John 10: 9: "I am the Door."

The text has only  four words and only ten letters in all.

The first word has only one letter.
The second word has just two letters.
The third word has three letters.
The fourth word has four letters.

Yet, wrapped up in those  four words and ten letters is enough
to make any person satisfied in this world and safe for the next.

Here is one of those grand, wide sweeping  statements
that the Lord often made of Himself.
Here is another claim of His  deity.

Jesus delighted to choose commonplace things of life
as illustrations of His person and symbols of His power!

Jesus said, "I am  the bread."
He also said, "I am the water, "and also, "I am the light."

How remarkable that Christ should compare Himself
with things so simple, and yet so essential.

In our text we have one of those illustrations.
A door is a commonplace thing,
and a door of a sheepfold is  certainly a matter of fact,
and yet is absolutely essential for shepherds and their fold.

Some years ago, some Middle East travelers noticed a sheepfold,
which was a low wall, made of mud and stones.
But they were puzzled as to why there was no door
across the entrance of the sheepfold.

They asked the shepherd why there was no door.

The shepherd replied, "I am the door."

At night the shepherd would lie down in the entrance
so that no sheep  could get out unless he became aware of it.

Jesus said, "I am the door."

Christ is the only door!

Jesus did not say, "I am a door."
He said, "I am the door."

There is a vast difference between a  door and the door.
There is only one door into God's fold, and that door is Christ.
He is the only door.

"There is none other name given under heaven among men,
whereby we must be saved. "

Jesus said, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me."

Jesus is the only Saviour for sinning  men.
There is no other Saviour.

Near the deathbed of a man who had professed infidelity all his life,
and who belonged to the infidel club of his  city, was found this testimony:

"I've tried in vain a thousand ways,
My fears to quell, my hopes to raise;
But what I need, the Bible says,
Is ever, only Jesus."

There are many trying, as he did, the thousand ways,
but we must come to the place, as he did,
where we recognize and gladly confess that Christ is the only way.

So many are trying religion,
and others are trying respectability,
and some are trying reformation,
but all these will not avail.

Christ is the only door!

Oh, that we could get people's minds  off of rituals,
and of their own deeds and vain hopes,
and look to Christ who died for their sins and rose again for their justification.

Only Jesus can help helpless sinners.

"My only hope must be in Jesus,
To lose the burden of my sin;
There is no other power to help me,
Anew in Christ I must  begin.

There is no other Saviour given,
No other hope beyond the grave;
No other Name in earth or heaven,
Thy guilty, dying soul to  save."

Christ is the only door!

Christ is also the open  door!

Christ is the entrance.
He is the open door.
He is the open door that no man can shut.

After all these years, the Door is still open  today.

Only God knows how soon the door will shut,
and then no more sheep will enter the fold.

The thought of the open door gives us the picture of  Christ
standing with open arms and pierced hands, tenderly saying, "Come!"

D. L. Moody told the story of a Scotch girl who wandered away  from God,
and from her father and mother, and went deeply into sin.

One night in a wild frenzy in the city of Edinburgh,
she concluded that she would commit suicide.
But before doing so, she would go and see her home once more.
She wanted to see her home where she was born and had spent her youth.

When she arrived at her neighborhood, it was in the middle of the night.
She came up to the gate of her home.
She lifted the latch and quietly entered the yard.

She walked up  the path until she came to the door of the cottage.
She was surprised to find the door wide open.

Afraid that some harm might have come to her elderly  mother,
she called to her mother, and her mother answered.
The girl said, "Mother, I found the door open."

The old, Scotch mother got up from her  bed and came downstairs.
She said, "Maggie, it's many a long day since you went away,
but always the prayer has been in my heart,
"Lord, send her  home."

The mother’s prayer continued,
"Whether she come by night or day,
I want her to see an open door and know she is welcome."

And that night the girl was held in her mother's arms of love and forgiveness,
This story pictures the love of God and God's great forgiveness.
By the open door of her mother's cottage,
she found her way to forgiveness and love.

The door is open.
The door is inviting and is welcoming.

Christ is the open door!

Now, let us consider some of the privileges
one enjoys who enters the door.

He finds Protection ("He shall be saved.")

Here we are  brought face to face
with the primary and fundamental need of people everywhere.

The gospel is the good news of salvation.
The person that  enters the door by faith will find:

Protection From the Pangs Of the Past.

God knows, and so do we, that we need just that.

The past is  like a nightmare.
It follows like a black shadow.
It rises like a black,  big hand in the night to terrorize and torment.
Memory haunts and threatens.

In every home there seems to be a skeleton in the closet -- a  relic of the past.
How great it is for someone to cleanse the stains and heal the hurts of yesterday.

But he, who by faith enters the door, finds the  past left behind.
The old is gone, and everything is new.

The blood of Christ blots out the darkest record in one stroke.

How often a person,  when thinking of his past, has said:

"I wish there were some wonderful  place,
Called the land of beginning again;
Where all our mistakes, and all  our heartaches,
And all of our poor selfish grief
Could be dropped like a  shabby old coat at the door,
And never put on any more."

Hallelujah! There is such a place!

Isaiah 43:25:
"I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake,
and will not remember thy  sins."

"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's  veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty  stains."

The Perils of the Present

Thank God, He blots out our past,  but He also stays with us in the present.
He saves us now!

All of us  need a Saviour just for today.
How blessed to be able to sing:

"Moment by moment I'm kept in His love,
Moment by moment I've  life from above."

These are difficult days.
These are days of  perplexity and days of deep depression.
Christ is just the Saviour we need for a day like this.

Storms of suffering and tempests of temptation may rage,
but  the Door of the fold stands between these things and the sheep of the flock,
and that Door is Christ Himself.

Jesus is the open Door of salvation,
but a  shut Door against the cold and the storm and the robber in the night.
He is a  daily Saviour.

He saves from the perils of the present.

"In the  calm of the noontide, in sorrow's lone hour;
In times when temptation cast  o'er me its power;
In the tempests of life, only its wide, heaving  sea,
Thou blest Rock of Ages, I'm hiding in Thee."

The Fear of the  Future

Christ saves from the past and for the present and from the  future.
In the more serious moments of life,
every person wonders what's ahead.
That is why so many hurry about.

They are buried in business, and plunged into pleasure
so that they may hide their eyes from the  future.
But it is there! The future is still there.

But you need not fear it.
You need not tremble at the thought of eternity,
if you have Christ  dwelling in your heart by faith.

Christ removes the menace of the  judgment.
There is no Black Friday ahead for the Christian.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."

"For I  am persuaded that neither death nor life..." (Romans 8: 35-39)

But there  is more than protection suggested by the text.

There Is Also  Privilege.

He shall go in and out.

There is privilege and liberty.
Only those who have been saved by Christ,
 and have come into the fold are really free.

The sheep, lost, out on the mountain,
near the yawning  gorge or the howling wolves, are not free.
It is the sheep of the flock that are free.

In Christ there is not only life; there is abundant life.
Liberty is found in Christ; life is slavery without Jesus.
No one is  really free unless Christ has shorn him of his shackles.
"He is a freeman  whom the Truth makes free, and all are slaves beside."

So, the text reminds us that we not only come in for salvation,
but we go out for service.
We go out into the world, the workplace, and the office for Christ.
There is liberty in the Lord.

The text also tells us that there is not only protection and privilege, but:

There Is Provision in  Christ -- "And find pasture."

Christ looks after the sheep of His  flock.
They are starving sheep on the mountain wild,
but the sheep of His flock are the sheep of His pasture.
They are satisfied sheep.
He succors His saints.
He feeds the flock.

Have you ever seen cattle trying to find grass on a yellow pasture field
where there is nothing but a brown stalk here and there
or a weed that turns to dust in their mouths?
That is a life without Christ!

But all who know Christ will be able to testify
that He leads those who are His into the green pastures and beside the still  waters.
Christ gives provisions.

Hugh Prince Hughes, in his last will  and testament, wrote:
"Put on my tombstone:
Thou, 0 Christ, art all I  want,
More than all in Thee I find."

So, we see that, if by faith we enter this only and open Door,
there are protection, privilege, and provision for us.
There are also forgiveness, freedom, and food.

Have you entered in?
That is the question.
Have you?

It is not enough to know a great deal about the Door.
It is not enough to only admire the Door.
It is  not enough to get close to the door and peep in to see some of the delights within.

You must enter the Door!

Some have been looking and longing, but have never entered.
The text says, "He that enters in [not,  looks] shall be saved."

If any man enter. I like that, don't you?
That is all-inclusive!
What a welcome!

No matter how learned or otherwise,
whether rich or poor, moral or immoral,
Christ can be all of this to you if you will trust Him.

Don't be lost when the fold is so near.
Don't starve when there is bread enough and to spare.

Enter the fold with the cry of  faith -- today!

Trust Jesus who has proved His love for you
by carrying your  sins on Calvary and rising again
that you and I might be justified.

Will you say now, "Lord Jesus, I will trust Thee?"

"Tis so sweet to trust in  Jesus,
Just to take Him at His word;
Just to rest upon His  promise,
Just to know, "Thus saith the Lord."

Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
Just in simple faith to  plunge me,
'Neath the healing, cleansing flood.

Jesus, Jesus, how I  trust Him,
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er,
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,
Oh, for grace to trust Him more."

Sermon by Dr. Harold L.  White
Email Dr. White at hleewhite@AOL.com