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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.
A Positive Salvation
| Sermon ID | 11212221780 |
| Duration | 48:27 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | John 10:10 |
| Language | English |
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