July 2, 2025 • 42 mins
In this episode of the Legacy Bible Podcast, Pastor Chuck Rains teaches from John 10, where Jesus reveals Himself as both the Door and the Good Shepherd. This message dives deep into what it means to have a living relationship with Christ—one that brings salvation, daily provision, and eternal promise. Learn how the Good Shepherd provides access to safety, nourishment, and rest, and how His sacrificial love calls us to care for one another with that same spirit. If you've ever wondered what “abundant life” really looks like, this episode will lead you straight to the source: Jesus Himself.
- Scripture Focus: John 10:1–18
- Jesus is both the Door to salvation and the Shepherd who leads, protects, and provides.
- The sheepfold represents safety, relationship, and trust—accessible only through Christ.
- True salvation includes:
- Past – Forgiveness of sins
- Present – Daily care and provision
- Future – Eternal life with God
- Relationship with Christ calls us to care for others (1 John 3:16).
- Biblical examples: Phoebe, Aquila, and Priscilla, who served others sacrificially.
- A call to elders and leaders: Lead with the heart of the Chief Shepherd.
- The abundant life is not measured in material wealth but in spiritual fullness and trust in God's provision.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Hello friends and podcast listeners and welcome.
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This is the Legacy Bible Podcast, a place for legacy messages from Legacy Audio from
the Tape Collection of the Fellowship Bible Church in Joliet, Illinois.
My name is Marcus Onate.
Today I'm going to bring you another one from the Tape Collection.
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If you notice, I don't know if you noticed, they have slight cold as they're trying to
get so trying to get over this cold, but so if I'm a bit sniffly coughing, well, I guess
they can't be helped, but okay, so today is from January 27, 1991.
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In the name of this episode is called The Door and the Shepherd, a message from John
chapter 10 and of course taught by our pastor, the Reverend Chuck Rains, which they recorded
at the Fellowship Bible Church in Joliet, Illinois on the date of January 27, 1991.
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I would assume that would be a Sunday, probably morning.
So let's listen in to Pastor Raines on John chapter 10.
John chapter 10, starting at verse 1.
Verily, verily I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold but climb
up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber.
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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 put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice.
And the stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him?
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So they know not the voice of strangers.
This parable speak Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were, which
he spoke unto them.
Then said Jesus unto them again, verily, verily I say unto you, I and the door of the sheep.
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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 comeeth not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.
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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 in hireling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not, see if the wolf
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coming and leave it the sheep and flee it and the wolf catch at them and scatter at the
sheep.
The hireling flit because he is in a hireling and carothed not for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine.
As the father know of me, even so know I the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
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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.
Like to use that as the basis for our time in the Word of God this morning.
When you read that, one theme that underlies it all, one idea that permeates everything
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that is given here in the Lord's parable and then in his further explanation.
And that is maybe almost understood, almost presumed that you see at least this much.
Now the disciples didn't really understand what the parable was pointing to, but one
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thing they should have seen is this underlying theme.
I call it relationship that even the people who knew about sheep and shepherds knew that
there was a relationship between the sheep and the shepherd that made all of these things
that were said about sheep and the shepherd happen.
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That you see almost without saying it, there is a relationship that is assumed there.
It's what makes this story hang together because let's go back to the first couple
of verses where he says, rarely, rarely I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door
into the sheep fold the climeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber, he identifies
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that one.
But then in verse two he says, but he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of
the sheep.
The shepherd knows who he is and others know who he is.
The porter knows who he is, the sheep know who he is.
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And he can just come with assurance that he's going to be allowed in.
He just walked right in the door.
The door of the sheep fold was really very often, you know, in making a sheep fold, they piled
stones out in the field in a circle and they left an opening where there were no stones,
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they left an opening so that the sheep could go in that opening.
Sheep are not like goats.
Goats love the climb on rocks.
I tell you, you could take a goat out in the field or it was a rock in the middle of the
field, they'd run over there and get up on it.
They love to do that.
Sheep would walk all over that field and walk everywhere, but on that rock, they wouldn't
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want to get up on the rock.
Of course, in places in Israel, the sheep don't have any choice.
That's all there is.
Rocks.
And so they follow the shepherd even over the rocks.
But even going to be able to sheep fold, one thing you don't want to do is just close
it all up and just have rocks there because it's going to be hard to get the sheep in
and out.
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They won't go over the rocks.
So they leave a narrow opening.
And at night, they collect briar bushes, really, brambles, make a big pile of it and kind of
fill in that place or, which was often the custom, the porter, the shepherd that was
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kind of designated as the doorkeeper for the night, would actually lay right across that
opening so that you couldn't get into the sheep fold or out of the sheep fold without
walking on the porter.
And that kept the sheep in because the sheep would not walk on the shepherd.
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And it would also alert him if maybe a wolf tried to come in, a wolf would not like to
walk over a human being.
He'd stay out there.
But the thief and the robber would climb over the rocks, steal the sheep.
That's the thing.
If the shepherd could go to the porter, he would, of course, allow him in and they'd
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go in and out.
There was no problem.
Why?
Because the porter knew him, knew who he was.
He had a relationship with those sheep and those sheep had a relationship with him.
So underlying this is the idea of who the shepherd is.
It really means what his relationship is with the sheep.
That's really what's underlying this story.
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So he has this ease of entry into their place, of security, their place of care.
Because at night, this sheep fold was built for the sake of keeping the sheep safe, secure.
In the daytime, they would go out and they would eat grass and they would drink water,
but at night they were safe and secure in the sheep fold.
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The relationship the shepherd has with the sheep is both for the time when they're taking
in the food and the water, as well as the time when they're in the place of need for
care and keeping and security.
It kind of covers, in fact, the whole of their life, the day and the night.
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Every event, every kind of problem, he's still in that relationship with him.
He's still where they are.
They still can be where he is.
And he goes into that sheep fold freely.
We have to ask, well, what is the relationship that the shepherd has with the sheep?
He tells us, verse 7, I say unto you, I'm the door of the sheep.
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I am the door of the sheep.
All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
Verse 9, I am the door.
By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture.
By passing through the door you get into the sheep fold.
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And Christ is using that as an analogy, you see, by coming through him, by coming to God
through him, you enter into a relationship.
You get into the sheep fold by coming through him.
You get into the sheep fold, the sheep that have a relationship with him by coming through
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him.
You can't be in that sheep fold.
You don't belong in that sheep fold unless you have come through him.
There is no sheep in there and the sheep speak of people.
There isn't anybody in there that hasn't come through him.
He says it very plainly.
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I am the way, the truth and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
There is not another way.
There is but one.
He's the door.
And if anybody comes that way, they are saved.
Saved means delivered.
Delivered from what?
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Well, the sheep would know.
They're delivered from danger.
They're delivered from the wolf.
They're delivered from hurt.
They're in threat.
They're delivered also into something.
They're delivered into the place of safety, security, care, keeping, protection.
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That's how it is with our salvation, our spiritual salvation.
We are saved from judgment in all the wrath of God that would come down on a sinner.
We're saved from that.
And we're saved, you could say, into the protection and care and keeping of the Lord.
Out of something?
Into life.
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Out of darkness?
Into life.
Out of death?
Into life.
We're saved from something into something.
Delivered.
As that meaning in it, you can't deliver somebody unless you take them out of something and
put them into something.
And that's what that word implies.
You can't be saved.
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You can't be delivered from death and hell and delivered into life except through this
one that is the door.
Now, some people may teach that there are many ways into the sheepfold, but I'm here
to tell you that's not what's taught in the Bible.
There is one door.
One door and that door is Jesus Christ.
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They didn't have doors all the way around the sheepfold.
They had one door.
And that's the way you must go in.
If you try to go in another way, you go in the way of thieves and robbers.
You want to think that there are many ways, I'll tell you, you're deceived.
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They're the way of thieves and robbers.
God would say, He's provided a perfect Savior.
Why is there need for any other?
You come in by Him.
You go in and out through Him.
And by going in and out, think of what you get.
Now, we're talking about relationship that the sheep have.
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Having entered into the relationship of salvation, being saved, what did they get?
If they go out that door, they get the daily provisions.
They get all that Christ provides for their needs, all through the day.
For sheep, it would be the grass.
It would be the water.
It would be the shade that He has them rest in.
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It would be His direction of their lives, so that they don't go over a cliff.
Sheep can do that.
Direct the path so they don't go down through rough rocks and through things that would hurt them.
Sheep can do that.
And then at night, they can go into the sheepfold by Him and they have security, they have protection.
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So we have daily provision and we have daily care and keeping through Him.
That's what we have in our relationship in Christ as our door.
So by going in and out, we have these daily benefits of provision.
By the way, one thing I want to say about salvation in the Scripture.
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In the Scripture, salvation really has three tenses, a past, a present, and a future.
You can say, in the past tense, being saved tells me what I was saved from,
what sins were cleansed, what was taken away, all of my past with its sin, with its
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vileness is cleansed, taken away.
I have a past that praise God.
Things have changed in Christ, my past.
It's taken from me with all of its sin, all of its judgment, all of its hurt.
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I have a present that is what provision is given to me for my daily living right now.
So in a true sense, to be saved is to have the Lord living in me right now.
It's not just to say, well, I had my sin taken away.
He gave you more than that.
He gave you life for right now.
For you to have day by day, he comes and indwells us.
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And the Spirit of God is given to us to impart that life.
And he indwells us.
As I told you before, from John 14 and John 16, not only does the Spirit of God dwell in us,
but the Son and the Father dwell in us because Jesus says, we will come and make our
bold with you.
And he's speaking there of himself and the Father.
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And it's wonderful that we can say truly God lives in those that have taken Christ as their
Savior, those that have come through him.
And there's a future sense.
When I have provided for me for all eternity, isn't it wonderful to know that salvation is not
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just for the past and taking away of sins.
It's not just for the present life, but it's that through Christ, we're given eternity.
We're given eternal life.
We're given a place in heaven.
We're given a relationship with God that we can enjoy for all of eternity.
We have that to look forward to.
Therefore the door is my way into this relationship with Christ.
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That's what the disciples didn't understand.
And my daily experience, well, here it is in verse nine.
If any man enter in, he shall be saved.
And here it is, and go in and out and find pasture.
The in and out is my daily experience.
I go in the door and go out the door and go in the door and go out the door.
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Now, that doesn't mean, and he's not teaching this, that you go in and out of salvation.
You know, today I go in tomorrow.
I go out.
Do you know when they went out the door, they weren't going out of their salvation.
They were going out the door to the grass.
They were going out the door to the water.
They were going out the door to the sunshine and to a day with the shepherd.
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When they went in the door, they were going in for protection and care with the
shepherd.
So what he's really talking about is the daily provision for whatever you need.
Do you need feeding?
Care.
You have it in Jesus.
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Do you need comfort and encouragement and protection?
You have it in Jesus.
And every day you go in and out, whatever, whatever your need, whether it's the care
or the protection, you can look to him.
He's your door.
In other words, he's your, your access to God's provision.
He is your provision for whatever you need.
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You couldn't have any need that your father and glory couldn't supply for you by Christ
Jesus because all of your needs are met fully in him.
It's impossible for you to have a need that he wouldn't meet in the Lord Jesus.
So when you go in, you're going into those times of security and protection.
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And when you're going out, you're going out into those times of provision,
pasturing of daily life,
daily life.
Something very important though in chapter 10, verse 10, at the last part of the verse,
it says, I'm come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.
What is the more abundant life?
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Well, take it right in its context.
It means abundant provision for, first of all, for us to be saved.
Because you are saved when you come in by him.
And that means to have your sins forgiven and for your entry into salvation.
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You have to start there.
If you don't come by the door, you can't be saved.
So to get into life abundance, you have to be saved.
You have to have your sins, clans.
You have to come receive new life from Christ.
And Romans chapter 5, verse 20, I'll just quote it.
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You might say, well, I have great need.
I have many sins.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more about.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more about.
Isn't that wonderful how much provision there is in the Lord for sin?
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You have to start.
Do you want the abundant life?
You start right there with sin being answered in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
Where that may be there in great amount.
Let your heart be comforted in this.
God in his grace has made provision.
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For all that you have need of for cleansing of your sin, for all the darkness that you have, for all the death that's in you, there's full provision in the Lord.
So we're sin about.
There it is grace, much more about it.
And then how about this?
Granted, truth, I think I will turn you back to Matthew 6 for this.
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You might know these verses.
But this is another part of the abundant life, abundant provision for our daily living.
Let's look at Matthew 6.
I'd like to read at verse 25.
Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink or for your yet for your body.
What you shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body than rain.
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Behold the fouls of the air for they so not neither do they reap or gather into barns.
Get your heavenly father, feed it them.
Are you not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto a stature?
And why take you thought for Raymond?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
They toil not neither do they spin.
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And yet I say unto you that even solemn and in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you?
O you of little faith.
Therefore take no thought saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink?
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Or where would all shall we be clothed?
For after all these things to the Gentile seek for your heavenly father, not that you have made of all these things,
but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added
unto you.
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Take therefore no thought for the moral, for the moral shall take thought for the things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Your heavenly father knows what you have need of.
You set your heart and mind on him.
You seek him, seek his righteousness.
Let him do his work.
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Of course he wants you to let him know that you understand your need.
Jesus taught us to pray.
Our father, which is our art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Give us this day, our daily bread.
I mean, go ahead and mention your need to him.
Let him know that you understand your need.
You see, part of the glory of praying is that you see the answer.
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Right?
Aren't you totally aware of all that God is doing for you?
I don't think so.
I mean, sometimes you look back.
I look back.
I have to use myself for the point of reference here, I guess.
I look back and I think, oh my, what God was doing in those years before I really even trusted him.
Why, what a fool I was.
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I was doing this and that God was taking care of me and going before me
and letting even all my foolishness work out to bring me to the place where I was desperate.
It's all my need.
But I'll tell you the truth.
Until I saw my need and cried out for Christ to save me, I didn't understand what great
things God was doing for me.
Now he's under no obligation because I wasn't his child.
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And what he was doing was only to bring me to himself.
But I can look back and I can say, my, what he was doing.
How wonderful.
And then it's his child.
I tell you, I was a little bit older than I was.
And then it's his child.
I tell you, I wish I could say every time he does something for me, I see it.
Oh, I see every little thing he does.
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I don't.
I try to instruct my children on things like this though.
Now the Lord gave those beats.
You know, praise the Lord.
That piece of fish.
Those mushrooms, those green peppers.
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That's spinach.
Spinach gets a bad rap, you know, but it's good stuff.
And kids have to learn that.
Now liver, that's a month.
No, I won't put it in bed.
Yes.
Each has their limitations of understanding the grace of God, I guess.
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All these things that God daily loaded us with benefits of scripture says.
He close us.
He feeds us.
He gives us water to drink or good things to drink.
He is truly a wonderful father.
He does perfectly the things a father should do for his children.
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If you want to know what kind of father to be, look at what God does for us.
And that's the kind of father we should be.
So you don't have to go around worrying about these things.
He does want you to see the need and mention it to him.
But by seeing the need, then when the provision comes, you can give praise.
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So there is good reason to be able to see the Lord's hand moving and caring.
We don't see it all the time, but as we do, we ought to give praise.
We ought to thank him.
We ought to just be delighted that he loves us so much and cares for us so perfectly.
That's our daily provision.
And then there's abundant provision for eternity.
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See, it's not only that we're saved, not only that he gives us abundant provision for day-to-day living,
but he gives us abundant provision for eternity.
And so, we have a statement to a church that was in a lot of spiritual troubles.
1 Corinthians chapter 2, but this statement doesn't have anything to do with their problems
or their sin because this is a statement about God.
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And what we have in him, and he never changes.
1 Corinthians chapter 2, let me read at verse 9 and 10.
But as it is written, I have not seen or heard neither have entered into the heart of man
which God has prepared for them that love him.
But God has revealed them unto us by his spirit, for the spirit searches all things,
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ye the deep things of God.
You see, that's suggesting to you that the dimension of the provision of what God has made for you,
in talking about that you have to talk about the deep things of God.
God has not just given you little surfancy things, this little thing and that little thing,
this little trinket, that little trinket.
If you want to know the fullness of what God has given to you, you'd have to know it and you can know it
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and we do know it by the spirit of God showing us those things.
And to show us, it could only be by the spirit of God because to show us it has to come from one
that can search out to the very depths of God's very mind and being what he has provided
because that's where the depth of the treasure that God has for us comes from.
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My, what things and your eyes have never seen the likes of all that God has provided.
Your ears have never heard to tell the wonders of what he has provided.
You can imagine, you can imagine, your human body, your human mind is not so constructed that you could do that.
You couldn't, as sincere as you would want to be, as fully as you'd give yourself to do it,
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you could never comprehend all that God has provided for you.
Isn't that wonderful?
Perfect salvation, perfect Savior, perfect shepherd, what an abundant life.
So what is this relationship?
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Well, he's as the door, the way, the passing into the relationship with him.
But secondly, he's also the good shepherd, verse 11.
I'm the good shepherd, the good shepherd, give it his life for the sheep.
When you talk about the good shepherd, you come right down to this.
He gave his life for the sheep.
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In other words, to bring us into a relationship with himself, he had to do this.
He had to give his life.
And therefore, it also brought us into a relationship with the father, because over here, verse 15,
as the father knows me even so, I know the father, and I laid down my life for the sheep.
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Now the father knows the son, and the father rejoiced, and the son's willingness to lay down his life for the sheep.
How do you know that?
Look at what it says in verse 17.
Therefore, does my father love me because I lay down my life, that I might take it again?
The father loves the son that he was willing to come and to die for the sake of the sheep.
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He enters into it with full delight.
So if he loves the son for being the savior, the sheep, if he loves the son for dying for the sheep,
can you see that removes all barriers to the heart of God?
For the sheep, we have complete entry into the depth of the heart of God as sheep.
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There's nothing held back for us.
A laying down of the life.
By the way, that laying down of the Lord's life wasn't a defeat.
It wasn't an ending of things.
It wasn't shutting out of things from the father or him from the father or us from the father.
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It wasn't that at all.
Because verse 18 says, after laying down, I have power to take it again.
This scripture does not just teach that he laid it down.
He has power to take it again.
Where do you get that power?
Where do you get that authority?
He got it from the father.
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The raising of the son from the dead was by the father through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit,
as Paul teaches in Romans 8.
The right to live again, the right to take up that life again, the right to come forth from the grave.
That was given to the son by the father.
He didn't just die.
He didn't just lay down his life.
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He was told that he could be raised again and up he came from the grave.
And the father is the one that delights in that resurrection.
So there was no interruption of relationship between the son and the father.
In its fullness, the death of Christ.
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Listen, what Peter says he did was he bore in his own body on the tree.
He bore our sins in his own body on the tree.
Can you imagine?
He says our righteousness is our like, as filthy rags.
The sins of the world came down upon the son.
Think of that picture in John 3 where he says, as a serpent, was raised up in the wilderness,
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even so much as the Son of Man, be raised up.
That serpent, a lot of people miss that, but that serpent, I think it's Numbers 21.
I'm not sure, but I think that that's referring to Numbers 21.
That serpent is a picture of Christ.
A lot of people don't know that actually in that one place, the serpent is a picture of Christ.
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And you say, why?
How could a serpent be a picture of Christ?
Because a serpent is a picture of sin.
And it was a bronze or a serpent.
And bronze is a picture of judgment in the Bible.
And Jesus took all the sin on himself and sin was judged in him on the cross.
And that pole that that serpent was nailed to was a symbol of the cross.
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And he says it, even as a serpent was raised up in the wilderness, even so much as the Son of Man, be raised up.
Lift it up.
Even as Moses raised, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the Son of Man must be lifted up.
And he was lifted up on the cross and became sin for us, who knew no sin, but he became sin for us.
And the serpent is the only fit symbol for sin.
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And he became sin for us.
That's what opened this door.
But it didn't break the relationship between the father and the son, it didn't break the relationship that we can now enter into because that relationship was proven to be perfect.
And it's open to us in its fullness because we see the resurrection.
In its fullness, the resurrection says it's all ours.
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It applies it to us in a place like Romans 3 23 where it says, for all his sinned and
come short of the glory of God, but the verse that follows says, being justified freely through
his grace, by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
So even though men are sinners, if they'll come through him, they are made righteous.
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Perfectly.
Now what does this call us to do?
It calls us to a very hard scripture for some in 1 John and it's very apropos for us as
a church right now.
And 1 John 3 16, it's one of the great 3 16 verses, hereby perceive we the love of God
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because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
I don't know what you do with that.
I hope you realize it's not just poetry.
I hope you realize that that means that if you have received Christ, that you are knit
together with brothers and sisters in Christ in a way that means you can't shut your eyes
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to their needs.
We've got to tend to this business of being involved in one another's lives for the good
of one another, pouring out our lives for the brethren.
I'll give you two examples.
One is Phoebe and the other examples, a husband and wife team, Aquila and Priscilla.
So from the last chapter of Romans, and here's what it says about Phoebe.
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He writes the numbers about her.
That would be in Romans, the first couple verses there, 16.
I commend unto you, Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church, which is a centria
that you receive her and the Lord has become of saints.
Now look at it.
And that she assists her in whatsoever business she has need of you, for she has been a sucker
(35:45):
of many and of myself also.
You know what Phoebe, he's saying, she took care of me, Paul says, and she took care
of a whole lot of other Christians.
And so when she comes to you and if she has any needs, you take care of her.
That's how it should be.
And then he mentions in the next verse, Priscilla and Aquila, great Priscilla and Aquila, my
helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks.
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On to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches or the Gentiles.
I don't know what they did completely, but he said they laid down their own necks.
I guess what that brings to my mind is a poor chicken.
I'm getting ready for the pot, but I guess that's about it.
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You put your life on the line.
Would you do that for a brother or sister in Christ?
That's the standard of the Word of God.
And you say, well, I haven't attained to that yet.
Well, you're just not close enough to the people of God.
First Peter 5, the instruction is to elders.
And he talks to men in the church and he exhorts them as elders.
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And he says, the elders, which are among you, I exhort them also an elder and a witness
to the sufferings of Christ also, particular the glory that shall be revealed.
Here's what he says to them, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy looker, but of a ready mind.
Neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being examples for the flock.
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When the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades it
not away.
The actual instruction that there should be men in the church body, that although we
all should be laying down our lives for one another, that they're going to be men in the
church body that are going to be specially responsible in the feeding and the care.
And it's tied in with the great shepherd.
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And don't you see we've come full circle.
We don't just lay our lives down.
We lay them down like the shepherd laid them down for his lounge for us.
And by the way, it's not just for the people, but it's for the elders.
First, examples to the flock.
Examples, you're not going to have any more self sacrifice among the sheep than you have
(38:05):
with the leaders, the shepherd.
You're not going to have any more willingness to care for one another and serve one another
than you do among the leaders, the elders.
But if the elders will be that example, and if they will feed the flock and if they'll
take the oversight because they love the Lord, not for any other reason, if they'll
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get those lives committed to those sheep instead of just being a hireling, even if it means
laying down your life for the sheep, get your life committed to the sheep, that relationship
that you have with the sheep will grow, grow, grow, they'll trust you, they'll follow when
you go out, they'll follow when you come in.
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As you look to the chief shepherd, he's really the one leading the sheep.
It's like a woman, when she looks to her husband, you know what she's supposed to look to him
as to Christ.
She should be able to say, I trust my husband because he's fully surrendered to the Lord
Jesus.
And a church member should be able to say, I really appreciate the leadership, the elders
in the body because they are looking to Jesus.
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It's what the scripture says, people.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, thank you for leading the way and giving us the example as a good shepherd.
And knowing Lord that you'll come one day as the great shepherd and give reward, I do
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pray for myself, I pray for every elder, every potential elder.
I pray for the people that we might serve one another with our lives.
There's a bond, a commitment that you want from our hearts.
To serve one another is believers had to realize they needed to serve Phoebe and quill
(40:01):
and percilla and Paul.
And Lord, we need to know that we are knit together and we can expect as much from them
because the heart that one is centered on you and you are the one that makes perfect
provision for each of us.
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Your hearts closer to your own.
Lord and draw us ever close to one another.
In Jesus name, amen.
Thank you, Pastor Rains, for another message from the word of God.
This was from January 1991.
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So we're going to be starting into the year of 1991 and then going up from there in 92
and 93.
There's a lot of them from the 90s decade.
I think most of them are going to be from the 90s decade.
So get used to it.
Okay.
So thank you for listening.
Please come back again next week.
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If you could, please subscribe.
You could subscribe either on YouTube or the podcast, listing app of your choice.
And it'd be nice if you commented.
I know I had one comment from part of our team here from Jeff.
He always listens in on the podcast.
(41:32):
So thanks, Jeff, for your comment.
But we need more comments and more subscribers.
So you could do that.
So I'll see you next week and bring some friends.
Have a great day.
See you next week.
Hello friends and podcast listeners and welcome.
(00:15):
This is the Legacy Bible Podcast, a place for legacy messages from Legacy Audio from
the Tape Collection of the Fellowship Bible Church in Joliet, Illinois.
My name is Marcus Onate.
Today I'm going to bring you another one from the Tape Collection.
(00:37):
If you notice, I don't know if you noticed, they have slight cold as they're trying to
get so trying to get over this cold, but so if I'm a bit sniffly coughing, well, I guess
they can't be helped, but okay, so today is from January 27, 1991.
(01:01):
In the name of this episode is called The Door and the Shepherd, a message from John
chapter 10 and of course taught by our pastor, the Reverend Chuck Rains, which they recorded
at the Fellowship Bible Church in Joliet, Illinois on the date of January 27, 1991.
(01:25):
I would assume that would be a Sunday, probably morning.
So let's listen in to Pastor Raines on John chapter 10.
John chapter 10, starting at verse 1.
Verily, verily I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold but climb
up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber.
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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 put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice.
And the stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him?
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So they know not the voice of strangers.
This parable speak Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were, which
he spoke unto them.
Then said Jesus unto them again, verily, verily I say unto you, I and the door of the sheep.
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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 comeeth not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.
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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 in hireling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not, see if the wolf
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coming and leave it the sheep and flee it and the wolf catch at them and scatter at the
sheep.
The hireling flit because he is in a hireling and carothed not for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine.
As the father know of me, even so know I the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
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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.
Like to use that as the basis for our time in the Word of God this morning.
When you read that, one theme that underlies it all, one idea that permeates everything
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that is given here in the Lord's parable and then in his further explanation.
And that is maybe almost understood, almost presumed that you see at least this much.
Now the disciples didn't really understand what the parable was pointing to, but one
(04:41):
thing they should have seen is this underlying theme.
I call it relationship that even the people who knew about sheep and shepherds knew that
there was a relationship between the sheep and the shepherd that made all of these things
that were said about sheep and the shepherd happen.
(05:05):
That you see almost without saying it, there is a relationship that is assumed there.
It's what makes this story hang together because let's go back to the first couple
of verses where he says, rarely, rarely I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door
into the sheep fold the climeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber, he identifies
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that one.
But then in verse two he says, but he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of
the sheep.
The shepherd knows who he is and others know who he is.
The porter knows who he is, the sheep know who he is.
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And he can just come with assurance that he's going to be allowed in.
He just walked right in the door.
The door of the sheep fold was really very often, you know, in making a sheep fold, they piled
stones out in the field in a circle and they left an opening where there were no stones,
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they left an opening so that the sheep could go in that opening.
Sheep are not like goats.
Goats love the climb on rocks.
I tell you, you could take a goat out in the field or it was a rock in the middle of the
field, they'd run over there and get up on it.
They love to do that.
Sheep would walk all over that field and walk everywhere, but on that rock, they wouldn't
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want to get up on the rock.
Of course, in places in Israel, the sheep don't have any choice.
That's all there is.
Rocks.
And so they follow the shepherd even over the rocks.
But even going to be able to sheep fold, one thing you don't want to do is just close
it all up and just have rocks there because it's going to be hard to get the sheep in
and out.
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They won't go over the rocks.
So they leave a narrow opening.
And at night, they collect briar bushes, really, brambles, make a big pile of it and kind of
fill in that place or, which was often the custom, the porter, the shepherd that was
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kind of designated as the doorkeeper for the night, would actually lay right across that
opening so that you couldn't get into the sheep fold or out of the sheep fold without
walking on the porter.
And that kept the sheep in because the sheep would not walk on the shepherd.
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And it would also alert him if maybe a wolf tried to come in, a wolf would not like to
walk over a human being.
He'd stay out there.
But the thief and the robber would climb over the rocks, steal the sheep.
That's the thing.
If the shepherd could go to the porter, he would, of course, allow him in and they'd
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go in and out.
There was no problem.
Why?
Because the porter knew him, knew who he was.
He had a relationship with those sheep and those sheep had a relationship with him.
So underlying this is the idea of who the shepherd is.
It really means what his relationship is with the sheep.
That's really what's underlying this story.
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So he has this ease of entry into their place, of security, their place of care.
Because at night, this sheep fold was built for the sake of keeping the sheep safe, secure.
In the daytime, they would go out and they would eat grass and they would drink water,
but at night they were safe and secure in the sheep fold.
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The relationship the shepherd has with the sheep is both for the time when they're taking
in the food and the water, as well as the time when they're in the place of need for
care and keeping and security.
It kind of covers, in fact, the whole of their life, the day and the night.
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Every event, every kind of problem, he's still in that relationship with him.
He's still where they are.
They still can be where he is.
And he goes into that sheep fold freely.
We have to ask, well, what is the relationship that the shepherd has with the sheep?
He tells us, verse 7, I say unto you, I'm the door of the sheep.
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I am the door of the sheep.
All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
Verse 9, I am the door.
By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture.
By passing through the door you get into the sheep fold.
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And Christ is using that as an analogy, you see, by coming through him, by coming to God
through him, you enter into a relationship.
You get into the sheep fold by coming through him.
You get into the sheep fold, the sheep that have a relationship with him by coming through
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him.
You can't be in that sheep fold.
You don't belong in that sheep fold unless you have come through him.
There is no sheep in there and the sheep speak of people.
There isn't anybody in there that hasn't come through him.
He says it very plainly.
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I am the way, the truth and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
There is not another way.
There is but one.
He's the door.
And if anybody comes that way, they are saved.
Saved means delivered.
Delivered from what?
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Well, the sheep would know.
They're delivered from danger.
They're delivered from the wolf.
They're delivered from hurt.
They're in threat.
They're delivered also into something.
They're delivered into the place of safety, security, care, keeping, protection.
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That's how it is with our salvation, our spiritual salvation.
We are saved from judgment in all the wrath of God that would come down on a sinner.
We're saved from that.
And we're saved, you could say, into the protection and care and keeping of the Lord.
Out of something?
Into life.
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Out of darkness?
Into life.
Out of death?
Into life.
We're saved from something into something.
Delivered.
As that meaning in it, you can't deliver somebody unless you take them out of something and
put them into something.
And that's what that word implies.
You can't be saved.
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You can't be delivered from death and hell and delivered into life except through this
one that is the door.
Now, some people may teach that there are many ways into the sheepfold, but I'm here
to tell you that's not what's taught in the Bible.
There is one door.
One door and that door is Jesus Christ.
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They didn't have doors all the way around the sheepfold.
They had one door.
And that's the way you must go in.
If you try to go in another way, you go in the way of thieves and robbers.
You want to think that there are many ways, I'll tell you, you're deceived.
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They're the way of thieves and robbers.
God would say, He's provided a perfect Savior.
Why is there need for any other?
You come in by Him.
You go in and out through Him.
And by going in and out, think of what you get.
Now, we're talking about relationship that the sheep have.
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Having entered into the relationship of salvation, being saved, what did they get?
If they go out that door, they get the daily provisions.
They get all that Christ provides for their needs, all through the day.
For sheep, it would be the grass.
It would be the water.
It would be the shade that He has them rest in.
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It would be His direction of their lives, so that they don't go over a cliff.
Sheep can do that.
Direct the path so they don't go down through rough rocks and through things that would hurt them.
Sheep can do that.
And then at night, they can go into the sheepfold by Him and they have security, they have protection.
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So we have daily provision and we have daily care and keeping through Him.
That's what we have in our relationship in Christ as our door.
So by going in and out, we have these daily benefits of provision.
By the way, one thing I want to say about salvation in the Scripture.
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In the Scripture, salvation really has three tenses, a past, a present, and a future.
You can say, in the past tense, being saved tells me what I was saved from,
what sins were cleansed, what was taken away, all of my past with its sin, with its
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vileness is cleansed, taken away.
I have a past that praise God.
Things have changed in Christ, my past.
It's taken from me with all of its sin, all of its judgment, all of its hurt.
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I have a present that is what provision is given to me for my daily living right now.
So in a true sense, to be saved is to have the Lord living in me right now.
It's not just to say, well, I had my sin taken away.
He gave you more than that.
He gave you life for right now.
For you to have day by day, he comes and indwells us.
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And the Spirit of God is given to us to impart that life.
And he indwells us.
As I told you before, from John 14 and John 16, not only does the Spirit of God dwell in us,
but the Son and the Father dwell in us because Jesus says, we will come and make our
bold with you.
And he's speaking there of himself and the Father.
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And it's wonderful that we can say truly God lives in those that have taken Christ as their
Savior, those that have come through him.
And there's a future sense.
When I have provided for me for all eternity, isn't it wonderful to know that salvation is not
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just for the past and taking away of sins.
It's not just for the present life, but it's that through Christ, we're given eternity.
We're given eternal life.
We're given a place in heaven.
We're given a relationship with God that we can enjoy for all of eternity.
We have that to look forward to.
Therefore the door is my way into this relationship with Christ.
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That's what the disciples didn't understand.
And my daily experience, well, here it is in verse nine.
If any man enter in, he shall be saved.
And here it is, and go in and out and find pasture.
The in and out is my daily experience.
I go in the door and go out the door and go in the door and go out the door.
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Now, that doesn't mean, and he's not teaching this, that you go in and out of salvation.
You know, today I go in tomorrow.
I go out.
Do you know when they went out the door, they weren't going out of their salvation.
They were going out the door to the grass.
They were going out the door to the water.
They were going out the door to the sunshine and to a day with the shepherd.
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When they went in the door, they were going in for protection and care with the
shepherd.
So what he's really talking about is the daily provision for whatever you need.
Do you need feeding?
Care.
You have it in Jesus.
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Do you need comfort and encouragement and protection?
You have it in Jesus.
And every day you go in and out, whatever, whatever your need, whether it's the care
or the protection, you can look to him.
He's your door.
In other words, he's your, your access to God's provision.
He is your provision for whatever you need.
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You couldn't have any need that your father and glory couldn't supply for you by Christ
Jesus because all of your needs are met fully in him.
It's impossible for you to have a need that he wouldn't meet in the Lord Jesus.
So when you go in, you're going into those times of security and protection.
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And when you're going out, you're going out into those times of provision,
pasturing of daily life,
daily life.
Something very important though in chapter 10, verse 10, at the last part of the verse,
it says, I'm come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.
What is the more abundant life?
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Well, take it right in its context.
It means abundant provision for, first of all, for us to be saved.
Because you are saved when you come in by him.
And that means to have your sins forgiven and for your entry into salvation.
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You have to start there.
If you don't come by the door, you can't be saved.
So to get into life abundance, you have to be saved.
You have to have your sins, clans.
You have to come receive new life from Christ.
And Romans chapter 5, verse 20, I'll just quote it.
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You might say, well, I have great need.
I have many sins.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more about.
But where sin abounded, grace did much more about.
Isn't that wonderful how much provision there is in the Lord for sin?
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You have to start.
Do you want the abundant life?
You start right there with sin being answered in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
Where that may be there in great amount.
Let your heart be comforted in this.
God in his grace has made provision.
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For all that you have need of for cleansing of your sin, for all the darkness that you have, for all the death that's in you, there's full provision in the Lord.
So we're sin about.
There it is grace, much more about it.
And then how about this?
Granted, truth, I think I will turn you back to Matthew 6 for this.
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You might know these verses.
But this is another part of the abundant life, abundant provision for our daily living.
Let's look at Matthew 6.
I'd like to read at verse 25.
Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink or for your yet for your body.
What you shall put on is not the life more than meat and the body than rain.
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Behold the fouls of the air for they so not neither do they reap or gather into barns.
Get your heavenly father, feed it them.
Are you not much better than they?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto a stature?
And why take you thought for Raymond?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
They toil not neither do they spin.
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And yet I say unto you that even solemn and in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you?
O you of little faith.
Therefore take no thought saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink?
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Or where would all shall we be clothed?
For after all these things to the Gentile seek for your heavenly father, not that you have made of all these things,
but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added
unto you.
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Take therefore no thought for the moral, for the moral shall take thought for the things of itself.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Your heavenly father knows what you have need of.
You set your heart and mind on him.
You seek him, seek his righteousness.
Let him do his work.
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Of course he wants you to let him know that you understand your need.
Jesus taught us to pray.
Our father, which is our art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Give us this day, our daily bread.
I mean, go ahead and mention your need to him.
Let him know that you understand your need.
You see, part of the glory of praying is that you see the answer.
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Right?
Aren't you totally aware of all that God is doing for you?
I don't think so.
I mean, sometimes you look back.
I look back.
I have to use myself for the point of reference here, I guess.
I look back and I think, oh my, what God was doing in those years before I really even trusted him.
Why, what a fool I was.
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I was doing this and that God was taking care of me and going before me
and letting even all my foolishness work out to bring me to the place where I was desperate.
It's all my need.
But I'll tell you the truth.
Until I saw my need and cried out for Christ to save me, I didn't understand what great
things God was doing for me.
Now he's under no obligation because I wasn't his child.
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And what he was doing was only to bring me to himself.
But I can look back and I can say, my, what he was doing.
How wonderful.
And then it's his child.
I tell you, I was a little bit older than I was.
And then it's his child.
I tell you, I wish I could say every time he does something for me, I see it.
Oh, I see every little thing he does.
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I don't.
I try to instruct my children on things like this though.
Now the Lord gave those beats.
You know, praise the Lord.
That piece of fish.
Those mushrooms, those green peppers.
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That's spinach.
Spinach gets a bad rap, you know, but it's good stuff.
And kids have to learn that.
Now liver, that's a month.
No, I won't put it in bed.
Yes.
Each has their limitations of understanding the grace of God, I guess.
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All these things that God daily loaded us with benefits of scripture says.
He close us.
He feeds us.
He gives us water to drink or good things to drink.
He is truly a wonderful father.
He does perfectly the things a father should do for his children.
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If you want to know what kind of father to be, look at what God does for us.
And that's the kind of father we should be.
So you don't have to go around worrying about these things.
He does want you to see the need and mention it to him.
But by seeing the need, then when the provision comes, you can give praise.
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So there is good reason to be able to see the Lord's hand moving and caring.
We don't see it all the time, but as we do, we ought to give praise.
We ought to thank him.
We ought to just be delighted that he loves us so much and cares for us so perfectly.
That's our daily provision.
And then there's abundant provision for eternity.
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See, it's not only that we're saved, not only that he gives us abundant provision for day-to-day living,
but he gives us abundant provision for eternity.
And so, we have a statement to a church that was in a lot of spiritual troubles.
1 Corinthians chapter 2, but this statement doesn't have anything to do with their problems
or their sin because this is a statement about God.
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And what we have in him, and he never changes.
1 Corinthians chapter 2, let me read at verse 9 and 10.
But as it is written, I have not seen or heard neither have entered into the heart of man
which God has prepared for them that love him.
But God has revealed them unto us by his spirit, for the spirit searches all things,
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ye the deep things of God.
You see, that's suggesting to you that the dimension of the provision of what God has made for you,
in talking about that you have to talk about the deep things of God.
God has not just given you little surfancy things, this little thing and that little thing,
this little trinket, that little trinket.
If you want to know the fullness of what God has given to you, you'd have to know it and you can know it
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and we do know it by the spirit of God showing us those things.
And to show us, it could only be by the spirit of God because to show us it has to come from one
that can search out to the very depths of God's very mind and being what he has provided
because that's where the depth of the treasure that God has for us comes from.
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My, what things and your eyes have never seen the likes of all that God has provided.
Your ears have never heard to tell the wonders of what he has provided.
You can imagine, you can imagine, your human body, your human mind is not so constructed that you could do that.
You couldn't, as sincere as you would want to be, as fully as you'd give yourself to do it,
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you could never comprehend all that God has provided for you.
Isn't that wonderful?
Perfect salvation, perfect Savior, perfect shepherd, what an abundant life.
So what is this relationship?
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Well, he's as the door, the way, the passing into the relationship with him.
But secondly, he's also the good shepherd, verse 11.
I'm the good shepherd, the good shepherd, give it his life for the sheep.
When you talk about the good shepherd, you come right down to this.
He gave his life for the sheep.
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In other words, to bring us into a relationship with himself, he had to do this.
He had to give his life.
And therefore, it also brought us into a relationship with the father, because over here, verse 15,
as the father knows me even so, I know the father, and I laid down my life for the sheep.
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Now the father knows the son, and the father rejoiced, and the son's willingness to lay down his life for the sheep.
How do you know that?
Look at what it says in verse 17.
Therefore, does my father love me because I lay down my life, that I might take it again?
The father loves the son that he was willing to come and to die for the sake of the sheep.
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He enters into it with full delight.
So if he loves the son for being the savior, the sheep, if he loves the son for dying for the sheep,
can you see that removes all barriers to the heart of God?
For the sheep, we have complete entry into the depth of the heart of God as sheep.
(30:10):
There's nothing held back for us.
A laying down of the life.
By the way, that laying down of the Lord's life wasn't a defeat.
It wasn't an ending of things.
It wasn't shutting out of things from the father or him from the father or us from the father.
(30:36):
It wasn't that at all.
Because verse 18 says, after laying down, I have power to take it again.
This scripture does not just teach that he laid it down.
He has power to take it again.
Where do you get that power?
Where do you get that authority?
He got it from the father.
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The raising of the son from the dead was by the father through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit,
as Paul teaches in Romans 8.
The right to live again, the right to take up that life again, the right to come forth from the grave.
That was given to the son by the father.
He didn't just die.
He didn't just lay down his life.
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He was told that he could be raised again and up he came from the grave.
And the father is the one that delights in that resurrection.
So there was no interruption of relationship between the son and the father.
In its fullness, the death of Christ.
(31:41):
Listen, what Peter says he did was he bore in his own body on the tree.
He bore our sins in his own body on the tree.
Can you imagine?
He says our righteousness is our like, as filthy rags.
The sins of the world came down upon the son.
Think of that picture in John 3 where he says, as a serpent, was raised up in the wilderness,
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even so much as the Son of Man, be raised up.
That serpent, a lot of people miss that, but that serpent, I think it's Numbers 21.
I'm not sure, but I think that that's referring to Numbers 21.
That serpent is a picture of Christ.
A lot of people don't know that actually in that one place, the serpent is a picture of Christ.
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And you say, why?
How could a serpent be a picture of Christ?
Because a serpent is a picture of sin.
And it was a bronze or a serpent.
And bronze is a picture of judgment in the Bible.
And Jesus took all the sin on himself and sin was judged in him on the cross.
And that pole that that serpent was nailed to was a symbol of the cross.
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And he says it, even as a serpent was raised up in the wilderness, even so much as the Son of Man, be raised up.
Lift it up.
Even as Moses raised, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, the Son of Man must be lifted up.
And he was lifted up on the cross and became sin for us, who knew no sin, but he became sin for us.
And the serpent is the only fit symbol for sin.
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And he became sin for us.
That's what opened this door.
But it didn't break the relationship between the father and the son, it didn't break the relationship that we can now enter into because that relationship was proven to be perfect.
And it's open to us in its fullness because we see the resurrection.
In its fullness, the resurrection says it's all ours.
(33:43):
It applies it to us in a place like Romans 3 23 where it says, for all his sinned and
come short of the glory of God, but the verse that follows says, being justified freely through
his grace, by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
So even though men are sinners, if they'll come through him, they are made righteous.
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Perfectly.
Now what does this call us to do?
It calls us to a very hard scripture for some in 1 John and it's very apropos for us as
a church right now.
And 1 John 3 16, it's one of the great 3 16 verses, hereby perceive we the love of God
(34:31):
because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
I don't know what you do with that.
I hope you realize it's not just poetry.
I hope you realize that that means that if you have received Christ, that you are knit
together with brothers and sisters in Christ in a way that means you can't shut your eyes
(34:53):
to their needs.
We've got to tend to this business of being involved in one another's lives for the good
of one another, pouring out our lives for the brethren.
I'll give you two examples.
One is Phoebe and the other examples, a husband and wife team, Aquila and Priscilla.
So from the last chapter of Romans, and here's what it says about Phoebe.
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He writes the numbers about her.
That would be in Romans, the first couple verses there, 16.
I commend unto you, Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church, which is a centria
that you receive her and the Lord has become of saints.
Now look at it.
And that she assists her in whatsoever business she has need of you, for she has been a sucker
(35:45):
of many and of myself also.
You know what Phoebe, he's saying, she took care of me, Paul says, and she took care
of a whole lot of other Christians.
And so when she comes to you and if she has any needs, you take care of her.
That's how it should be.
And then he mentions in the next verse, Priscilla and Aquila, great Priscilla and Aquila, my
helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks.
(36:13):
On to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches or the Gentiles.
I don't know what they did completely, but he said they laid down their own necks.
I guess what that brings to my mind is a poor chicken.
I'm getting ready for the pot, but I guess that's about it.
(36:35):
You put your life on the line.
Would you do that for a brother or sister in Christ?
That's the standard of the Word of God.
And you say, well, I haven't attained to that yet.
Well, you're just not close enough to the people of God.
First Peter 5, the instruction is to elders.
And he talks to men in the church and he exhorts them as elders.
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And he says, the elders, which are among you, I exhort them also an elder and a witness
to the sufferings of Christ also, particular the glory that shall be revealed.
Here's what he says to them, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy looker, but of a ready mind.
Neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being examples for the flock.
(37:22):
When the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fades it
not away.
The actual instruction that there should be men in the church body, that although we
all should be laying down our lives for one another, that they're going to be men in the
church body that are going to be specially responsible in the feeding and the care.
And it's tied in with the great shepherd.
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And don't you see we've come full circle.
We don't just lay our lives down.
We lay them down like the shepherd laid them down for his lounge for us.
And by the way, it's not just for the people, but it's for the elders.
First, examples to the flock.
Examples, you're not going to have any more self sacrifice among the sheep than you have
(38:05):
with the leaders, the shepherd.
You're not going to have any more willingness to care for one another and serve one another
than you do among the leaders, the elders.
But if the elders will be that example, and if they will feed the flock and if they'll
take the oversight because they love the Lord, not for any other reason, if they'll
(38:27):
get those lives committed to those sheep instead of just being a hireling, even if it means
laying down your life for the sheep, get your life committed to the sheep, that relationship
that you have with the sheep will grow, grow, grow, they'll trust you, they'll follow when
you go out, they'll follow when you come in.
(38:50):
As you look to the chief shepherd, he's really the one leading the sheep.
It's like a woman, when she looks to her husband, you know what she's supposed to look to him
as to Christ.
She should be able to say, I trust my husband because he's fully surrendered to the Lord
Jesus.
And a church member should be able to say, I really appreciate the leadership, the elders
in the body because they are looking to Jesus.
(39:14):
It's what the scripture says, people.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, thank you for leading the way and giving us the example as a good shepherd.
And knowing Lord that you'll come one day as the great shepherd and give reward, I do
(39:37):
pray for myself, I pray for every elder, every potential elder.
I pray for the people that we might serve one another with our lives.
There's a bond, a commitment that you want from our hearts.
To serve one another is believers had to realize they needed to serve Phoebe and quill
(40:01):
and percilla and Paul.
And Lord, we need to know that we are knit together and we can expect as much from them
because the heart that one is centered on you and you are the one that makes perfect
provision for each of us.
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Your hearts closer to your own.
Lord and draw us ever close to one another.
In Jesus name, amen.
Thank you, Pastor Rains, for another message from the word of God.
This was from January 1991.
(40:46):
So we're going to be starting into the year of 1991 and then going up from there in 92
and 93.
There's a lot of them from the 90s decade.
I think most of them are going to be from the 90s decade.
So get used to it.
Okay.
So thank you for listening.
Please come back again next week.
(41:08):
If you could, please subscribe.
You could subscribe either on YouTube or the podcast, listing app of your choice.
And it'd be nice if you commented.
I know I had one comment from part of our team here from Jeff.
He always listens in on the podcast.
(41:32):
So thanks, Jeff, for your comment.
But we need more comments and more subscribers.
So you could do that.
So I'll see you next week and bring some friends.
Have a great day.
See you next week.
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