The Door of the Sheep - Live with Lon!

Well, hello everybody.

Welcome to Live with Lon. It's so good to be with you again, and we're studying, what do we study? Say it with me. The Bible.

Come on. The whole Bible. Nothing but the Bible.

And then we apply to our lives by asking the question, so what? And that's what we're going to do today, Lord willing. So, we've got a great passage and a great subject. Still out of John chapter 10, the Good Shepherd chapter. So, let's pray and we'll get at it.

Here we go. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you again for the privilege of studying your Word, and thank you Lord for giving us the inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word of God, that we can understand the truth about heaven and eternal life, and how to live in a way that brings the blessing of God. God onto our life, how to get saved, and then how to live once we are saved.

And we deeply appreciate you doing this, Lord. Help us to let the Word of God dictate what we believe and how we believe it. Not how we feel, not what we think, not what other people say, not what's popular, not what's unpopular.

Doesn't matter. But what you say in the Word of God. Speak to our hearts by the power of your Spirit, and we pray this in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, what'd you say? Amen and what? Amen.

You got it. Okay, well, here we go. We're going to go back to John chapter 10. Remember, we're going to study the Gospels, and we've already progressed to the triumphal entry in the three Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke.

John, that incredible Gospel. And we'll get there in chapter 12. We're in chapter 10 right now. And once we get there in chapter 12, we'll put all four Gospels back together, and we'll study them together. So that's the plan. And as you know, we have been in the Good Shepherd chapter now for several weeks, John chapter 10.

And we're going to continue there today. Now, as we said, it's the Good Shepherd chapter. Look with me at verse 11. Jesus said, I am the Good Shepherd. That's why we call it the Good Shepherd chapter. But there are many verses or passages in this chapter, just like in John chapter 8, John chapter 9, John chapter 6 and 7. And we're going to observe our individual consideration. And we've been looking at some of them. Last week, we talked about modern day hirelings coming out of verse 12.

But he who is a hireling, and not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and runs away because the sheep are not his, and he cares more about himself than the sheep. So a lot of positive feedback on that message. And thank you. Share it with your friends.

Thank you. I hope it goes viral. We need it to go viral in America today. And especially among people who are involved in the church and Christian ministry. Now, if you missed it, please go back and listen to it. Now today, I want to talk to you about a different topic called the door of the sheep. And let me read you the passage from which this comes. John chapter 10. Look with me beginning at verse 7. Then Jesus said to them again, most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

There you go. All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. But I have come that they may have life and that they might have it more abundantly. That's our passage.

Jesus says, I am the door of the sheep. Now, let's do what we do when we exegete a passage. What do we do? We take it apart.

We look at all of its component parts. We put it back together. So that we understand fully what Jesus is saying. So let's do that.

Here we go. I am the door of the sheep. I don't know particularly why Jesus chose to use that idiom, that imagery, but he did. And all who came before me are thieves and robbers.

Now, who's he talking about? Well, he's talking about all the so-called saviors that came before him. And by the way, friends, this just doesn't apply to all the saviors that came before him.

It applies equally well to all the saviors who came after him. So who came before him? Well, there was Zoroastrianism.

There was Buddha. There was Confucius. There were all kinds of gods of the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians.

And, of course, Baal and Asherah of the Phoenicians, the Canaanites that moved up north and became the Phoenicians in modern day Lebanon, and the Greek gods and the Roman gods and all of this stuff. They're all thieves and robbers, Jesus said. And who's come after him? Well, we have Muhammad, we have Joseph Smith of the Mormons, we have Mary Baker Eddy of the Christian Scientists, we have William Tazewell Russell of the Jehovah Witnesses, we have the Scientologists, we have the New Age movement, we have them all. All the liberal Protestants. Jesus said, I don't care where they came before me.

I don't care where they came after me. They're all thieves and robbers. What do thieves do? They steal. What do these people steal? They steal your soul. That's what they steal.

And here on earth, they steal your money and your time and your attention and your focus. And they're robbers. What do robbers do? Same thing as thieves do. And all these folks, Jesus said, they're thieves, they're robbers.

And look what he says next. He says, but the sheep did not hear them. Well, the sheep might have been distracted by them.

The true sheep that belonged to Jesus might have been distracted by them for a little bit. But ultimately, their voice rings hollow. Listen, that was me. I was attracted by all these different isms and ologies. And for short term, I listened to them in the hope that they would meet the needs of my soul. But honestly, every one of them rang hollow.

And that's why I didn't stick with them. Even going back to Judaism rang hollow. You know, Judaism is all wonderful with all of its tradition and everything. But it's like the old commercial for Wendy's.

Where's the beef? Like my father said when he walked out of high holiday services, Yom Kippur, when he was still living and said, you know what, I don't know anything more about going to heaven and having eternal life than I did walking in there 24 hours ago after fasting all day. Like you're supposed to do. Maybe Lon's right about Christ. Yeah, you name it, they're all thieves and robbers. Jesus said, I'm the door and watch. He says, if anyone enters by me.

Did you? Well, you notice he didn't say if anyone enters by me or if they sincerely tried to enter by one of these other people. Jesus didn't say that. He said, if anybody enters by me, period, by me.

Period. Watch. He will be saved. Saved from what? Well, saved from the judgment of God against sin, saved from hell, which is where God sends uncovered sinners, not covered by the blood of Christ who didn't come in by the door of Christ.

It's where he sends them. We'll be saved from that. Saved for an eternity where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth and torture and agony. Yeah, we'll be saved from our own destructive lifestyles here on earth as well.

Which Jesus is going to refer to in a moment. He will be saved and we'll go in and out and find pasture. My friend, what happens when a sheep finds pasture? Rich, Luxuriant, Verdant, Green, Pasture. Ah, he exalts in finding safe pasture. He luxuriates in finding safe pasture.

He has an abundant experience finding safe pasture. That's what Jesus says, sheep who enter by way of me will find here on this earth and in the afterlife. Watch, he goes on. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. Where do we get killed and destroyed? Well, in the afterlife.

We still say alive, but we get massacred in the afterlife, going to hell. I have come that they, the people who enter by way of me, the door, may have life, eternal life. And that they may have it more abundantly.

Wow. Pasture. That's abundant life.

A sheep finding green, verdant, wonderful, rich pasture. That's life more abundantly. And that's what Jesus offers us. This first meant so much to me when I first read it as a brand new Christian. Because the life I was having was not abundant.

It was horrible, was disastrous. Jesus said, I'm going to give you life and I'm going to give it to you more abundantly. And indeed he has done that. Oh my gosh, God is not my debtor and he's not your debtor. Even with all the trials and difficulties I've had, there is no arguing. Jesus has given me life and given it to me more abundantly, given it to my family, given it to you, given it to your family.

Yeah. So this is our passage. Now let's put it back together. Jesus says, I am the door. You enter by me in terms of coming to Christ, coming to God. In your relationship with God, you enter your relationship with God by me.

Not by Buddha, not by Confucius, not by Joseph Smith, not by Mohammed, not by any of these people. You enter by way of me and you'll be saved from hell. You'll be saved from a worthless earthly life. And you go in and out and find pasture.

What a wonderful imagery, green, beautiful, rich pasture. And you'll have life more abundantly on this earth and more abundantly on the other side. Now, wow, what a great section of scripture. But we're going to stop now. We're going to ask our most important question.

So are you ready? Hey, here we go. Come on. You know it.

One, two, three. So what? Yeah.

And why don't we use Jackie today in his different suit, his brown suit. Are you ready, George? Thank you. Here we go. How sweet it is.

Or as we like to say, how sweet it is. All right. Thank you, Jackie. Thank you, George. Thank you, Lord. Now, what's the takeaway from this today? What's the not a sermon, just a thought?

Well, it's very simple, my friends. Jesus is the door of the sheep. Anybody who enters by way of him in their relationship with God will find pasture and will find life on the other side of the grave, eternal life, and will find abundant life on this side of the grave as well. That's what Jesus says. Now, does the rest of the Bible confirm, reiterate this?

Of course it does. Let me show you a verse that we're going to get to in a little while. It's in John Chapter 14. Look at verse six. I am the way, the truth and the life. Jesus says no one comes to the father. No one gets saved. No one gets in to heaven and gets eternal life except through me. And why does he say through me?

Well, I think part of it is this imagery of the door where we pass through the door. Trust in Christ. Now, how about something else out of the Book of John that says this? Well, how about Acts chapter 12? How about Acts chapter four, verse 12? Peter speaking.

And here's what he says. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is, look at this, no other name under heaven given among men. No other name. Not Buddha, not Confucius, not Mohammed, not Joseph Smith, not L. Ron Hubbard, not Mary's Baker Eddy, no other name.

I don't care what it is. By which we must be saved. Some translations will say by which we can be saved.

Both are true. We must be saved this way. And this is the only way we can be saved. No other name. Why? Because Jesus is the door.

Everybody else are thieves and robbers. That's what he says. Oh, and how about Romans chapter 10? I love that. What a wonderful chapter. Romans chapter 10.

Look what he said. Look what Paul says beginning in verse one. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

OK, that's wonderful. I'm glad Paul feels that way. How are they going to be saved? You say by just trying to be good Jewish people.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Look, verse two. For I bear them witness the Jewish people that they have a zeal for God. Hey, you've seen pictures of Jewish people standing at the Wailing Wall and and and praying and Jewish people studying the scripture all day over there near the Wailing Wall.

I see them every time we go to Israel and even flying over on El Al Israeli Airlines. We see Jewish people stand up and do their morning prayers and put on their toilet, their their their prayer shawl and everything. They have a zeal for God.

Yes. Look what Paul says, but not according to knowledge. It's not an informed zeal. It's not an educated zeal. It's an ignorant zeal for.

Why do I say this? Look at this. For they being ignorant of how you get God's righteousness. And seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. In other words, there's two ways to get try to get God's righteousness.

The first one is what we're going to see in a minute. Look at verse four. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. The first way is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. He is the end of the law for righteousness to all who believe in him.

That's the first way to get it there. They're not willing to get it that way. Verse three, they seek to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted to the righteousness that God offers them, which only comes through belief in Christ. Do you understand what Paul's saying here?

What the Bible is saying? The Bible says only two ways to try to get salvation. To try to get eternal life.

To try to get connected with God. This is true for everybody, not just Jewish people. You can do it by trusting Christ and what he did for you on the cross. Or you can try to do it based on your own effort to earn your righteousness before God. The apostle Paul says the second way will never work. It's only the first way.

It's the only way it can be done. Watch. Let's go further in Romans chapter 10. Look, if you confess, verse nine, with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, not Buddha, not Muhammad, not Confucius, not the Lord Jesus, and you believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, watch this, you will be what? Saved.

That's it. For whoever, verse 13, verse 12, there's no distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles. For the same Lord is over all and is rich in mercy over anyone who calls on him, watch. For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord, Jew or Gentile, will be saved.

And whoever doesn't, won't. There is no other name. And finally, how about the book of Revelation, chapter one?

I love this. The Lord Jesus appears to John, the apostle, and he says to him, look at this, verse 10. John says, I heard a trumpet behind me on the Lord's Day and I heard a voice that said, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. And then skip down, if you would, to verse 18. I am he who lives.

I'm the first and the last and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of hell and death. Well, Buddha doesn't have the keys. Mohammed doesn't have the keys. Joseph Smith doesn't have the keys. No rabbi has the keys. Mary Baker Eddy doesn't have the keys. Timothy Leary encouraging me to use LSD didn't have the keys.

Only Jesus has the keys. And that means he's the person you got to do business with, my friend. So we could go on. But I think the point is clear. There is no other name. That's what the scripture says.

He is the door. Everybody else is a thief and a robber who will cost you your life if you follow them. That's just it's just that simple. I love the fact that the Bible doesn't beat around the bush. It tells it the way it is. It means what it says and it says what it means. It's just that simple. And all these Bible teachers and preachers and seminary professors and television and radio personalities who want to make what the Bible makes simple, they want to make it complicated. They want to add all these other. You know, the Bible is basically is a single declarative sentence. There is no other name.

They want to add compound complex statements and clauses and and all this other nonsense, subordinate clauses, coordinate clauses, all this other stuff. Friends, it's a simple declarative sentence. I am the door. The person who enters by me will find pasture.

There is no other name. Simple sentence. The Bible communicates what it means and it means what it says.

And it's a simple message. Trust Christ, you get eternal life. Trust Christ, you get heaven. Trust Christ and God will revolutionize your earthly life to make it more abundant. Don't trust Christ.

You get none of these. I don't know how you can say it any more straightforwardly. And why would God not want to say it straightforwardly?

He wants children to be able to get it. So, my friend, don't be educated beyond your intelligence. I remember when I went to seminary and I loved going to seminary. It was some of the greatest years of my life. Just studying the Bible in Greek and Hebrew was great. But I remember I had a theology class, I had several as a matter of fact, with Dr. John Mulholland. Wonderful man of God who's gone to be with the Lord now. And Dr. Mulholland, he was brilliant. The man was absolutely brilliant. He knew more theology than I would ever hope to learn in my whole life. And he exposed us to these nuts who took the simple statement of the Bible and were determined to make them complicated.

Remember what I always tell you. It doesn't take any skill to take something simple and make it complicated. What takes skill is to do what Jesus did. And that is take something complicated and make it simple. So even a child can understand it. Well, anyway, we read all these guys.

Paul Tillich, Talhard D. Chardin, Karl Barth, you name them. These people made things so complicated that I, an intelligent person, I would read what they were saying. And at the end, I couldn't even understand what they just said. I'd have to go back and reread it.

I still didn't understand what they said. One of them used to say that God is best defined as being totally other. Totally other what? Just totally other.

Well, what the heck does that mean? Totally other. Well, I mean, who thinks of crazy stuff? Who sits around and thinks of this kind of crazy stuff? Why don't you just say he's God?

That's what the Bible says. Totally other. Yeah, well, whatever. I got so frustrated reading this stuff, I swear I would have to go take a cold shower. I didn't even know what they were talking about.

And it was just like when I read Shakespeare in high school. No idea. No idea what that dude was talking about.

None. So anyway, the point being. I mean, Dr. Mulholland understood all this stuff. Not me. I didn't. But I'd had it. I had enough wisdom to understand that they were wrong. And that's what he was trying to point out to us.

Amazing. Friends, don't you listen to all these people who sound pseudo intellectual and try to impress you with how intellectual they are and how complicated the truths of God are. And the Bible is. Don't pay any attention, those people. They don't even know what they're talking about. They're not going to heaven.

They're trying to talk to you and they're not going either. You know, you pay attention to the simple words of the B I B L E. There it is. The Bible.

That's it. And what does the Bible say? I'm the door of the sheep. Enter by me, you'll be saved.

Everybody else is a thief and a liar. Don't pay any attention to them. Bingo. That's it.

There's no other name. Bingo. That's it.

And I sure hope you've trusted Christ. And this is our message. That there is only one way. The exclusivity of Jesus for salvation.

That's it. I'll close with an anecdote. I was preaching one weekend at McLean Bible Church years ago.

And when I between services, I went out in the lobby to shake hands and I'm shaking hands. And this one woman comes up to me and she says, you know, she said, I, I am sure I misunderstood you this morning. I said, OK, well, I don't understand.

What do you mean? She said, well, it sounded to me like you were saying that Jesus is the only way to get to heaven. And every other way, no matter how sincere a person may be, every other way to get in heaven, to get into heaven won't work. I said, no, you didn't you didn't misunderstand me at all. I feel great that you got it.

That's exactly what I was saying. She said, you don't really believe that, do you? And I said, well, yeah, I do.

She said, come on, Lon. You're an educated man. You know, you can level with me.

Maybe you got to say that for everybody, but you can level with me. Certainly you believe that if someone is a very sincere Buddhist who lives in China and in or India or wherever, and they never hear the gospel, that God would let them into heaven. And I go, no, ma'am, I'm sorry, I don't believe that at all.

I believe the opposite, which is why we send missionaries out. And she couldn't get over the fact she could not get over the fact that I was such a simpleton and that I not believe that just at face value. Folks, you know what? Be a simpleton for Jesus. Just believe what he said.

Huh? Paul calls himself a fool for Christ. And because he just believed it the way it was.

You know what? Being a fool for Christ, a person who is a fool for Christ is not a fool. I made that up. One of the few original things I ever came up with. A person who's a fool for Christ is not a fool.

They're smart. You be smart. Let's pray. And with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, if you've never given up all these other ways of trying to get through the door of eternal life in heaven and forgiveness with God, if you've never been through the simple door of what Jesus did for you on the cross, I'm going to give you a chance to do it right now. So if you're willing to give up all those other approaches and remedies and just take Christ and what he did for you on the cross, plus nothing, no human effort, then you pray after me either out loud or silently right where you are. Lord Jesus, I come to you today because I'm willing to believe simply and straightforwardly what you said, that you are the door to the sheep and that anyone who enters by you will be saved. And so right now, I give up any other remedy that I've ever trusted for forgiveness of sins and entry into heaven. I give up my own human effort to accomplish this, and I place my trust 100 percent on the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins and to cover me from the holiness of God against my sin. Lord Jesus, I give you my heart and my life today, 100 percent, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

All right. Hey, if you prayed that prayer with me, I'm proud of you. Let me tell you what I want you to do. I want you to go to our website, lawandsolomonministries.com, pull down the sermon bar and go to our sermons and look down there.

You'll see it. Not very far down, Spiritual Boot Camp. And I want you to listen to those messages from Spiritual Boot Camp. I want you to listen to them three or four times over and over until you've mastered everything in those boot camp messages, because they're boot camp. They're for basic, foundational, solid, build your house on the solid rock faith. So you go listen to them.

It's why I recorded them. It's for someone just like you. And even if you didn't pray the prayer with me, if you've never listened, I think you'll benefit from it.

OK, that's it. God bless you. I hope you have a wonderful week. Tell somebody about Christ, because no other name. See you next week, Lord.