Look at John chapter 10. I'm going to read verses 1 to 16 here this evening as I continue in that series of the of the I Am's of the Lord. And the title of the message tonight is Christ the Good Shepherd. Christ the Good Shepherd. John chapter 10, verse 1 to 16. When you find your place, stand with me if you would. I'm going to read the word of God here together this evening. Go through a few things. I pray to be a blessing to you. John chapter 10 verse 1. The Bible says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold will climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the border openeth, and the sheep hear his voice. And he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 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, and 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 mine, and might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He that isn't howling and not the shepherd who's on the sheep or not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth, and the wolf catches them and scattereth the sheep. Howling fleeth because he isn't howling, careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of my sheep. Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And of the sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. They shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this evening. We thank God for your blessings tonight. Lord, I pray you help us as we have now read your word. Lord, that you would just open it up to us, and Lord, help us to Behold, wonderful things. Lord, I pray that you would just help me as I preach tonight. Lord, just fill me with your spirit. And Lord, just help me to say that which you laid on my heart for this evening, for this time and this hour. God, I pray that you would just move in our midst and just do something tremendous in our lives tonight. We love you and thank you for all of this we pray and ask in Jesus name. Amen. And our message this evening we see, of course, the The great IM, we've covered a few of these IM's already here tonight. We see Christ the Good Shepherd. in the I Am's. And in our text this evening, of course, we see the Lord Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd. Of course, knowing that there's no one good but God, the Bible says in Mark 10, 18, Jesus said to the man who saved him, he says, why callest thou me good? Now he says, there's none good but one, and that is God. And of course, he calls himself the Good Shepherd. Why? Because he's God, and because he's good. And so he acknowledges to him, to everyone else that listen, there's no one good than God, but I'm the good shepherd. And so just telling everybody to listen, showing them that he is God and that he is good. In the Bible, he calls himself the good shepherd. And we see here in our text, it's seen in a good number of things. that have been, that we've read tonight that describe what the good shepherd does. Now, we can see there in verse one, Jesus says, barely, barely, I say unto you, he that entereth in by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. The sheepfold there is a good picture. Now really, we can see this as a good picture tonight of just the, the body of Christ in essence. The one that enters in by the wrong way, which he says some other way, is a thief and a robber. Now, we think about the thieves and the robbers. Now, these thieves and robbers, what are something distinctly about them that we understand? The thieves and the robbers are only going to enter into a place where there's something that's valuable, something that is worthwhile. And of course, that's what these sheep are. These sheep are valuable, and the things that they have are valuable. You say, what's valuable about them, their eternity? Listen, the devil would love nothing more than to take a man to a devil's hell, amen. The devil would love nothing more than to come in and lead people astray. And just to take people to a devil's hell messes your soul is extremely vital. The Bible, Jesus said, what shall I proclaim? And he came to all the world and lose his own soul. And so the thieves and the robbers, which typify, which is a picture of, of course, false teachers, yes, but also the demonic energy, the devil that's behind it all, how they seek to lead people astray. And so they come in because there's something to spy on. The robber doesn't go to a house or a thief doesn't go to a house where there's something that's not worthwhile or something valuable there. No, they go because there's something that is worthwhile, something valuable. And so we see that the reason why they come in is because they see something that is valuable. Also, robbers, listen, they don't want to be noticed. So what do they do? They go another way. They don't come through the door. And so a robber just comes in another way. They don't want to be seen. Their cover wouldn't be blown. And so the idea is to come in a different way, not through the door, not through the right way, but come through another way. We also see that, listen, when you come, when you climb up, notice the Bible tells us there in the text that when you think about this, when you think about these thieves and robbers, The Bible says he climbeth up but some other way, the same as a thief and the robber. Now, it's easier to come through the door. I mean, that is the clearest, most obvious, easiest, recognized, authorized way. But the thief and the robber, they come in different ways. And the purpose is, as we've said, well, for one, there's something that's valuable. Two, there's something they want to take. But number three, think about this. Isn't it a whole lot more difficult to try to climb up some other way that it is just to go through the door. And you say, yes, it is. It's a whole lot harder to do that. Now, you know, it's interesting the effort that the thieves and the robbers will go to to take and steal the things that they desire. So we see here tonight the Lord Jesus just painting a picture of what it's like out there in the world, that we must be careful. And because there are thieves and robbers, and there are people that are doing everything they can to lead people astray, their desire, of course, energized by the devil, which is to lead you away from one purpose so that you will die alone, so that you will not know the answer, so that you will not know the right way. And so the desire is to have as many robbers and as many thieves out there as, of course, as possible. But in the midst of all of this, we do have some great statements. We hear the Lord Jesus say, listen, in the midst of the thieves and robbers, he says, there's something that you do have. And what is that? And that is a good shepherd. And the good shepherd has some things about him that'll be a blessing to us tonight. You say, well, what is that? The good shepherd, number one, the very first truth is in the midst of the thieves and the robbers, in the midst of all of this, the Bible tells us that we have a good shepherd that is personal. A good shepherd, that is number one there, is personal with his sheep. Notice there in verse three, the Bible says to him, talking about the shepherd, to him the porter openeth and the sheep hear his voice. Now kind of going back to last week, we was talking about how we need to block out the noises of the world and listen to the voice of God. The Bible says here that the sheep hear his voice. One of the things that we understand here this evening, listen man, we have the Word of God here tonight, right? This right here in essence to us would be the voice of God to our hearts tonight. We want to know what God's speaking to us about. We want to hear the voice of the Lord. What I would say, we would open up His Word and let God speak to us. I want to speak, you know, and people say, well, I just want to hear the Lord. I need some guidance and I need some direction. And when we open up the Word of God and God is speaking to us, speaking to us and the Bible says that one of the things that we can that we have about this great shepherd and we see that he is personal to us and the Bible says that he hears his voice and he called it his own sheep by name. So the Bible says says this there in verse 3, he is a personal a personal shepherd. In the Near East, we understand that the shepherds that went out there, if you've been familiar with shepherding or anything like that, now it has been said that the shepherds could go out there to their sheep and they could actually just call out to the sheep. And the sheep, even if the sheep were in mingled company, the sheep knew the voice of their shepherd. And even if we had a whole bunch of sheep that were together, the shepherd would come up here and call out to his sheep and the sheep that were mailed with the others would come over here to where their shepherd was. How amazing is that? That we have a shepherd tonight and that we have a shepherd tonight that calls out to us, but also a sheep that's willing to listen and ready to listen to his voice. Because in essence, it really For the sheep to come out of here to where the shepherd is at, listen, the sheep must be listening to the shepherd's voice. The Bible says, it shows us that the shepherd, he calls out to the sheep. And I'm glad that we have a God in heaven that calls out to his sheep tonight. The word of God that we have right here in our hands tonight, that is the shepherd, the voice of the great shepherd that calls out to us. And aren't you glad that we can hear the voice of the shepherd at any time, at any moment, no matter what time of the day it is, no matter what's going on in life. At any time, we can hear the voice of the shepherd in our life. And the Bible says he calls out to us. We have a shepherd that cares for us. He says, cast all your care for me because I care for you. And so a shepherd that calls out to his people. But not only that, but as he's calling, we see that the sheep, like we talked about last Wednesday night, that they must be ready and they must be listening. to the shepherd's voice, or they won't go where they need to go. They won't be where they need to be. And so when the shepherd is calling out, the sheep must make sure that in the midst of all the other noise that they hear, that they're listening to the shepherd's voice so that they know where to go, so they know what to do, so they know where to move, so we can see a personal Not only is he a great shepherd, but he is a personal shepherd. He knows our life. The Holy Spirit of God lives and dwells within us. He has an intimate knowledge of who we are and all of our thoughts and the things that we need in life. He knows our hurts. He knows our sorrows. He knows our joys and delights in life. We have a personal shepherd that we can spend time with. A personal shepherd that calls out to us. not just from the hilltops, but one that will walk with us in the valleys of the shadow of death. We have a shepherd that is willing to be with us and spend time with us, one that cares for his people and desires to have fellowship with him. In verse 14, notice the Bible says, Jesus said, I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and have known a body. He says, not only do I know them, but they know me. Not only do I know them, but they know me. So we have a shepherd tonight that is personal with his sheep. Listen, there's a lot of things in this world that other people may never know about us. There's a God in heaven that looks down and can see every fault that we have and notice the intimate details of our life and as I said our joys and delights but also our pains and sorrows and our struggles and all these different things. A God in heaven that has an intimate knowledge of everything. that is going on, a God that can reach down inside of us and can work on us, a God that can give us the words that we need to hear. Listen, even when we can't respond back to God, the Bible says the Holy Spirit lifts up our prayers as our heart. In essence, we can't get into words, but as our heart, it just groans up towards God. God says, in essence, listen, I can hear the groaning of your spirit. I know you can't get it in the words, but I can hear the groaning of your spirit tonight. A personal shepherd, a personal shepherd, a shepherd that knows every single one, a shepherd that knows every single one by name. The Bible says there in verse three, he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. God knows who every single one is. He's a personal shepherd. The second truth is not only do we have God as a personal shepherd, that He is the Good Shepherd, but He's also, but the Good Shepherd is also, we also see the second truth is the Good Shepherd purges the sheep. Not only is the Good Shepherd personal with his sheep, but the Good Shepherd purchased his sheep. Notice there in verse 4, the Bible says, he called up his own sheep by name and led them out. Why? Because the Bible says that they are his. In order for them to be his, he had to purchase them. Notice there in verse 4, and when he put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them. So there in verses 3 and 4, we see that the Bible says, shows us that they belong to Him. We have a God in Him, a purchaser, one who has died for us. We're getting ready to celebrate the resurrection here soon. And then we see that the Lord Jesus, He went to an old rugged cross. He died. He bled and shed His blood for us. And three days later, He rose again. The Bible shows us that He purchased us. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 19 to 20. The Bible says, what? That you not that your body is in which is in you, which you have of God. You are not your own, for you are bought with a price. You have not your own, you are not your own, but you are bought with a price. We are a purchase possession of the shepherd tonight. And because we, and the fact that we belong to him shows us here this evening that God has a desire to do something with his sheep. And one of those things is to have a personal relationship with his sheep. But we see that we became that way because of course he purchased us. How did Christ purchase us? Through his shed blood. We have a personal shepherd, but we also see that the good shepherd purchased his sheep. There in verse three and verse four, the Bible says he calleth his own sheep by name. Not only that, not only do we see a good shepherd that purchased But we see a good shepherd that protects his sheep. Take a look at verse 11 and 12. The Lord Jesus says, I am the good shepherd and the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is in Ireland and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and leatheth. The wolf catches him and scatters the sheep. But we see and understand that the Lord, speaking of himself, says, I'm the good shepherd. Listen, the shepherd protects the sheep. Why? Because the shepherd has a lot invested. But what did the shepherd do? Well, the shepherd died for the sheep, did he not? He gave himself for the sheep. He has a relationship with the sheep. He has invested there in the sheep. He provides for the sheep. He nourishes the sheep. And so he protects the sheep. that he has, they belong to him. And since they belong to him, he protects them. There in verse 12, he makes the difference between what the shepherd does and what the hireling does. See, the hireling is only there because he's just, he's there just to take what the shepherd, what the flock can give him. But he says to the shepherd, listen, when the shepherd, he's there, he lays down his life with his sheep. He invests in the sheep. He loves the sheep. He gives the sheep all that he has. He said, but the hireling comes in. He's not the shepherd, but the hireling comes in. And he says, when the wolf comes, and listen, when danger approaches and things get difficult, his desire is not to hang around and stick it out, but to leave and run out the door. Why is that? Because he's just a hireling. He's only there because he's a hireling. But he says, the shepherd comes in and he loves the sheep. And he has a relationship with the sheep and he lays down his life for his sheep. And by his life, what he did was he protected the sheep and provided a way for us to go to heaven. But we see that he protects his sheep. Notice in verse 15, the Bible says, he says, as the father knoweth me, even so I the father, and I lay down my life for See, the shepherd does far different than what the paladin is going to do and does far different than what the thieves and the robbers will do. The shepherd protects his sheep. The fourth truth is here tonight and we see the good shepherd. Not only does the good shepherd protect his sheep, but the good shepherd perceives his sheep. Notice there in verse three. The Bible says, to him the door openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and he leadeth them out. We can see the procession of the shepherd in front of his sheep. The shepherd's going out, and he's leading his sheep. That's what the shepherd does. He goes out, and he leads his sheep. He goes out, and he guides them. directs them for what purpose? Well, the Bible says, so it says there in verse 10. He says, I have come to the mind that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. What is one of the shepherd's goals? The shepherd's goal is to lead people to life. The Lord Jesus, of course, talking about himself. Not only is he the door, but he is the shepherd and he is the one that is leading them to life. All other folks, listen, they're, they're trying to, they're trying to climb up some other way. He says, well, listen, you got to come through the door and you got to, and you got to listen to the voice of the good shepherd. The good shepherd knows the way the good shepherd is leading the sheep in the right direction and his desires to leave them in a place that is going to be abundant and live an abundant life. So we see that the shepherd proceeds as sheep. He goes out in the front, he guides and he directs and his goal is to lead them to a place that is an abundant life, away from the dangers, just like the shepherd would do. He would go out in front of his flock and when he sees anything out there that's not good for them or not right for them, he would lead them in a different direction. Oh, that place is too small. And that place is too dark. And that place is too bad. And so we're going to go this way. And the sheep follow the voice of the shepherd. And then the shepherd may perhaps see another place. He says, no, it can't go in that direction. And so he goes this way. And the flock follows him this way. Why? Because the flock, they understand that they can trust the shepherd. And the shepherd is ready to lay down his life for the sheep. He knows. He knows. Listen, he knows his sheep. know Him and He is leading them in the right direction. And so He precedes His sheep. The Bible says there in verse 3 that He leads, that He leads them out. Notice there in verse 9, He says that they shall go out and do what? Go out and in and out and find pasture. That is His goal. to lead them to a life that is more abundant, to bring them to a place of pasture, to bring them to a place that is green and refreshing to their soul, to bring them to a place of rest in their life. And of course, you know, we cannot read this portion of scripture here without going to the book of Psalms. And so let's go to the book of Psalms real quickly and read just a little of Psalm 23. Bible teaches us in Psalm 23, the Lord of course is my what? He is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In other words, there's nothing that I shall be involved about. My shepherd provides me everything that I need. He goes out before me, he leads me, he provides me, he protects me, he knows my name, he knows what I'm going through, he knows where I'm at. And then he says there in the text, he says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And what does he do? He makes me to lie down and green pastures, not brown pastures, not in desert dirt places, but the Bible says there in verse 2, that he made me to lie down in green pastures, and he leadeth me where beside the still waters. Listen. God has a desire, not only to protect His people, but to lead them, to precede them, and bring them to a place that is going to help them in their spiritual lives. And the Bible shows us that He precedes His sheep, and by preceding His sheep, He also provides for His sheep, which is the next one. The Good Shepherd provides. for his sheep. He provides the green pastures here in verse nine. And in Psalm 23, he provides the green places and he leads his flock towards them. He maketh them to lie down in green pastures. You know, sometimes as sheep, we are so skittish that we don't want to lay down and get too comfortable. Sometimes as sheep, we're often hallucinating that there's so many predators out there that could come and They can come and take us away, but the Bible says He makes them to lie down. Even when it's kind of against their nature, they just want to, they're always alert. They're always looking around. It's hard for them to stay comfortable because they're always in fear that something's going to come get them. But the Lord has enabled them to have so much peace in their heart. They just lay down. Just lay down. It's going to be all right. Why? Because the good Shepherd's here. Because the good Shepherd's here. You can rest and you can lay down. You don't have to, you don't have to worry about this. You don't have to worry about this, but you can just lay down and that green pasture right there, he makes them to lie down. It's not something that they desire to do because they're so skittish, but he's able to make them to lie down in a place. The Bible says he leads them beside the still waters. So skittish that they don't even like the sound or the shine of even running water at times. So skittish that they're so skittish and so afraid of things and that even water that is running real, real, real, real fast. And that is something that they don't like. And so the Bible says, listen, I'm going to take you to a place that's steep. I'm going to bring you to a place by the sea of waters where there is no fear, where you can relax, where you can rest. That's the place the shepherd brings us to. So we see that the shepherd proceeds his sheep and the shepherd provides for his sheep, brings them to a place where they can be productive, brings them to a place that will help them. The sixth truth here tonight, we see the good shepherd offers peace for his sheep. He offers peace. Not only do we see that in Psalm 23, but I believe as we load through and we can see there in verse 19, we see that he shall go in and out and find pasture. We can see in verse 10, he says that they might have it more abundantly. We can see in verse 11 that of course he is the good shepherd and he's willing to give his life for the sheep so they know that they can trust in him. But we also get into verse 16 and the Bible says the Lord Jesus speaking He says, other sheep I have, speaking of the Gentiles, of course. He says, other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, this fold's the Jews. He says, but I must bring them in so that they can hear my voice, so we can put it all together. But it's that one fold and one shepherd. The Jews and the Gentiles coming together. One voice, one fold, and one shepherd. And he's letting them all know that I'm the one. that I'm the great shepherd of you all. So his desire is to bring peace between them, to bring peace and unity between them all, because there was so much strife between the Jews and the Samaritans, and so much strife between the Jews and the Gentiles and all of this, and the Lord Jesus is coming in, and he's saying, listen, I'm the good shepherd, listen, believe in me, and all of you can come together, united under one fold, hear one voice, You can all be the shepherd, you can all be the sheep of one shepherd. His desire was to bring them all together, to unify them all together as one. He provides and offers peace for his sheep. I'm thankful tonight that my Savior offers me so much, so many of the more things than I have that is listed here tonight. But I'm thankful that he is personal. I'm thankful that he has purchased me. I'm thankful that he protects me, that he precedes me, and that he provides me, and that he offers peace for me. A shepherd that offers and gives us so much. May as we leave this evening, take a thought of all the things that our shepherd provides for us, and why we would call him good. Because he provides so much more. Bible says he loves us daily with benefits. We think about how personal that he is with us and we can sit anywhere at any time and just call out to our God. It don't matter if we're at work, if we're at home, we're at church, wherever we can be, that we can spend personal time with God. We have a God that protects us, helps us in so many situations. We think about all the places and things that we've done in life If it was brought to light before us all the things that God has protected us from, it would probably blow all of our minds here tonight. All the times that God has kept us safe and all the times that God's done different things in our life, we have absolutely no idea what He's actually really done. Working behind the scenes, being the God that He is, sometimes we wonder, It's God moving, it's God working. And oftentimes there's so much that God is doing on the outside that we just don't even know. A shepherd that provides, a shepherd that proceeds, and a shepherd that gives peace to his sheep. If there is one thing that this world needs and one thing that we could use tonight in our life, it is definitely peace. And here tonight, I'm thankful that I made the greatest peace that I could ever make, and that was with God. You say, preacher, how'd you make peace with God? I made peace with God through his son, Jesus Christ. Because when I was lost, the wrath of God abided on me. But whenever I gave my life over to the Lord Jesus, and I was washed and cleansed by the blood of Christ, I then made peace with God. And when I made peace with God, I then had the peace of God. So here tonight, I'm thankful. to have the peace of God in mind. We continue to trust in the shepherd because we know He'll lead us. Even though we go through some dark places and some dark times and dark moments, even though we walk in the valley of the shadow of death, the Bible says, Thou art with me. Thou art with me. Let's pray. Follow me. Come to the seat of me. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness. We are thankful tonight for the great shepherd that we have. Thankful tonight, God, that you are so good to us. Lord, I pray that you would continue to bless the remainder of our evening. Lord, that you would keep us safe as we go home and go our separate ways. God, we pray that you would watch over us all. Give us a great rest of the week. And Lord, bring us back here to our next important time. In this we pray and ask