Let us hear God's word in the gospel according to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. We'll read from the beginning to the end of verse 21. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. And he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father." There was a division, therefore, again among the Jews for these sayings. And many of them said, he hath a devil and is mad. Why hear ye him? Others said, these are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? Amen. May God bless to us that reading from his own holy word. Let us read again in John chapter 10 and verse 10. John 10 verse 10. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Christ's salvation takes away from us. It subtracts. It leaves us with less. That's a good thing because Christ's salvation takes away bad things. It subtracts damaging things from us. It leaves us with less that is hurtful to us. It takes away our sin. Christ takes away our condemnation. He takes away our deserved judgment and hell. He takes away eternal death. Who wants any of these things? These are good things to lose. These are good things to have taken away from us. But Christ's salvation also adds. It increases, it improves. And that in many, many ways. Christ's salvation adds peace. It adds righteousness. It adds joy. It adds salvation. It adds justification. It adds adoption. And maybe summed up here in this verse, it adds life. It adds life and no ordinary life, but rather abundant life. Jesus here answers the question, why did I come to this earth? Why am I here? And many people give many different answers to that question. They say Christ came to teach, he came to do good, he came to help the poor, but he did far more than that. As he says here, so emphatically, I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. I'd like to look at this tonight, a very positive salvation. Sometimes we can focus a lot on the negative, on what has been taken away. But tonight, let's look at the other side of that, on the positive side of salvation. What kind of life does he give? What kind of abundant life is being spoken of here? Well, first of all, it's abundant spiritual life. Abundant spiritual life. We need that because we are spiritually dead. That's how the Bible describes us, dead in trespasses and sins. We're not weak, we're dead. We're not sick, we're dead. We're not drowning, we're drowned. Some people depict a lost sinner as somebody who is cast overboard and who's floating in a stormy sea. And here comes a life belt of the gospel to be thrown to them and just reach out and grab it. But a dead person can't grab anything. The Bible does not depict us as drowning but able to grab a life belt. It depicts us as drowned, as face down, lung filled, cold, lifeless, dead. We don't need a life belt. We need a life guard and a life belt and mouth to mouth or spirit to spirit resuscitation. And that's what Jesus says he has come to do and to give and to be. Jesus is the lifeguard, the life belt, and the one who gives spirit to spirit resuscitation. That's what he says, I have come that they might have life. Jesus did not come to simply make us know that we're dead in trespasses and sins. He didn't come simply to remind us of our deadness. He didn't come to, as it were, kick our corpses. He didn't come to sink us deeper. He came to rescue, he came to raise us up, he came to put life into our corpses. You know, it's astonishing to think that when we're born into this world and as we grow up, without conversion, the largest part of us is dead. the largest, the most significant, the most important part of humanity is dead in us, our souls. We've got physical life for sure, but as a percentage of our being, physical life is really much smaller than the spiritual part of us. This is what Jesus came to revive in us, to resurrect in us. Spiritual life, what is spiritual life? Well, it's a spiritual liveliness. It's spiritual activity that wasn't there before. It's an ability to believe in Jesus Christ. It's an ability to repent of our sins. Spiritual life involves loving Jesus, communing with Jesus, hearing Jesus speak to us through his word. Involves communion with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Involves every one of these spiritual activities, none of which we are able to experience without Jesus giving us life. But he says, that's why I've come. That's your great need and that's my great mission. That's my great purpose. That's my great ambition. This is my passion. I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. He comes with the greatest supply for our greatest need. You know, spiritual life is a dimension of living that we can know nothing about until we have it. How much did you know about physical life before you were born into this world? How much did you know about what it meant to live physically? as a human being in this world before you were born, knew nothing. We all knew nothing. We had to live the life. We had to grow up a bit before we had any idea of what it meant to be physically alive. And that's exactly the same with spiritual life. You cannot know what it's like until you have it. You can be studying the Bible. You can be doing catechism, confession of faith. You can even be preaching the Bible and know nothing about spiritual life. You can preach on prayer and know nothing about true prayer. You can preach on faith and yet you've never actually put faith in Christ. Those of you here tonight who are still dead in sins, you know nothing. You know nothing about what it means to be spiritually alive. That there's a whole dimension of life that you've not even dipped your toe into. A vast expanse of human experience that's still alien to you. You may think you know because you've been looking on from the outside, but you don't really know. And you never will until Jesus gives you life. And you say, well, if I'm dead then You know, I can't do anything about it. Oh, yes you can. Imagine if you found a drowned person on the shore of Lake Michigan, and you were told that there's somebody in Michigan that if you dragged that corpse to, they would be able to bring them back to life again. What would you do? Would you just wait till that person somehow appeared one day? Would you stand there and maybe pray the person would appear? You wouldn't, would you? You'd grab that corpse, you'd put it over your shoulder, and you'd make your way to that address, that house, that person, and say, keep your promise, do what only you can do, give life to this dead person. And also with the knowledge that no one who's ever been taken to them has been left dead. Well, similarly, we can take our dead souls, our drowned souls, physically, with our physical life, we can, as it were, put our soul corpse over our shoulder and bring it to Jesus and put it in front of him and say, Lord Jesus, I've got a dead soul. I've got a soul that knows nothing about spiritual life. But I read in your word that you're the life giver. that you can not only put life into this soul, but abundant life. And I read in your word that no one who's ever come to you, you've turned away. That's what you can do. And if you really appreciated how dead you are, this is what you would do. Have you ever appreciated how much of a life giver Christ is? This is what you would be doing. And you'd give him no rest until he breathed into your soul and said, live. He is the life guard, the life belt, the life giver. He gives abundant spiritual life. but he also gives abundant intellectual life. Some people say, you know, you become a Christian, you've got to park your brain at the door. You become a Christian, you really have to stop thinking. You really lost your mind when you become a Christian. That's what we're told, isn't it? That's what we hear from many educators and scientists and philosophers and media figures. To become a Christian is intellectual suicide. Well, it's far, far, far from the truth. It's quite the reverse, actually. Ligonier ministries have a motto, and it's this, renewing your mind. It's a biblical phrase. And that's what Christianity is about. It's about renewing our minds. The Bible speaks of it as an enlightening. It's as if we, prior to conversion, we've been walking around in the dark. And in conversion, the light goes on. And it's as if you get a whole new mind. We're given new subjects to study that we never even thought existed before. We're given God to study, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, inexhaustible subjects. We're given the great doctrines of the Bible to study, justification, sanctification, adoption, glorification. We're given the human heart to study, human nature. We're given the Old Testament and the New Testament. We're given church history and apologetics and ethics and just a vast range of subjects that the vast majority of this world are completely ignorant of. Especially those who say they've rejected Christianity. They know nothing about what they've rejected, usually. A lot of Christians will tell you when they're converted, it's truly as if they've been given a new mind. They've been given new abilities to think, new energy in their thinking, new ways of thinking. They see things differently. They're able to reason and to use logic and to ask the right questions and give the right answers in ways that They just never knew possible before. They are truly renewed in their minds. The darkness has passed and the light is on and shining. They're given, the Christian is given, what would you say, new glasses, new way of viewing everything. When you're converted, the world looks different. A tree looks different, a flower looks different, a bird looks different, clouds look different, people look different, the whole globe looks different. It's as if you've been given just new eyesight, new mindsight, new insight, new perception, new abilities to discern and perceive and analyze. You hear lectures and you read books and you watch the media and you do it all differently. There's a whole new intellectual life, a whole new mentality. Child reading looks different. Politics looks different. The subjects we teach and we learn look different. Our workplace looks different. Even The very people who live next door to us look different, and we're seeing them with new eyes, with a new mind. We're also given new intellectual challenges. Before we're converted, it's just, well, I do what I want and what I feel, and with not really much thought of what lies ahead. But you become a Christian, you realize, I've got to do God's will. It's much more challenging. I need to search the scriptures. to pray, I need to seek the Holy Spirit to understand providence. When it comes to picking a wife, or a husband, or a job, or a house, or a church, or facing difficulties in relationships, and in the family, and in business, it's all very different. It's so much more challenging, because I've got to bring the Word in, and I've got to bring the Holy Spirit in, and it's not just my whim, and my desire, and my power. That's extremely challenging. We're given a new worldview, a new framework. Before we're converted, we might have known lots and lots about lots and lots, but we didn't really know how all the lots fitted together. There was no real structure or framework to the way that we thought and reasoned. But now, now we see We see that everything does fit. We see the relationships between things. We see the relationship between everything and God. He has come to give us abundant intellectual life, an abundant mental life, a new mind, a new way of thinking and seeing and reasoning and concluding. Again, it's just another dimension. that's thrilling, that's exciting, that's enjoyable, and that's satisfying. Maybe, again, the young people here, you're in school and college and universities and further studies, and it's also maybe, well, you hope it's interesting and it's exciting, at least at times, but all these subjects just pale They just go into the shadows when seen in the light of this book and all that it teaches us. But Jesus also gives us thirdly abundant emotional life. He came to give us abundant feelings. Again, this seems so counter-cultural. You hear people today, they think of Christians as maybe very unfeeling, or maybe very monotone in their feelings. It's all gloom and doom and sadness and sorrow. Of course, there is that aspect of the Christian life. There's sorrow for sin. But, When Christ comes into our life with his life, there's a whole new range of emotions that we experience and that we begin to enjoy. Jesus came to purify our emotions, to heighten them, to sensitize them, to elevate them, to deepen them, to widen them. And yes, the negative emotions are certainly deepened. We do feel more sorrowful about our sins. We do feel sadder when we see evil in this world and we see loved ones especially making wrong choices. These are far more painful for the Christian than the non-Christian. But there are positive emotions that, like Paul says, I'm sorrowful yet always rejoicing. There's a joy that comes into the Christian. The joy of knowing the forgiveness of sins. The joy of knowing I am a child of God. The joy of knowing that I have an assurance of eternal salvation. The joy of hearing God speak to me through his word. The joy of communion. There's peace. peace of conscience. Some of us can maybe remember, prior to conversion, the pain of a prickly conscience. It was like having a porcupine inside our heads or hearts. And it just, wherever we turned, we would feel it piercing, jagging, reminding of what we've done and what that deed will deserve down the line. And when Christ comes in his life, he comes with peace. He takes the pins out of the porcupine. He makes the conscience be at peace, to be smooth, to be calm. His blood gives that peace, that passes understanding. It removes that fear, that sense of what I deserve and what's certainly coming, that's gone. The storm is changed into a calm at his command and will. I'm sure even the youngest person here, the youngest child knows what a guilty conscience is like. It's like having a hedgehog or a porcupine inside you, isn't it? And it keeps you awake at night and it spoils your happy moments, you remember. You can take that to Jesus and he can give you peace. a forgiveness that will take away all these fears and give you such calm. He gives you confidence. That's a wonderful emotion to have. I'm sure we've seen people whose lives have been really crippled by lack of confidence, just a painful shyness that really blights the whole life. Well, In salvation, Jesus comes into our lives and gives us confidence. Not an arrogance, not self-confidence, but a confidence based in his word that we can come boldly to the throne of grace. We can witness and preach boldly. We can face down the devil and his temptations boldly. That's a tremendous thing to have. That really transforms your life. to have that spiritual confidence as a base, as a foundation in everyday life. You kind of get used to it. You begin to realize you take it for granted. Then maybe the Lord will bring you through a season when he'll take away that emotion, that feeling of confidence and of assurance and boy, do you want it back again. And why will you not treasure it when you do? It's a life transforming feeling, so is hope, isn't it? Maybe again, some of you can remember, maybe some of you to this day are experiencing what it's like to every time look ahead and think there's no hope. Every time you think beyond today to tomorrow or down the years or especially to death, it's hopeless. I have no hope. So you don't think about it. I can't think about it. And then when Jesus comes and he gives you hope, hope in the midst of trouble, hope in the midst of darkness, hope of a brighter, better future, hope of life after death and that you have a title to it, that is so, it's such a metamorphosis in the soul that translates into physical health and well-being as well. This is what Jesus came to give, friends, an abundant emotional life. The best emotions at the highest levels and degrees. But he also came to give an abundant social life. I often hear We've often heard, I should say, over the years, people say, you know, if I become a Christian, I'll lose all my friends. You may well do. I did. And it was really the best day of my life because you gain far, far better friends. You enter a far better society. However much we want to maybe continue friendships with our unconverted friends, we wish it was possible, sometimes it is, but usually we drift apart. But it's more than made up for. We're given a divine friendship. Abraham was called a friend of God and so can you be called. And not just that, but Jesus calls you his friend as well. One of the really exciting things about friendship is how in the early days we learn so much about the other person, isn't it? We've got so much to find out about them. That's so interesting, so enjoyable, something new every day, but eventually that reduces and diminishes until there's not much new to find out. It's very important, by the way, young people, when you're thinking of marriage, that you don't commit to marriage until you get to that point. That you get past the initial thrill and excitement You get a kind of normality, but it's not so much about what that person has been and done, but what they actually are this day. You get to that point, but you never get to that point with God's friendship, because he's inexhaustible. He's infinite. You never get to that point where there's nothing new to learn or enjoy about him. And there are three infinite persons to find out about, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Three friendships to build and develop and enjoy and grow. Divine friendship. But we're also given, we're given, you might say, wide friendships. We're given through the gospel friendships with people we would never have made friends with in the past. In fact, that we might have actually hated in the past, that we might have despised. We may have been a racist before we're converted and then you're converted and you find yourself loving the people you hated. All the prejudices begin to be sanctified out of us. And this friendship, this Christian friendship and fellowship and family, it goes cross-race, cross-gender, cross-age, cross-culture, cross-language. It's the most wonderful family to be a part of, to friends in every part of the world, to friends of every color and culture and age. It's so, so satisfying. And they're not just wide friendships, they're deep friendships. It's not friendships based around the latest ball game or what's going on at work or the latest outfit you bought at the mall. This is deep friendship based on the deepest truths and the deepest spiritual experiences. Friendships that mean guys and women get together and they ask, did you see the game? Not, how's your health? We ask that, but we could pass that as, how's your soul? How are things between you and the Lord? How's your prayer life? How's your battle against sin going? These are deep things, deep experiences, deep, deep friendships, satisfying friendships. Not at all in a superficial, shallow, artificial level. And they're long friendships. They're lifelong, eternity long. Even if the devil gets in and breaks up some of these friendships here in this world, in eternity, Christian friendships will be repaired and revived and renewed and build forever. They're generous friendships. You notice here in this verse, Jesus speaks of the thief who comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. He's talking primarily here about the Pharisees. But you know, he's really speaking of anyone that comes between you and Christ. Anyone. Anyone that comes between you and Christ is getting between you and life. Life abundant. Life eternal. Anyone that gets between you and Christ, no matter who or he or she is, can be described like this. They are stealing and they are killing and they are destroying. And here instead is Jesus who says, I've come that you might have life. and that you might have it more abundantly. Abundant social life. But also there's abundant physical life. The Bible teaches us that if we live by God's word and the biblical morality of this book, then in general we will live longer and healthier lives. Exodus 20, Proverbs 3. Of course there are exceptions. But in general terms, Christians who live by this book will live longer and healthier. Jesus came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. That includes physical life, but of course it's not limited to this world. We will all eventually die. We will all decay. We will all grow weak eventually. So where's the promise then? It's at resurrection, isn't it? It's at resurrection. Abundant physical life at resurrection. Where the perfected soul will be joined together with a perfected body. What will that be but life and life abundant? Sometimes you watch teenagers playing soccer or whatever and you look at them and you think, I wish I could play like that again. Or I wish I could even look like that again. I wish I could feel like that again. And you know you never will. And we won't. We'll actually feel better. We'll look better. Teenagers level, we're setting the bar too low. There's something far better. than the prime of human life here on this earth to look forward to. There's resurrection life, when the physical body that we have will be transformed. In every way we'll have the agility of the gymnast, there'll be an Olympic physique. The agility of a gymnast, the speed of the sprinter, the endurance of the marathon runner, the power of the weightlifter, the accuracy of the marksman. We have all these extreme heights of human physicality joined with the extreme heights of human spirituality. Then, more than any other time, will this verse be fulfilled. I am come, that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. You can just almost hear, can't you, Jesus on that day as he joins together these decomposed, decrepit bodies with these souls that he has glorified and putting them together and saying, this is what I came for. This is what I came to do. This is my joy and my delight. This is life. Life abundantly. Jesus gives life abundantly. Abundant spiritual life. Abundant intellectual life. Abundant emotional life. Abundant social life. Abundant physical life. And abundant eternal life. All these lives that Jesus gives us throughout eternity will continue to grow and develop in all these realms and all these dimensions, spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, socially, physically, and that forever. Sometimes when we talk of eternal life, our focus is on eternal, the foreverness, but really, the biblical focus is on the life word. It's not so much the quantity, but the quality that's the emphasis. When we see someone die, we say he's dead. But at exactly, at exactly the same time, if they're a Christian, that person is saying, I'm alive. I'm alive in a way I've never been before. In fact, so alive that it feels as if I've been dead all these years. That's how great the leap is at death. We hear sometimes in this political season of different candidates getting bumps in the polls, they get a bump from the convention, they get a bump from Hurricane Sandy or whatever, little two, 3% bumps in the graph. This is not a bump. This is off the graph. This is in another dimension. This is the abundant life at its fullest. This is what your departed Christian loved ones are experiencing, friends. Think of it. Think of the spiritual life, the intellectual life, the emotional life, the social life, the physical. No, that's still to come, isn't it? But it will come. Then it truly will be life abundantly. Notice later on in this chapter, Jesus says, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. See how abundant this life is? It's immense, isn't it? It's immeasurable and it's immediate. It begins immediately. He breathes life into your soul. But you know there's a price to pay for this life. And it's his life. Here in Verse 11, straight after this he says, I'm the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And again in verse 17, therefore doth my father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. Verse 15, I lay down my life for the sheep. Our abundant life is bought by his abundant death. We get abundant life because he abandoned his life for his sheep. There's a huge price paid to purchase this life that you might live. What's your response? When you hear of this life and you see the price that's been paid, what do you say? What do you pray? How do you react? Is it give me this life. Breathe into my soul. Resurrect me from the dead. He has never turned away a sinner that's come to him with that prayer. He's promised that him that comes to me, I will never cast out, never. If you don't have life tonight, it's your fault. It's your fault. In John 5 verse 40, Jesus spoke to the unconverted of his own day and he said, you will not come to me that you might have life. You Here he's saying, I am come, that you might have life, and they're saying, I will not come, that I might have life. What's Jesus doing here? Is he giving an excuse here for you to lean on? Oh, well, see, he says, you will not come to me, and it's my will, and is he giving you an excuse, you think? He's not. He's doing the exact opposite. He's heaping weight of responsibility upon you. He's saying you will. No, it's not we. I was in a dispute recently and a friend said to me, you know, David, in a dispute, it's never 100% on one side and 0% on the other. Maybe 50-50. Usually, even in the worst case, when you're least at fault, it's at least seven or 8% on your side and 93% on the other. I think that's true of most human disputes, but not in this dispute. Not in this dispute. Jesus says 100% of the blame is yours if you don't have life. Don't think you're going to turn up on judgment day and say, well, you know, we didn't really get it together, did we? Do you think Jesus is going to come back and say, well, you know, you're 50% to blame, I was 50%. Well, you're nine three and I'll take seven, no. You are 100% to blame, responsible, culpable. I am come that you might have life. You will not come that you might have life. It's clear, isn't it? There is no excuse to lean on. So friends, come to him. Come to him for this positive salvation. Come to him for this life. Come to him for this abundant life. A life more abundant than anyone else can give you. A life more abundant than you can ever imagine. A life more abundant than you deserve. He says that's why he's come. And he's asking you tonight, why won't you come? Why won't you take that corpse of a soul, put it over your shoulder and bring it to my feet and plead with me until I put breath in its being? Why won't you? What can possibly be holding you back? Why could you possibly say I don't want life? I don't want abundant life. I don't want eternal life. There's no rational excuse, is there? Let these words ring in your ear. Whenever you think of Jesus, think of this. I have come to give abundant life. Amen, let us pray. Life-giving God, look upon our deadness and breathe, blow with thy Holy Spirit this evening. Come and show, come and demonstrate the truth and the power of this verse again. Even in the most unexpected life here tonight, in the deadest of the dead, begin that life that will never ever end. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.