.

It was an open enclosure. So, what does happen at night? The shepherd gets into that enclosure and he goes to sleep at night.

Imagine the poor guy. I mean, one eye is open, one eye is closed, right? All night, he is filling that space that is called the doorway or the gateway. He is there in that opening enclosure. In other words, he is the door. He is the gate. The shepherd is the one who puts his body across that opening, and that is how the sheep can truly rest at night, knowing that the shepherd is the door, that the shepherd is in that opening.

Listen to me. The shepherd's own body serves as a barrier that lets the sheep either go in or come out. The shepherd's body is placed between the sheep and either the robbers or the wolves. The shepherd's body is placed between the sheep, on the one hand, and any harmful animal that wants to come and disturb the sheep or steal the sheep or destroy the sheep. If anyone who wants to steal the sheep or kill the sheep, they have to go through the shepherd to get to the sheep. Once the sheep inside that enclosure, called the sheep pen or the sheep fold, once they are inside, they are protected by the shepherd himself. Not a door, not a gate, not an alarm system. The shepherd is the one who guarantees the safety and the security of the sheep. The shepherd is the one who guarantees the sheep's peace of mind so that it can totally rest. Now Jesus said, I am that door.

I am that gate. I am the one who fills that enclosure that protects the sheep. Everyone who was listening to Jesus at that time, they fully understood, comprehended what he's talking about. I know for us today, I have to explain it to you. See, that there's no sheep that can enter the fold without his invitation.

No sheep that can be harmed as long as the shepherd has placed his body in that open enclosure. In the next message, I'm going to talk more in depth about the shepherd, the true shepherd, the good shepherd, the loving shepherd. But today I want you to focus with me on the claim of Jesus to be the only door, the only gate.

And I want to show you why in three ways. Please write him down if you can. I don't want you to forget that our precious Lord, when he claimed to be the door, the gate, he was trying to tell us that being our only gate means that he is the only entrance to the truth. Secondly, he's still being our only gate. It means that he is our only protector. And thirdly, being our only gate means he's our only provider.

Let's look at these very quickly. Being our only gate means that he is the only truth. All the others are fakes. All the others are not the truth. All the others are falsehoods.

Listen to me. When we first come to Christ, when we first give our life to Christ and begin to know the truth, Jesus said that very truth sets us free. It sets us free. And Jesus looks at these self-serving church leaders, these self-serving religious leaders, these self-serving Pharisees that are very much like our false preachers and false preachers of today, saying to them, some of them are robbers. You say, really?

Yes. Some of them are robbers who rob people of the real truth, which is Jesus. These are robbers robbing people of the real meaning of Sabbath rest. These are robbers who are robbing people from understanding the true meaning of grace. These are robbers who rob people by teaching them things that are contrary to the word of God or in most cases is expanding the word of God in ways that God never intended to be. These are robbers who are robbing people of what it means to follow Jesus. These robbers rob people by making them to be their followers instead of being the followers of Jesus. The Bible makes it very clear that Satan, the enemy of our soul, only has one motive, only works toward one goal, and that is to steal, to rob, and to kill. You have God's word for it.

But sadly, he uses some wicked and evil people, his foot soldiers, to do his dirty work for him. And that is why Jesus said in Matthew 23, 13, whoa, to you teachers of the law and the Pharisees, you hypocrites, you shut the kingdom of heaven to men's faces. You yourself don't go in and you don't let others come in. Beloved, listen to me. The most desperate need today is to discern and distinguish between those who feed the flock on the word of God and those who feed them on pop psychology. We need desperately to discern and teach our children to discern and distinguish between the truth and the falsehood, between those who lead them to Jesus and those who lead them to be accepted by the pop culture. Jesus said, I am the door. I am the door, the gate, which means that he is not a way among other ways, as so-called 60% of church people believe in America, which means that he is not a founder of religion like other founders of religions where 70% of churchgoers believe in America, or that he is equal to all those misfits who so-called founders of other religions know and a million knows, but rather he's the only exclusive way to the truth of God the Father. It is only when you go through Jesus, the door, when you go through Jesus, the gate, will you truly experience joy, peace, and eternal life. It's impossible to find anywhere else, only in Jesus. Look at verse 9. We're in John chapter 10, verse 9. Whoever enters through me will be safe or be saved.

Either way, it can be translated either way. Hey, Murad, please, this is important. Whether you live in a hut or in a mansion, whether you are rich or poor, whether you have a high position or a lowly position, there can be no real safety apart from Jesus. There can be no truth apart from Jesus. Outside of the sheepfold, there are many flashing lightning, there are howling winds, and there are doom and gloom. But only inside the sheepfold, only inside the sheep pen, only through the gate, through the door, Jesus, where we find safety in his truth and in his truth alone.

Outside there, outside of his fold, there may be compromising of the truth, there may be watering down of the truth, there may be even denial of the truth altogether. But inside the sheepfold, inside the sheep pen, where the shepherd, Jesus, have placed himself in the doorway, you find inexplicable peace even in the midst of trouble. When Jesus said, I am the gate of the sheepfold, he was assuring every one of his true sheep.

Now let me repeat this. Every one of his true sheep. There are so many people in churches that are not his true sheep. They may be Catholics, they may be Protestants, they may be evangelicals, they may be all denominations of all sorts, but they're not his true sheep. But Jesus, when he said, I am the gate, he was assuring every one of his true sheep that they can truly live in safety and in security in his truth.

Please don't miss this. That means that his true sheep can be absolutely sure that nothing will harm the sheep as long as they are in the sheepfold. You can be absolutely sure no one and no thing can pluck them out of his hands, the hands of the true shepherd. There is no harm, there is no enemy that can steal them when they are in the sheepfold.

No wolf can devour them whenever they are in the sheepfold. I know and you know that life can better us, that circumstances can beat us up, that Satan is constantly looking for an opening in which he can penetrate into our lives. Temptations is forever beckoning us and the world is longing to suck us in and the fire of sin threaten endeavoring to burn us. But listen to me, the truth is our eternal savior is the door and he shelters us and all of God's people said, amen. So he's the door to the truth. The second thing, Jesus being our door, he is our protection.

He's our protection. He said, I am the door or the gate. Whoever enters by me, not by a church or a denomination or a pope or a bishop or a preacher or a pastor through me will be safe or will be saved or saved. The same John who wrote this gospel, the same John, a few years later when he was writing his epistles from the city of Ephesus in 1 John chapter 2 verse 15, he said, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, is totally in love with this world.

The love of the father is not in them. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eye and the boasting of what he has and does, these are things do not come from the father but from the world. You see, that's when getting out of the sheepfold. That is when you put one foot in the sheepfold and another foot in the world. People who wander away from the sheepfold, from the sheep pen should not be surprised when they find themselves in trouble.

Why? Because the only protection is inside the sheepfold, is inside the sheep pen. But listen, those of us who bet everything, we're not betting people but if we bet everything in our lives over the fact that Jesus is the only door, they're going to experience life and experience it abundantly. Abundantly. Now what is that abundant life? Abundant life is eternal life with Jesus in heaven. That's the abundant life. You have it here and there.

Like C.S. Lewis said that those who have their focuses on heaven, they get heaven and then they get earth thrown in as a bonus. Look at the words again of Jesus. Whoever enters through me will be saved or is saved. His true sheep who come to the father through him and him alone, he said they're going to come in and go out and find pasture.

They go in and they go out and find pasture. What does that mean? Does it mean like some false teachers and preachers are into so-called hyper grace tell us that you know you one day with Jesus and then one day you're in the world, you go in and you go out, you go in, you walk with Jesus when you feel like it and when you need it, when you feel spiritual, then you go and live in the world when you don't feel like it? No. That is not what it means at all.

Listen to me. It means that in Christ and in Christ alone, you will discover your true freedom. You're going to discover your true freedom in Christ, true liberty, true victory, true joy, true contentment. When you come to the father through the door, Jesus, his only son, you will come and you're going to find sustenance and you're going to find refreshment. Then you're going to go out and then with him and his power and his strength, you go out to serve him by serving others.

That's what it means. You come in for inner feeling of the Holy Spirit and then you go out and you give of yourself to others. You come in and be loaded with the blessings just like a camel kneels in order to be loaded with goodies. They'll be loaded with God's blessings then you go out and bless others.

That's what it means. You come in and you receive comfort and joy and peace then you go out and you spread it to others. You come in and you find purpose in life and then you go out and help others find a purpose in life.

Can I get an amen? That's what it means to come in and go out. The door is the truth which is our safety. The door is for our eternal protection. Thirdly, the door is for our provision, for our provision. Jesus said about his sheep, they will enter in by the door and when they come in, they're free in Christ. They're free to come and blessed then go out and bless others but he said when they come in, they're going to find what?

What does that mean? Provision, support, strength. They will find all that they need in Christ. No doubt our Lord was thinking of Psalm 23 which is a very well-known Psalm even to non-Christians. I hear the cantor sing it every time I go to a Jewish funeral. Psalm 23 particularly verse 2, he makes me lie down in green pasture.

He leads me beside quiet waters. I'll tell you, take it from me, a sheep will never sit down, will never sit down unless he's free. Free from fear, free from friction, free from flies and free from famine. They cannot feel contented and sit down with these four disturbances around them unless these four disturbances are alleviated and when the shepherd can ensure freedom from these fears, the sheep can rest and that is why Jesus could say, come unto me, all of you who are weary and burdened and I'll give you rest. Muhammad could not say that, Buddha could not say that, Krishna could not say that, no one could have said that. Only Jesus could have said, come unto me. Only Jesus could say, I'm the bread of life and he who feeds on me will never hunger. I'm the light of the world. He who comes to me will not walk and live in darkness.

So let me ask you this as I come close to the end. Are you resting in Christ? Are you resting in Christ? Are you resting in Christ? Are you resting in Christ's provision, protection? Are you resting in his love? Are you resting in his freedom from worry and anxiety and fear? Are you resting in his freedom from the flies of sin? Are you resting in his satisfaction of your spiritual hunger? Do you find all of your rest in his promises? Do you?

Do you find all that you need in his love? If you have not come to the Father, please hear the invitation loud and clear to everyone, come into the sheepfold through only the door, Jesus. But if you're inside the sheepfold and you're troubled by so many distractions in the world, you turn on the news and you get all worked up and you get all mad and angry, hopping, and don't know what to do, what to do, what to do. Listen to me.

You know what to do. Rest in Christ. Rest in Christ. Thank you for joining listeners across six continents for Leading the Way with pastor and International Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Youssef. You can get in touch with Leading the Way for any reason. Just call the Ministry Call Center at 866-626-4356. And online, we're at ltw.org. Now, ltw.org is also the place where you can experience the story of how Dr. Youssef immigrated to the United States from Egypt by way of Australia, opening doors for lifelong ministry, lifelong ministry that's reached so many people with the gospel message. I hope you'll learn more about Leading the Way and the expansive ministry of Dr. Youssef and learn how you can get involved through the Open Door Campaign. Visit ltw.org or call and speak with someone at the Ministry Call Center. That number, 866-626-4356 or ltw.org and 866-626-4356. Well, I need to say goodbye now, but please do join Dr. Michael Youssef right here next time for more Leading the Way.