Grace Bible Church
Basic Training in Doctrine
Pastor Joseph P. Sugrue
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The occasion for the first message: It was given at the sheep gate and every morning sheep went out of it, and every night sheep came back into it.
John 10:1 “Truly, truly [point of doctrine], I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.
Ps 23:1-2 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
False shepherds only want to steal sheep in order to slaughter them for profit. You can tell who they are because they do not have the right call nor do they enter by the door.
Christ came into the world through the first door, which is the virgin birth.
John 10:1 “Truly, truly [point of doctrine], I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.
‘thief’ is kleptes and it refers to a thief who robs by strategy. He doesn’t use violence; he uses his brains to rob. They discredited Christ and the blind man.
“robber” is lestes which means a person who robs by violence. When strategy didn’t work they resorted to violence by throwing the man out.
John 10:2 “But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.
Christ is the true Shepherd of Israel who has entered by the door through the virgin birth as foretold in ISA 7:14.
ISA 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
Jesus Christ coming in the door by Himself = virgin birth; going out with the sheep = the cross.
John 10:7 Jesus therefore said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
John 10:8 “All who came before Me [false prophets] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
John 10:9 “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
John 10:3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.
The doorkeeper is God the Holy Spirit. God the HS will not open the door to religion and so they must climb in another way.
2 Tim 4:3-4 but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.
“voice” is akouo which means to hear and obey. The voice is the gospel message and those with positive volition will hear and believe and walk out of the pen – salvation.
John 10:3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.
The usual word for call is kaleo, but He uses phoneo which means to call by identification. He is calling those who know His voice because they are ready for the gospel.
“by name” – kata onoma = according to the standard of a name, which is His name, ACT 4:12.
Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.”
His name: The Lord [God] Jesus [Savior as humanity] Christ [Messiah].
“leads them out” – the verb is exago which means to lead them out from, to lead them out of the pen into the pasture: doctrine and the CWL.
The pasture is Bible doctrine, and this refers to the principle that when the sheep are saved God does not leave them standing around. God provides for every believer. God has a plan for the believer but the believer must feed in His pasture – the Word of God.
John 10:4 “When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
“puts forth” – exbalo, the same word used for tossing out the once blind man. They threw him out in excommunication. Christ throws him out into the pasture to grow in grace and truth.
“follow” is akoloutheo which means to follow someone because you want to, because it is your own personal soul desire.
Proper motivation is reflected in this passage. He goes before them and that is why they follow.
Acts 20:29-30 I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us.
John 10:4 “When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
“for they know” – now they know Him better because when they feed in His pasture they get to know Him, and therefore they know His voice.
“they know” – oida, they know it and can never forget it. Once you get Bible doctrine you love the Lord and you’ll never forget Him. Nothing will ever take His place.
“his voice” – this time the voice is the voice of categorical doctrine.
EPH 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
John 10:4 “When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
John 10:5 “And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”
The word “stranger” is allotrios, which literally is “one whom you know belongs to another.” In context it refers to religion which belongs to satan.
This is a person you could never love as a friend or companion once you learn Bible doctrine because they are religious.
“they will not follow” – Once you have become spiritually self-sustaining you will always despise religion and therefore will never be sucked into a religious system.
This means to avoid or separate from the religious person’s false doctrine. You flee from false doctrine because you have true doctrine; you have fed in the pasture.
“they do not know the voice of strangers” – oida [inherent knowledge] plus the negative. Once you are spiritually self-sustaining you will never fall for religion.
John 10:6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.
“This figure of speech/parable.” The word is paroimia [para = to put alongside; oimia = road]. It means to put two roads side by side.
One road you know, so you put another road alongside it so you understand that road.
The sheep “know” – oida = inherent knowledge.
The religious crowd did not understand – ginosko = to come to know.