Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Nothing on earth or in heaven can save you except you believe in Jesus.

Kurt: Of the many paths in life, pastor Red Metter points to the only one leading to eternal life.

Brett Meador: On the issue of Jesus being the door, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, what did he say? You may knock at a thousand doors, you may cry and pray and groan and agonize, but there is only one door to heaven, and that door is faith in Jesus Christ. If you will not enter by that door, God himself will not open another.

Kurt: In John 10:7, Jesus declares, I am the gate for the sheep, offering a reassuring image of protection, provision, and access to abundant life. And on Today's Word, pastor Red Metter recognizes the metaphor also emphasizes exclusivity. Jesus is not one of many gates, but the only way to eternal life. Through him, believers find in eternity secured.

Brett Meador: We come to the third I am statement, and it's here in John chapter 10 verse 7. Let's take a look. Then Jesus said unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. We love this declaration. I've come to love Jesus not only as the bread of life and the light of the world, but also the door, the door of what?

Well, you could say the door of salvation, but you got to understand he's talking about the door of the sheepfold. What does that have to do with anything? Well, as it turns out, Jesus is going to say, I'm the door you got to go through if you're going to be saved. The big question is, have you gone through the door? Jesus says, I am the door. Did you notice what verse 9 said? I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. So let's consider this door. In fact, number one on our list of things to do, let's consider the door itself.

It's called here the door of the sheepfold. The shepherd would take his sheep to the flock, you know, out to graze during the day on the pastures. Then in the evening, they would lead the the flock into the sheepfold. We might call it a corral, but in Bible days, they called it a sheepfold. These sort of corrals made of rock. They would pile rock up 5 to 6 ft high, and they'd get the flock to go in. And then guess what? The shepherd would once the flock was in there, he would put himself. He would sleep in the doorway of the sheepfold so that no sheep would go out, but also that predators wouldn't come in.

He was the door. He became sort of the door of the sheepfold. By the way, what would a robber do in those days? The shepherd might be sleeping in the door, but a robber might and his buddy, they might climb over the backside of the wall and enter into the sheepfold not by the door. And they would come throw a sheep over the wall, slit its throat, and have lamb chops. Well, who are the thieves and robbers in our story here? Well, as it turns out, we're going to see Jesus is talking about the Pharisees.

They were religious people that were ripping off the people, and they they were actually not caring of the sheep, but they were actually targeting the sheep instead of caring for the sheep. Interesting. In fact, as we consider parts of this, first let's consider the door itself. There's a little subpoint here in point number one. Subpoint one, the necessity of the door. Jesus is saying, guess what? I am the door that protects the sheep from thieves and robbers. And we'll see that'll be the religious leaders of the day. But not only robbers and thieves, but also from predators, the lions and bears in the Holy Land.

Well, Brett, if the robbers and the thieves were the Pharisees, well, who's the lion? Well, we know that, right? It's 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8. Your adversary, the devil, he says a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. Jesus says, if you go through my door, you'll be saved. You're saying, well, well, really, Brett, okay, saved from a lion, saved from the religious leaders, what does that mean? But it also means saved that is if you get away from the analogy of the sheepfold and the sheep, it's literally talking about salvation from hell, being saved to go to heaven.

You got to go through the door of Jesus, the Messiah. Remember Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 6:23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's salvation. We're saved by Jesus. So subpoint number two, we have the necessity of the door, but I also want to talk about just briefly the singularity of the door. There's only one door, and Jesus makes that clear. He doesn't say, I am a door of the sheepfold. He said, I am the door, and there is no other.

One of the things you have to know and by the way, the world doesn't like this about us Christians. You Christians are too narrow-minded. There's many paths that lead to heaven or salvation, many paths, and the answer is no. The Bible doesn't teach that, not one slight tiny little bit. Jesus will say this in many other things when he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father in heaven but by me. It's interesting how there are those who would try to say, ah, Jesus is not the only door.

Well, Jesus is calling them thieves and robbers. That's kind of mean to call them that. Are there people that say Jesus is not the only way? Um, well, the answer is yes. And I I believe we're supposed to kind of be aware of that. That's what Jesus is talking about here. There's only one door, and if somebody says, no, no, here's another way, climb over the wall with me, that makes you a thief and a robber. And it's not always somebody you're picturing like a devil with a pitchfork and a horn saying, come with me.

No, it usually looks like somebody who's really nice, who's got a nice story and has kind of a nice way about themselves, but they'll say, yeah, Jesus is not the only way. I get pushed back, you know, some of the ladies say, Brett, why are you always so hard on poor Oprah Winfrey? Oprah, nice lady. I like Oprah. There's so much good about Oprah I can say, but here's the problem. In her show and stuff for years, she said, you know, I just can't believe Jesus is the only way. There's many paths, she says boldly, that lead to, you know, happiness, salvation, whatever you want to call it.

And then she went way off into that. The many paths. Oprah sort of looks like and even calls herself a Christian, but she's one of those people that maybe looks nice and wonderful, but could she be a wolf in sheep's clothing? Oh, not Oprah. Yeah, but she's saying there's another door to the sheepfold. So you got to believe Jesus or you kind of have to believe Oprah. What are you going to do? I would ask that question. The Bible actually warns there's a propensity for us to to look at other paths and get off that little narrow door pretty quickly.

The door that Jesus, I'm the door. If you go in any other door, it's not the real door. So you got to go through Jesus. How does that start to change? Well, it happened early in the church. Paul writes to the church in Galatia and he says this about them being derailed. He says, oh, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ into another gospel, which is not another. It's a false gospel is what he's saying. But there'd be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ by saying, there are many paths.

Jesus is good. He was a really good teacher. We respect Jesus. He's awesome, but there are other ways to heaven. That's perverting the gospel of Christ. Verse 8, but the we, Paul and Silas and Barnabas and all his dudes, but the we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you other than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Then he says it again, verse 9, as we said before, so now I say again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed.

For do I now persuade men or God? Do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of God. See, Paul at the end here is acknowledging what I'm saying is kind of hard and brutal, and it'd be real easy to not say it and just be a man pleaser. By the way, that's where I think some people, some pastors have moved to this thing where they're wanting to please men more than be a servant of God. And so they they don't want to say anything that ruffles feathers.

But Paul says, man, I'd rather be a servant of God than a man pleaser. And so I'm going to tell you the truth, there's some that pervert the gospel. And whether it's us, me, Paul, or an angel from heaven that comes and gives you a different gospel than the one that we've preached, that is the gospel of grace, as he said, saved by grace through faith, not of works. If you start adding to it, you're already derailed. Um, this is so important. That's why I always love quoting Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Like for example, on the issue of Jesus being the door, what did he say?

He said, nothing on earth or in heaven can save you except you believe in Jesus. You may knock at a thousand doors, you may cry and pray and groan and agonize and sweat I even to drops of blood, but there is only one door to heaven. And that door is faith in Jesus Christ. If you will not enter by that door, God himself will not open another. And that's just downright solid truth right there. And he's sticking to what the Bible says. He's sticking to what Jesus says, Spurgeon was. Another old British Bible teacher, J.

Vernon McGee, he said this, and I like what he said. He said, fundamentally, our Lord's message was himself. He did not come merely to preach the gospel. He himself is that gospel. He did not come merely to give bread. He said, I am the bread. He did not come merely to shed light. He said, I am the light. He did not come merely to show the door. He said, I am the door. He did not come merely to point the way. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Today, young ministers are afraid to say, no, there's only one way to heaven.

It's through Jesus. There's no other way. You can't add to it. You can't be more impressive or say things more eloquently. It's just the truth. You're saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for your sins, rose from the grave. It's the one thing we know and believe. Um, so we've looked at, you know, the door itself, the necessity of the door, the singularity of the door. It's only one door that's good. That brings us to the second part of discussion here, the users of the door. Question, who are the users of the door?

Well, it kind of depends on you. Hopefully, it's all of you. I hope all of you have gone through the door of Jesus Christ. But chances are there might be some of you who haven't. Some of you may have admired the door. You may be have jiggled the door handle a little bit, but the question of the day is, have you gone through the door? What's the main purpose of a door? It's to go through it. To be effective, you got to go through the door of Jesus Christ. Number verse 9 says, Jesus said, by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.

He doesn't say by me if any man knock. Well, Brett, isn't that a biblical principle that you're supposed to knock on the door of Jesus? It is if you're already a Christian. Well, Brett, what what about Revelation chapter 3? Jesus said, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man will open the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with me. But if you remember, Jesus is talking to his church in that section of the Bible. People that are already saved. That's a Christian thing that Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart and he wants in.

You're already saved at that point. You say, well, Bible says knock, seek, ask. What about that? Again, Christian, you're already a Christian, saved. You don't just knock the door of salvation. You got to go through the door of salvation. And that brings us to the third thought. That is the benefits of going through the door. We know already we've said it's salvation, to be saved from hell and to be able to go to heaven. Jesus forgives your sins once you go through that door. That's the greatest benefit. But the same benefits, and this is what Jesus is talking about in this analogy of the sheepfold and the door, is you're saved from the robbers and thieves.

That is from those religious people that are derailing people. If you go through the right door, Jesus, all other religions start to stand out for what they are. You start seeing that that's not really the truth, the other religions, the robbers and thieves. And you're also, if you go through the door of Christ, safe from Satan himself, the predator, the roaring lion who you seeking who he may devour. By the way, some people will say, you better watch out for the devil. And Christians get all heebie-jeebie with the devil's going to get you. If you're a Christian, is the devil going to get you?

No. The Bible says, greater is he that is in you, Jesus, than he that is in the world, Satan. Like we have the Lord who's with us. Now, the devil still contempt and and lure and do stuff, but he has no power over you. If you've not gone through the door, however, the Bible says Satan does have power to work against you or over you. This is important to know. So it's important that you don't just admire the door. It's not that you just jiggle the doorknob. Oh, you know, I I think I I'll see what this I'll go to church.

It's Mother's Day. My mom's here, so I'm going to church today cuz mom's here and I'm just going to make her happy. Jiggle, jiggle, jiggle. Can I just say, go through the door. That'll make your mom really happy, by the way, if you go through the door of salvation through Jesus Christ. Not just to admire it. Even the Muslims say Jesus was a prophet. But that's just looking at the door, but not actually going through the door. Jesus wasn't a prophet. He was God in the flesh who died on the cross for the sins of the world.

So you got the door itself, the users of the door, and the benefits of going through the door. But can I just say this? This is this might shock you, the benefits of going out to pasture. Here's a question for you. Once you go through the door of Jesus Christ of the sheepfold, would you ever go out? Yes. How do you know that? Jesus said it, the Bible. Check it out. Jesus verse 9, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and he shall go in and out and find pasture.

Once you're part of Jesus's flock, you get to go to the sheepfold, but also he'll lead you out of the sheepfold. What is he leading you out for? Remember Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. Even though you go through the door of the sheepfold, you're still with Jesus. And you get to be with Jesus from that day forward, and he's going to lead you to the green pastures and beside still waters. This is so huge and so important.

On my little farm growing up, our cows always thought there were greener pastures on the other side of the fence. That's the person who doesn't have a good shepherd. You know, you're you're looking for the greener pastures, but you're not finding it. Uh, there's a far side karmic thing was years ago. Maybe you saw it. It was a quadrant of barbed wire fences, and there was a cow on each quadrant, but each cow was eating the grass of the other cow's field. That's just human nature right there. But once you have Jesus as your shepherd, you can be understanding that you've been through the door and he's going to lead you to the green pastures that you are so longing for.

He'll lead you beside the still waters that are so good and peaceful in your life. Jesus as your shepherd, you got nothing to worry about. Doesn't mean life's going to be without challenges and trouble, but Jesus will be your shepherd and they'll lead you. Now, the Old Testament gives us all kinds of pictures of doors. Do you remember the door of the ark of Noah? You know, it says, and they went in and went in male and female of all flesh as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in. Who shut the door of the ark?

The Lord did that. And it was the ark is a picture of salvation. And as it turns out, if you got on the ark, you went through the door, you were saved. What if you didn't go through the door? Well, that's a sad story. I mean, can you imagine Noah out there It took him 100 years to build the ark. Noah is building the ark, and they say, well, what's what are you doing? Well, it's going to rain. Well, what's rain? Do you remember in the antediluvian world, the pre-flood world, rain hadn't happened yet. The whole ecological system was so different in pre-flood world that they didn't have rain.

So he's like, it's going to rain. What's that? Well, it's hard to explain. And the people are like, yeah, whatever. And they blew Noah off, but once it started to rain, they're like, uh-oh, what's this? And can you imagine the people, let's run to Noah's ark. But by that time, the Lord had already shut the door. The door was shut and the people were not able to go in. And there is a truth tucked away in this that I'd like to remind you of, and that is the Lord was the one to make the final call when the door shuts as he will with the door of salvation.

The door of salvation will not always be open. In fact, Genesis chapter 6 verse 3 it says, the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man. There's a point where he closes the door. And you don't want to miss your open door opportunity. When will the door shut? I believe there's a time of door shut that can happen in your life and you don't know what it is. I don't know what it is, but the Lord knows what it is. But I also know there's a time in in human history where it's going to shut in after the day of the Lord begins, after the tribulation period, there's going to be a door shut.

And there's a point of no return at some point the Bible talks about. So don't miss the door open. Go through while you can. That's what I would say. Brett, are you just trying to scare us into being saved? Yes. It's something you should be thoughtful of and you don't want to mess around with, honestly. There's other examples that are quite as even more scary than that in some ways. What about Exodus 12:22? There's a door. It says that the children of Israel were told by the Lord, take ye a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike on the lintel, the two side posts of the blood that is in the basin.

And none of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. Remember the spirit of death was going to fly over Egypt and the firstborn of every house was going to die unless on your door you put the blood of what? It was a lamb. Interesting. Blood of a lamb. And by the way, if you put it on the two sides and the top and the the word basin here in this verse is the Hebrew word sap, which was a built-in sort of place, a container built into the threshold of your door in the middle where a person would dip their feet before they walked into your house.

It was kind of a thing back then. So there was blood on the bottom, top, and on the sides making the shape of a cross. The blood of a lamb keeping you from dying. This is a door in the Bible that is also talking about the door of safety and salvation from death. And it's a beautiful picture of Jesus the door. We can go on and on examples of doors. What about the cities of refuge? If you were out cutting trees with your neighbor and one of the branches fell on your neighbor that you just cut and it killed him, guess what?

The law was, if you were a family member of the person who died, you had the duty to go and kill the person who killed your family member. Like, well, Brett, it's just manslaughter. It was an accident. Doesn't matter. You are going to die unless unless you you accidentally killed your your buddy and you ran to a city of refuge. Remember when you played tag when you were a kid and you had like a free safety zone uh, base? Well, that's what a city of refuge was. You actually didn't kill somebody. Uh, then numbers 35:11, then shall you appoint your cities to be cities of refuge for you that the slayer may flee thither which killeth any person at unaware, manslaughter.

Question for you smart Bible scholars, how long do the poor person that accidentally killed somebody, how long would they have to stay in that city of refuge? They had to stay until the death of the high priest. That's kind of interesting. Who is Jesus? Well, Hebrews 4:14, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. He's died. Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast to our profession. When did the slayer that was stuck in a city of refuge, when did he go free? When the high priest died.

I can just imagine the guy there 20 years in the city like, can you die already? Like, please kick the bucket, Mr. Priest. And then he could go free. It was as if nothing ever happened and he was free to go. Our high priest Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and you got to go through that door, the city of refuge. Like we could just go on and on the images of the door, but Jesus makes this beautiful declaration, I am the door. Now, if you're a Christian, I hope to just encourage you today.

Man, you're safe if you've been through the door. If you've accepted Jesus, Satan has no power over you. You have the hope of heaven and eternal life. And man, you and I can go away from this day rejoicing. If you haven't gone through the door, can I just as lovingly, but also just give you a word of caution, don't miss the open door. How do you accept this invitation to go through the door? Uh, how do you become a Christian? Well, even as this illustration is so simple as walking through a door, so is salvation.

Paul says it in Romans 10 verse 9, he says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The way you go through the door is to say, I'm a sinner and I repent of my sins, which brings you to that place where you're ready to receive the gift of salvation, knowing that you're a sinner, acknowledging that, repenting of your sins, and then you confess with your mouth and say, I believe that Jesus died for my sins and rose from the grave.

That's the gospel message. Jesus is that one who died for your sins. He's the door. And you got to go through it.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Metter drawing from the gospel of John chapter 10, the reassuring truth for how the Lord really is our shepherd and the door to the hope of heaven on Today's Word. And stay with us as pastor Brett will be back to join me in a moment. But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church just south of Portland, Oregon where pastor Brett Metter is the senior pastor. He's been pastoring at Athey for almost 30 years. We hope you can listen each day for more of his verse by verse study. If you've missed any portion of this message, you can also find all of pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com.

That's todayswordradio.com. All right, I have pastor Brett with me now. Brett, when you first started Athey Creek Church in 1996, you began small and actually met in a middle school.

Brett Meador: Yeah.

Kurt: Well, now with your main building in West Linn, Oregon, you're bursting at the seams. That's why you're expanding to more areas in the Portland area, right?

Brett Meador: That's correct, Kurt. We've been blessed with tons of people and you know, we've been praying, Lord, what would you have us do? And we've been pursuing a building to make it bigger, but the Lord just hasn't really opened that door yet. And uh, we really felt the Lord leading us to open campuses locally here. Not really going to solve our problem at our main campus, but at the same time, we just want to keep reaching as many people in the Portland area as we can. You know, I don't know if you saw there was an Oregonian article that just came out and Portland, Oregon wins according to the polls that we have more non-religious people than we have Christians in our city.

There's no other city in America that's as bad as that. And so we're just doing our best to reach as many people in the greater Portland areas we possibly can, have them meet in their community so that they can have pastors and leaders that are close to them and live in life together. Uh, we're excited about these campuses that are opening.

Kurt: Yeah, we sure are. And I do want to mention that Athey Creek Hillsboro and McMinnville are now meeting in the Portland, Oregon area in addition to the main campus of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon. Just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link Locations for more information. Again, todayswordradio.com. Well, that's all the time we have. I hope you can be back as we find out what Jesus demonstrated about legalism along with grace and freedom.

Brett Meador: The scene here, religious leaders accusing this woman, and then Jesus said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. Jesus is going to put grace over the law and he's going to remind those guys that they better be careful who they're condemning because they too are condemned.

Kurt: Today's Word with pastor Brett Metter is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.