John, pt. 61 | John 10:1-10

If you would take your copy of the Scriptures and turn with me to the

Gospel of John, chapter 10. The Gospel of John, chapter 10.

We will consider verses 1 through 10. This is the 61st message in this wonderful Gospel.

Before I begin, I want to again recognize

Tom, Patty, Red, and Erica for joining this body. It is a great thing that the

Lord does when he adds to his number. Earlier when

I was up here, my rhythm was thrown off. I even forgot to pray. Once my tablet started sliding, everything went south.

I just wanted to thank you all for being a part of this. I pray that the

Lord will, through this church, feed you his word and sacrament.

Let me begin with prayer. Glorious God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, please, in the name of Jesus Christ, use me this day to bring to your people your word.

Lord, like I said earlier, we're here for word and sacrament. We're here to feast upon your word and to feast upon the

Lord's Supper. Lord, we just ask that your hand be upon us as well as all churches that are gathered together, speak in truth, those that are gathered together to worship you in spirit and truth.

Be with us, Lord. And now be with me, your manservant, as I proclaim the magnificent works of your hand.

And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, let's begin with the text,

John chapter 10. We'll read verses 1 through 10. We'll only make it to verse 3 today.

Jesus speaking, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

To him the gatekeeper opens.

The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

And when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him.

For they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers.

This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you,

I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to 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 comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

And our theme for this Lord's Day, as well as it was for the last Lord's Day, we have a test.

And the test is a test of spiritual sight. Are you able to see?

And this test of spiritual sight means that if you're not in Christ, you are spiritually blind.

But if you're in Christ, you have been given spiritual sight. Jesus has, in one sense, as we saw in the story before this, spit on the ground, made mud and anointed your eyes.

And you have come to that fountain that flows with blood that's drawn from Emmanuel's veins.

And you have rinsed and you are able to see. This is what it means to have spiritual sight.

You know who Jesus is because Jesus has revealed himself to you.

And my proposition is this, is that Jesus the Christ has always been and will always be the only way of salvation.

There's never been another way. There's only been one way and there will never be another way.

There's only one way and that way is through Jesus Christ.

The test of spiritual sight has to do with where you put your trust. Are you trusting in the wall of the law or are you trusting in the door of grace?

Let's put it another way. Are you trusting in Moses to get you to the father?

Or are you trusting in Jesus to get you to the father? And I'm not talking about Jesus with a side of Moses.

I'm talking about Christ alone, solus Christos. Are you trusting in Jesus Christ alone?

Not your own works and efforts, but trusting in him and what he has done for you.

Past tense. Not what you're doing present tense.

If you're trusting in what you're doing in present tense, you're trusting in Moses. You're trusting in the law of God, which condemns you to get you in the presence of God.

If you're trusting in Jesus, my dear friends, you can see you have been given spiritual sight.

But if you're trusting in Moses, my dear friends, you are blind spiritually as a bat.

You're blind. You need to be given spiritual sight. And that spiritual sight comes with trusting alone in Jesus Christ.

This is what the book of John has been about week after week, verse after verse.

That's what John has been trying to get within our thick skulls.

Like last week, John 10 is a word picture.

Remember last week I said this is a word picture. He's drawing us a picture using his words.

Jesus explains to them, as well as you and I, three mysteries in this chapter, verses 1 through 10.

So in our outline, I want us to look at this section in three ways, and these are the three mysteries.

We looked at the first one last week, and that was the mystery of his covenant. And last week we laid a foundation for what we're going to be going through concerning this chapter.

The second point was the mystery of Christ. And the third way to look at this is the mystery of his kingdom.

And as we transition in John 9, we witnessed together three times that the

Pharisees denied Jesus. They denied him in three ways. First, they denied that Jesus was from God, and we see this in chapter 9, verse 16.

Some of the Pharisees said, this man, speaking of Jesus, is not from God, for he does not keep the

Sabbath. The second way is that they denied that Jesus healed a man who was born blind from birth, and we see this in verse 18.

If you remember last week, I got a little confused here because I marked it wrong. Verse 18 says, the

Jews, speaking of the religious Jews, the Pharisees is who he was speaking with, did not believe that he had been born blind.

Speaking of this man, this man who was healed, the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight.

They denied the work. And third, they denied

Jesus, and we see this in verse 28. And they reviled him, the him here is the man who was born blind, saying, you are his, speaking of Jesus, you are

Jesus' disciples, but we are disciples of Moses.

Look at verse 29. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, speaking of Jesus, we do not know where he comes from.

They denied that he was from God. They denied that he was doing the works of God, and they deny that he is

God. Ladies and gentlemen, they are spiritually blind.

And in verse 40, they ask the question, they say, are we also blind?

And they get this from what took place, I think it was three weeks ago, we walked through John chapter 9, could have been two weeks ago,

John chapter 9, 35 through 41. I just want to read that real quick to give us some background. So John chapter 9, beginning in verse 35,

Jesus heard that they had cast him out. Remember this man, this man who was born blind, he would not give glory to God in the way that they wanted him to, which was to mock

Jesus, to speak evil of Jesus, but instead proclaim that Jesus was a prophet, and that he was healed through this

Jesus. And so they cast him out. They either removed him from the temple, or they removed him from the city gates.

And it says, and Jesus heard that they had cast him out, so having found him, he said, do you believe in the

Son of Man? The Son of Man, speaking that Jesus is deity, that Jesus is

God. Do you believe that I am God? This is what Jesus is asking him. Do you believe that I am

God? Verse 36, he answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?

And Jesus said to him, you have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.

He said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him. He believed here that Jesus is the

Son of Man, that he is God, and he worshipped him as God, spiritual blindness removed.

He was healed of physical blindness, and right here, he's healed of spiritual blindness.

Verse 39, Jesus said, for judgments, I came into this world.

And I mentioned that a lot of people, they don't understand what that means, right? John chapter 3, verse 17, he says that he did not come to judge the world, but in 18, it tells us that the world is already judged if they do not believe in him.

And you get into verses 19 through 21, it tells us that his coming is the judgment.

Jesus coming into this world is the judgment, that what you believe about Jesus matters.

He said, for judgment, I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.

And this is speaking about spiritual blindness. Jesus' main purpose for coming was not to heal physically blind people, although he does heal physically blind people.

The main purpose was to give spiritual sight to those that are spiritually blind.

To give spiritual sight to those who are spiritually blind. So he's speaking spiritually, and the remarks of the

Pharisees are speaking physically. Some Pharisees, verse 40, some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, are we all so blind?

They're thinking physical. They're like, this man's crazy, I can see him, he's saying that we're blind, he came into this world to make us blind,

I see him, he's a liar. They're not understanding what Jesus is saying, and Jesus says again, verse 41, and Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt, but now that you say we see, your guilt remains.

Jesus is saying, if you were blind concerning the prophecies of who

I am, you would not be guilty. But since you say you know the prophecies, you know the

Tanakh, you know the Torah, your guilt remains. You're guilty.

You have all these verses memorized about me, and I'm standing before you, and you reject me.

You say we see. My dear friends, I came to make you who say you see blind.

And in chapter 10 here, he continues to answer that question, are we all so blind?

So after careful study of chapter 10, verses 1 through 10,

I believe that the sheepfold is simultaneously the covenant of grace and the kingdom of God.

That the thieves and robbers are the Pharisees, the door is Jesus, the another way is

Moses, the shepherd is Jesus, the gatekeeper is the Holy Spirit. The sheep are the elect of God, and the strangers are the

Pharisees. And as we walk through some of these, not this week, but next week hopefully, we'll show application on how this extends to stuff then and now.

Kind of this week, we're kind of still laying a little bit of the foundation. Last week, we spent our time together looking at verse 1 concerning the mystery of his covenant.

We looked at how a covenant was formed, like what a covenant was. And what we looked at was that a covenant, if it was a coin, has two sides, right?

If you pull out a coin, if you pull out a quarter, you're going to see that there's two sides. You have a heads and a tails. And for something to be a covenant in scripture, at least imposed covenant given to us by God, one side, you would see the inscription, do this and live.

And so we walked through Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, and you saw the do this and live.

But if you flip that coin to the other side, you'll see the inscription, do this and die, or do this and be removed from the land.

So there was a prohibition. So God tells them what to do, he tells them what not to do, and the prohibition would be the punishment if you break this.

You either do this and you'll live a rather long life, like the commandment of being obedient to your parents, that's the commandment given to us by which if you keep, you'll have a long life.

That's what scripture says. Or keep the law and live in the land.

And if you break the law, you could be removed from the land, or you could die. If you commit adultery, you could get stoned.

If you blaspheme, that's stoning. You worship another god, as a

Jew, you would be stoned. And so you have these, do this and live, other side, do this and die, or be removed from the land.

So we looked at what a covenant was, and we compared it with Genesis chapter 3, where the covenant of grace is revealed, and we saw that it did not meet the conditions of a covenant.

My conclusion was that Genesis 3 .15 was a promise of a covenant of grace only.

When you read Genesis 3 .15, there is no do this and live, and there is no prohibition, do this and die, or be removed from the land.

And so, we saw this as being a promise of a future covenant, and nothing more.

There was no do this and die, or do this and live. And that covenant, this covenant of grace was inaugurated, this future covenant was inaugurated by Jesus during His time on that cross, or during the time of His death.

And I believe that the covenant of grace is the covenant of redemption, is the covenant of works fulfilled by Jesus in His life, death, in His sinless life, excuse me, and then in His death, it is the new covenant in His blood.

When Jesus, at the Passover, grabs the cup, He mentions that, well,

He first, the bread that His body would be broken for us, and that His blood would be poured out for many.

That this was the inauguration of that covenant. This covenant of grace that we see in Genesis 3 .15.

So let's look at chapter 10, verse 1, as He finishes answering this question.

Again, this was all foundational. Go back, if you haven't heard it, go back to last week's message and listen to it.

Jesus says, truly, truly, right here He's saying to the Pharisees, listen to me,

I say to you, the Pharisees, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, this man is a thief and a robber, and so what is that other way?

Verse 28 and 29, they reviled Him saying, you are His disciples, but we are disciples of Moses.

We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.

This other way that they were trying to get to God is through keeping the law through Moses.

They were not trusting in the promise of God given to them in Genesis 3 .15.

That there was going to come a seed from the woman that would bruise the head of the serpent while only bruising his heel.

Or they didn't believe the promise given to us in Genesis chapter 12 and 17 where it talks about this seed that passed from the woman to Abraham would keep the commandments.

He would inherit the land and bless the nations. They didn't listen to the promise as it was passed through his sons and through Moses and all the way to David.

They did not listen to the promises, but they were trying to use the law to get to God.

They were trying to use Moses. And next week we will revisit that and go into more depth.

I'm trying to hold myself back from going any deeper into that verse right now, so please forgive me.

There's more that can be said. So let's get into the next point, the mystery of Christ.

We see this in verse 2. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

So first question, who is the door? Verse 7, and Jesus said to them, truly, truly, he's saying, listen to me, pay attention.

I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

Verse 9, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

So the text clearly tells us who's the door. Who's the door? Jesus is the door.

The text is clear. Second question, who is the shepherd? Answer verse 11,

Jesus speaking, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Who's the shepherd? Who's the door? Jesus. Who's the shepherd?

Jesus. Well, that's weird. So the real question is, is how is

Jesus both the door and the shepherd? Or better yet, how does

Jesus enter through himself? He says that he has to enter, it's right here, truly, truly,

I say to you, he who does not enter through the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, this man is a thief and a liar.

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Both of them are

Jesus. He is the door, and he is the shepherd, and he is the shepherd who has entered in through the door.

Make that make sense, right? And this is where understanding

Baptist covenant theology, 1689 federalism comes into play. Remember last week

I gave you an analogy. You're looking out of a window. Someone has smeared mud all over it.

You cannot see out of the window. And I put Mr. Clean on my thumb, and I touched the window, and I removed it.

Now you can see a thumbprint -sized hole through this large, muddy window. And then

I went and dipped my hand in the Mr. Clean, and I started wiping the window completely clean to where you could see it.

But it started out with a thumbprint, and next thing you know, it's getting bigger, you can see more, it's getting clearer, and next thing you know,

I cleaned the whole window, and it's visible, you can see completely out of the window.

Well, God has un -muddied this for us. And this wire is getting to me, okay.

The first clean spot on the window in scripture is the seat of the woman.

Jesus is the seat of the woman. Jesus is the one who bruises the head of the serpent while only getting his heel bruised, and this is speaking about his crucifixion.

Jesus is the seat of the woman. Jesus is the blessing of Abraham.

Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Jesus is the prophet spoken of by Moses.

Jesus is the servant of Isaiah, chosen servant of Isaiah. Jesus is, he's cleaning the window,

Jesus is the son of David that kept the covenant. Jesus is the serf and servant of Isaiah.

Jesus is the David whose soul was not abandoned to Hades, and whose body did not see corruption.

And as you're reading through this Bible, and you get to the New Testament, and you see all these things being fulfilled, what you have by God in scripture is a clean window.

And this is how you have to understand the Bible, have to read it, is with covenant theology.

And that's the foundation that we see here in this text, that you see here throughout the whole scripture.

And I would argue that the Baptist perspective is the best perspective to look at it from.

He, his entrance in, excuse me, his entrance has to do with him fulfilling the covenant.

Him fulfilling the covenants. He had to come from the woman. He had to go through Abraham.

He had to, from Abraham, make it all the way to David. And through David, he had to keep the law.

He had to keep the law word of God. The whole covenant structure has to do with the mystery of Christ.

And in order to enter in through that door, which is Christ, you must be born again.

Because what I just said might seem impossible. What I just said is not logical.

Which is why you must be born again to believe it. Now, how does that happen?

And it's through the mystery of his kingdom. Point number three. Now, remember I said that I believe that the sheepfold is simultaneously the covenant of grace and the kingdom of God.

Now, I want to make some clarifications. The kingdom of God has two stages.

The earthly kingdom people. Who are the earthly kingdom people? The Jews, the

Israelites. And it's also the heavenly kingdom people.

Who are the heavenly kingdom people? Christians. Or you can look at it like this.

Earthly kingdom people are the physical descendants of Abraham. Remember the physical and the spiritual.

The heavenly kingdom people are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. Those who have the same faith as Abraham.

You can be a Jew and not have the same faith as Abraham. And you're only a part of the old covenant people.

The old covenant earthly kingdom people. But if you can be a Jew and have the faith of Abraham.

And be a part of that old earthly covenant, that earthly kingdom. But also be in the new covenant.

Heavenly kingdom. Both can be true at the same time.

I also mentioned that the border wall around the sheepfold represented the law of Moses.

Which represented the old covenant. Which represents the covenant of works. I should also mention that this section of scripture concerning the sheep

God's elect. Is only speaking about the Jews only. In this section it's speaking about the

Jews only. The Gentiles are mentioned in verse 16.

Look at verse 16. Jesus says. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.

That are not born under the law. That are not Jews. I have other sheep.

These other sheep is Gentiles. That are not a part of this fold. I must bring them also.

And they will listen to my voice. And there will be one flock.

One shepherd. And when we get to that we'll see how in Ephesians. Paul tells us how

God makes the two. Jew and Gentile into one person. One new man in Christ.

That there's no longer a Jew and a Gentile. If you're in Christ you're a Christian.

You're a follower of Jesus Christ. So he'll take the sheep.

That represents the Jewish people. And the sheep that represent the Gentiles. Who are in separate flocks.

And he'll put them in one flock. Let's again.

Verse 16. I have other sheep. This is speaking about you and I.

If we do not have a Jewish background. So don't get twisted as we're walking through this.

And when it's speaking about the Jews only. In the same way Jesus passed through the covenants.

As the seed of the woman. The covenant of grace passed through the covenants. Jesus passed through the covenants.

The covenant of grace passed through each of the covenants. In this law covenant of the

Old Testament. There was grace. There was grace. There was forgiveness of sins.

There was grace. The seed was passing along with it. There was grace in the old covenant.

And I think as Christians sometimes we can lose sight of that. So also these the old covenant.

That we look. Excuse me. So also those in the old covenant. That were looking to Jesus.

Remember the faith of Abraham. Came out of the old covenant. And were saved through the new covenant.

So those in the old covenant. Who were looking to Jesus. Were saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.

On that cross. We'll dive more into that in a minute.

The covenant of grace is the covenant for those. Who are in. The kingdom of God.

Not earthly kingdom. The heavenly kingdom. You can remember you can be in the earthly kingdom.

And be in the heavenly kingdom. Both are true. But if you're just in the earthly kingdom.

The covenant of grace is not for you. The covenant of grace is for those.

Who are in the heavenly kingdom of God. Abraham is in the heavenly kingdom of God.

Moses is in the heavenly kingdom of God. Like you can just go through the names in the Old Testament. Of these men of God.

Who were looking to God. Who were trusting in the promises of God. And although it wasn't as clear as we have it now.

In hindsight. They were trusting in the promise of God. Which was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

And therefore they're saved by the blood of Christ. Which is the new covenant. Which is the inauguration of the covenant of grace.

If you never studied covenant theology before. I know this might sound like a. A mouthful a handful of mindful whatever.

But I would encourage you to look deep into this. This systematic idea of how people are saved.

Again you can be in the covenant of grace. Without being in the.

Excuse me. You cannot be in the covenant of grace. Without being in the heavenly kingdom of God.

Just like you cannot be in the kingdom of God. Without being born again.

You cannot be in the covenant of grace. Without being in his kingdom. And you cannot be in his kingdom.

Without being born again. If you have been born again.

You are in the heavenly kingdom of God. And that's right now.

Right now. You are in. The kingdom of God.

The heavenly kingdom of God. Right now. As we speak. It was inaugurated.

At the first coming of Jesus. During the Lord's Supper. Which we partake in week after week.

He brought it. He inaugurated it. You said Jeff but I can't see it. He says unless you're born again you cannot see it.

You can see it if you're born again. But you can't touch it. It's not tangible. You can't lean against it.

It's here but it's not yet. We're in it. But we're not in it.

It's weird right. I know I get it. But that's this is just what the Bible teaches about it. We are right now in it.

Let me put it to you this way. Ephesians chapter 2 says this. That right now if you're in Christ. You are sitting with him in the heavenlands.

But yet you're on earth. That's what it says.

Do you believe the word of God. Right now if you've been born again. You are a Christian.

You are present tense. Sitting with Jesus in the heavens. That's what it says.

And yet I'm looking around. I physically can't see Jesus.

I can't lay my head like John did on his breast. I don't see him.

But by faith I see him. My physical sight doesn't see him.

But my spiritual sight. I know that I'm with him. Just like this man knew that Jesus was the son of man.

I know right now I am with God in heaven. And it is through the new birth. Abraham was given faith to believe.

Therefore Abraham is in the new covenant. Kingdom of God.

And the new birth is when the Holy Spirit applies the purpose. Remember in covenant of redemption.

The father purposes to save a people. How does he do it? He sends his son in time to live the life that they could not live.

And to take their punishment in his death. He was buried and on the third day he rose again.

That purpose is applied to us. When we hear the gospel through the

Holy Spirit. So as someone is preaching the gospel. If they are the sheep of God.

If they are God's elect. The Holy Spirit takes the purpose and applies it to them.

Which causes them the new birth. In Titus chapter 3 verse 5.

It's called the washing of regeneration. Turn there with me. Titus chapter 3.

Let's go to verse 4. It has that same language as that song we sung.

Oh holy night. You might be thinking. Why do we sing oh holy night? It's not

Christmas. Ladies and gentlemen in a reformed church. Every Lord's Day is Christmas.

Every Lord's Day we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The death of Jesus Christ.

And the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Look what it says in verse 4. But when the goodness and loving kindness of our

God and savior appeared. Incarnation.

His first coming. When he was born. When he took on flesh. He saved us.

When did he save us? When he appeared. His first coming. He saved us.

Not because of works done by us in righteousness. Not by you keeping the law.

But according to his own mercy. By the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the

Holy Spirit. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 36. In Ezekiel chapter 36, 25 through 27.

It speaks about grace, faith and the Holy Spirit. But it doesn't use those words.

Verse 25 we see grace. Grace is God giving you something you don't deserve.

Remember you're a sinner. God says I will sprinkle clean water on you.

And you will be clean. Titus 3 says the washing of regeneration. I will sprinkle clean water on you.

And you shall be clean. From all your uncleanness and from all your idols

I will cleanse you. This is God giving you what you don't deserve. Forgiveness of sins.

That is grace. Verse 26. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit

I will put within you. I believe that the new heart is faith. And the new spirit is the

Holy Spirit. Continue to read. I will remove your heart of stone.

Your heart of self -righteousness. This heart that's in you that thinks that you can live however you want.

Do whatever you want to do. Or this heart that thinks that hey, I'm a good person.

I'm a good person. I'm self -righteous. God is going to remove your self -righteousness and he's going to give you a heart of flesh.

A heart of faith. And he's going to, right here it says and I will remove your heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

This heart of flesh I believe is faith. Because in order to receive the spirit, you have to receive the spirit by faith.

And next thing you see is verse 27. And I will put my spirit within you and it will cause you to walk in my statutes and to be careful to obey my rules.

In Matthew chapter 3 verse 11, John calls this washing of regeneration of the

Holy Spirit. Well, he calls this washing of regeneration the baptism of the

Holy Spirit. John 3 verse 11. So you remember John is, he's in the wilderness.

He is preaching. He's got people traveling. He's got Pharisees coming to see him. He's got Sadducees coming to see him.

And he says to them, he says, I baptize with water for repentance but he who is coming after me is mightier than I whose sandals

I am not worthy to carry. He, speaking of this one who is to come, which is

Christ will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

And I like to make a distinction here that the fire here is speaking about judgment.

Look at verse 10. Even now the ax is laid to the root of the tree and every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

What is that? That's hell fire, that's judgment. Verse 12, the woodland fork is in his hand and he will clear the thrashing floor and gather his wheat into the barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

What is that? That's hell fire, that's judgment. And so when this

Jesus comes, he's going to baptize some with the Holy Spirit and some are gonna be baptized with judgment.

He came to judge the world in his coming.

What you believe about Jesus matters. If you don't believe that Jesus is the son of God, son of David, son of man, you're gonna die and you're going to go to hell.

But if you believe that Jesus is the son of God, son of David, son of man, you've been given spiritual eyes, you have been baptized in the

Holy Spirit. And it happens through the preaching of the gospel, right?

You have a person that's witnessing to you or whether it's one -on -one or whether you go to a church or whether you hear a street preacher and you hear the gospel being preached, this is when that washing of regeneration takes place.

This is when you receive the grace of God, this is when you receive the new heart of faith and this is when you receive the

Holy Spirit. Ephesians 2, verse eight says this, we are saved by grace through faith.

Say that again, we are saved by grace through faith.

It goes on to say that it's not of works, it's not of your own doing, it's the gift of God.

The gift of God is faith. How do you receive faith? Romans chapter 10, verse 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

You cannot have faith without hearing the gospel message. Galatians chapter three, verse two says, did you receive the spirit by words of the law or by hearing in faith?

You are saved by grace, your sins are washed in the blood and you're given faith to believe.

You're saved by grace through faith. The heart is, your heart of stone is removed. He's given you a new heart, this heart of faith and when you're given this heart of faith, you receive the

Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not just active in your salvation, in our salvation, but the

Holy Spirit is given to you in your salvation. Look at verse 3a, chapter 10, verse 3a.

To him, speaking of the shepherd, the gatekeeper opens.

Now remember, I believe that the gatekeeper is the Holy Spirit. At this time, the sheep foe was commonly a courtyard near or beside a house and the bordered stone walls, which were looked after by several different families.

Could be, right? So imagine if you had two houses that were near each other. Sometimes they would build a sheep foe in between the two houses.

So you have the back of the border wall, like they would build just basically like a brick wall and they would build a brick wall in the front and there would be a door entrance to where in between the two houses, you have a sheep foe or it would be one house and it would have three walls.

Like this is commonly how this took place at that time. A gatekeeper was someone that they hired or trusted.

So this family who ran this sheep foe, they did not have someone that they paid to stay there.

This thing is acting up big time. A gatekeeper was someone who was hired or trusted to watch over the sheep while the shepherd found rest.

One of the reasons I believe that the gatekeeper is the Holy Spirit is because the

Holy Spirit is not a hired hand. So look with me at verse 12.

He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd does not own the sheep.

Sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

If you remember when we went through Acts chapter one, the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter one gave people power.

These weak and pitiful men who Christ called to be his disciples, his apostles.

When Christ was crucified, they fled. Without the Holy Spirit, they took off running, they hid.

Acts chapter two, they're given the Holy Spirit and as you read the rest of the book of Acts, they are empowered with boldness.

They have a power that is not of their selves. They're willing to stand in the face of tyranny and preach

Christ even to their death. And if you know church history, that's what happened.

Some were crucified, some were crucified upside down, sawed in two, beaten with clubs, dragged, skinned, boiled in oil, they had the

Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a hired hand.

The Holy Spirit is watching over the sheep. It's watching over God's elect.

When he sees a wolf coming, he's not gonna run away. He's not going to leave you to be devoured by the wolf.

Now you might be thinking to yourselves, is the gatekeeper a shepherd? And in some cases, they were.

Some cases, you had a shepherd who was training a younger shepherd.

And while the one shepherd would go and find rest in his home, he would leave the other shepherd, the younger shepherd, to watch over his flock.

Like this was done, from what I can tell, several different ways. But if you hired someone to watch over your sheep and they saw the wolf, commonly they ran away.

They would not lay down their life for the sheep. So this is why

I believe that the doorman is the Holy Spirit. Again, as far as I can tell, there wasn't a regular doorkeeper.

And as you are, yeah, a doorkeeper, a doorman. So I believe that the gatekeeper was the

Holy Spirit. At that time, you either hired him or it was someone you trusted. And who more does

Jesus trust than the Father and the Holy Spirit, right? Also note, in the same way that Jesus and the

Father are one, they are also one with the Holy Spirit. So look at verse 30.

Jesus says, I and the Father are one. Is this saying that he is the same person?

No, he's saying that they are one, meaning that they are God. And if you are Orthodox Christian, you believe in the doctrine of the

Trinity. One God, three persons. Each person,

Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are the one God. So Jesus and the

Holy Spirit are one. Jesus and the Father are one. Father, Son, and the

Holy Spirit are one, speaking of deity. They all are

God in and of themselves. They are God, but yet they are three persons.

Look at verse 3a again. To him, speaking of Jesus, the

Holy Spirit opens. You say, hey, that's not what it says. Really?

To him, the doorkeeper opens. But I'm telling you, it could also be translated.

To Jesus, the Holy Spirit opens. For Jesus, the

Holy Spirit applies the purpose to the elect. You say, how?

Look at 3b. The sheep hear his voice. The sheep hear his voice.

Hey, is there any way that we could turn this on? This is, it keeps falling, and I don't know what's going on with it.

Pray that we get another headset. Check, check, all right.

Sorry about that. It kept throwing me off. 3b, the sheep hear his voice.

They hear the voice, excuse me, they hear his voice in the message of the gospel.

Now, this must be seen in two ways. We first have to see this in the old covenant, the earthly kingdom.

Those like Abraham who believed the promises were given righteousness on credit.

The second way we have to see this is from the time of Jesus, when Jesus first entered into creation until his second coming, those of us who believe in the fulfilled promise are debited, did

I say that right? Debited with credit. Old covenant, they are credited with righteousness.

You and I are debited with righteousness. So credit versus debit, right?

To have something on credit is to borrow something you do not possess.

And to have something in debit is to spend what you possess, right?

Jesus Christ did not come and was not born, from what

I understand when I read, he was not born until about two or three

BC that would put his baptism at 27 AD and his death right around 30

AD. 30 AD, Christ dies for the sin. The new covenant, the covenant of grace is inaugurated.

So this righteousness that Abraham had was on credit. The payment had not been made until Christ came and paid the payment.

And now that he has paid the payment, when you and I believe it was already applied, like it was already there, it was something that we already had in our account.

You say, how is it already in our account? Because we are the elect of God. The elect of God in the

Old Testament were on credit. The elect of God now, present tense, is not borrowed.

It's already in our account. The payment has been made. The Old Covenant, they had to hear the promise, which is the voice of the shepherd.

And in the New Covenant, we have to hear the fulfilled promise, which is the voice of the shepherd.

Both Old Covenant and New Covenant are done through the preaching of the gospel.

Again, let's read all of verse three. To him, speaking of Jesus, the gatekeeper, which is the

Holy Spirit, opens the sheep, hear his voice, this preaching of the gospel, and he calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out.

And what we have here, as the Holy Spirit is watching over this sheepfold, which is

God's elect from the Old Covenant, the earthly kingdom people, is that the

Holy Spirit was watching over God's elect. From the time of the seed of the woman, the

Holy Spirit was watching over God's elect all the way until Jesus enters in through the door, and he calls them by name, through his life, death, burial, and resurrection.

The Holy Spirit is watching over God's elect. And we know that the

Holy Spirit is doing this, he's done the same thing for the New Covenant believers. Even kids that have not been born yet who are the elect of God, you can trust that the

Holy Spirit is watching over them. They're not a part of this foe that we see in the

Old Covenant, but there's another foe, verse 16, and Jesus must bring this sheep into his own.

The Holy Spirit is watching over God's elect even before they heard the voice of the shepherd.

The voice of the shepherd brings God's elect out of the Old Covenant and into the

New Covenant, out of the old earthly kingdom and into the new heavenly kingdom.

The Old Covenant saints were looking to a promised covenant, the covenant of grace, and are brought out of the

Old Covenant and placed into the New Covenant by the blood of Jesus, by the payment, by the propitiation.

You and I, the Gentiles, the other sheep, the elect of God, are brought out from underneath our first federal head,

Adam, and are placed in the New Covenant by the blood of Jesus, by the payment, by the propitiation.

We broke God's law. Old Covenant, whether you're an earthly kingdom people or the

Gentiles who are born under Adam, were born in sin, were born totally depraved, following the prince and the power of the earth, following the devil, living for him, doing his will, while thinking that we're trying to fulfill our own needs, we're actually doing what the devil wants us to do, the

Bible tells us, then the payment is made. The payment is made.

That propitiation is how you and I have peace with God because of what he has done and our faith in what he has done, not trying to keep the law to get to him, but trusting in what he has done.

That is the payment. That is how we are made right with God. There is no other way to get to the

Father outside of Jesus Christ. And if you have not entered through that door, which is

Christ, you are spiritually blind. But if you have entered through that door, which is

Christ, you have spiritual sight, and in closing, during the preaching of the gospel, if you are one of his sheep, you can trust that the

Holy Spirit has been watching over you. And you can trust that during the preaching of the gospel, if you're one of his sheep, he is calling your name.

He is speaking your name. He is calling you by name, this text says. He says, the sheep hear my voice, and he calls his own by name, and he leads them out.

Now, that still applies whether it's speaking to the Jews or to the Gentiles, because we are born under the federal headship of Adam.

We have fallen in Adam. And when the gospel message is being preached, you can have two things you can know for sure.

If you are the elect, his Holy Spirit's been watching over you. And if you are the elect, he is calling your name.

And when you believe in him, that Holy Spirit that's been watching over you enters into you, dwells within you for the rest of your life.

So the call is to repent and believe. You say, how do

I do that? It's that you stop trusting in yourself. Same thing I've been saying through this whole message.

You don't trust in yourself. You're not trying to climb over the wall of the law, but you trust in Jesus Christ.

You believe that Jesus Christ lived the life that you could not live, died the death that you deserve, rose on the third day, and he lives forevermore.

That's how you follow the shepherd. I'm available. We are available to anyone. Let's pray.

Father, Lord, I thank you for your word, even the most complicated portions of scripture, but we just ask for your grace and mercy to be upon this church.

And Lord, as we enter into this time to where we partake in the meal, we ask that you bless it.

We ask that if there's any here that's been actively living in sin and they're refusing to repent,

God, that you will not let them partake in this meal. But Lord, as it stands, all of us have sinned this week.

All of us have broken your law in one way or the other. And Lord, we just pray that you give us grace, that you give us what we don't deserve, and that's forgiveness.

We pray that you have empowered those that are here that have broken your law covenant,

Lord, to confess their sins, and that way that as they partake, they can have a clean conscience knowing that they are forgiven of their unrighteousness.

And Lord, we do ask again that you use this meal to grow us in holiness.