I am very happy that we have the opportunity to be together again this evening to study God's word together. As I was contemplating this campmeeting, praying and thinking, there were a number of subjects that I thought I would like to address before God's people. One of them was the Latter Rain, when and how will it come. However, I have decided, since I have been here, that I probably will not address this subject although it is a subject that very much needs to be addressed.

I will say just a sentence or two about it. I have been doing a good deal of study about this subject of late, and the reason for the latter rain not coming is not because God is waiting or does not want to send it. That is not the reason at all. The reason is that we are not prepared to receive it. Something has to change among us before we can receive the Latter Rain.

As I studied this subject, however, I said, "Lord, I wish I did not have to talk about that because I might say some things that are so plain that some people might think that I am rebuking them. Contrary to what you might think, I do not enjoy rebuking people. To me that is going to be one of the great joys of heaven--never having to rebuke anybody anymore.

Somebody might say, "Well, then why do you not just quit?" The problem is, if you have read 2 Timothy, a minister is commanded to preach the word of God, and preaching all of the word of God sometimes involves giving a message that will be interpreted as a rebuke or a reproof. Then, of course, anyone that has been involved in that knows that you will generally have lifelong enemies after that experience. So no minister enjoys that work.

That is something that I have wrestled with and struggled with for many years, and right now, as I was sitting out in the car and watching as the sun was going down, I thought about the Sabbath. Testimonies, vol. 2, 702-704, Ellen White writes about those among us who talk about crops, losses and gains, cattle and farms on the Sabbath. She says very pointedly that ministers are to reprove or to rebuke people who engage in this kind of secular conversation on the Sabbath.

I have wrestled over those words for many years. I have said, "Lord, I try, whenever I have an opportunity, to change the subject of conversation." Then I go back and read the statement and it does not say to just try and change the conversation; it says you are to reprove or rebuke those who engage in this kind of conversation on the Sabbath. So, friends, we must come up on higher ground.

I said, "Lord, if I do not have a friend in this world left, I am going to do what You said to do," but please, please do not make me have to reprove or rebuke you. We must come up on higher ground and not be talking about secular affairs on the Sabbath day. That is not my subject tonight, but that is something that we need to think about. I want to tell you, friends, the people who receive the seal of God are going to be people that are keeping the Sabbath, not just by profession or by name, but they are actually going to be keeping it in the mind and with their tongue.

I was very happy this morning when Elder Spear talked about Isaiah 58:13 in relation to keeping the Sabbath. So that is something that we need to pray about. Ellen White said in the statement I referred to in Testimonies, vol. 2, 702-704 that the people who talk about these secular things on the Sabbath are under a cloud. She said that they felt a lack of the Spirit of God. Are we going to receive the Latter Rain if that is our situation? No, we are not! So that is something that we need to pray about and we need to help each other.

If you have your Bible, I want to look at something else, a little bit introductory, perhaps, but it will introduce us to a subject that I want to study with you this evening. Our Scripture was John 10:1-30. Jesus is telling the parable of the Good Shepherd and the fold and the flock and the thieves and the robbers and the door and the hireling. But before getting into that, I would like to take you back to Genesis 3 and study briefly from Genesis 3:15.

It has been an amazement to me now for many years, that almost any subject that I want to teach or preach, almost any subject that I want to study, I can find that subject in embryo form in the book of Genesis. Now it is not all developed in the book of Genesis because that is the book of beginnings, but it is in ember form in the book of Genesis. Martin Luther preached, I believe, for a whole year just on the book of Genesis. It is truly one of the most amazing books in the Bible. We do not have time to look at many details in Genesis 3.

Genesis 3 records the fall of our first parents, but I want you to notice especially Genesis 3:15, a very common text for Seventh-day Adventists. I heard it as a very young child growing up in the Seventh-day Adventist church when my parents were missionaries in Burma. It is a text that has great meaning. It is a text where God, that is Jesus Christ, God is addressing the devil.

Now, you and I had better not get into a discussion with the devil. One time Ellen White said that only God can have an argument with the devil. None of us should decide that we are going to get into a discussion with evil spirits. We will be bested--or worsted--however you want to look at it. But God, in this text, is having an address with the devil and He addresses the devil directly.

He says in Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." I preached a whole sermon just on this text a few weeks ago in Florida and I must be careful that I do not get too long winded, because we want to get into another subject, but this will introduce it.

At this meeting our theme is about unity. But we cannot have unity with everybody. It says here that there are going to be two classes of people in the world and there is going to be enmity between these two classes of people. The Lord is talking to the devil. And He said, "I am going to put enmity between you and the woman."

Now, several people here, I hope most, or all of you, are Bible students. Some of you have been Bible students for many years and some of you have attended Seventh-day Adventist Prophecy Seminars. I have given a number of Prophecy Seminars myself, and when we are preaching to the public in a Prophecy Seminar, we show them what a woman represents in Bible prophecy. What do we teach people that a woman represents in Bible prophecy? A church.

That is a correct interpretation because that is a symbol that is used throughout the Old and the New Testament. This is the first place that I know of in the Bible where that symbol is used. The woman represents the church. The Lord is talking to the devil and He said, "I am going to put enmity between you and the woman. I am going to put enmity between your seed and her seed."

"Well," somebody says, "Pastor John, What in the world does that mean? Is not everybody in the world a descendent of Eve?" Oh, yes, everybody in the world is a physical descendent of Eve, but I want to tell you something. Everybody in the world is not a spiritual descendent of Eve, because Eve repented of her sin. Read the book Patriarchs and Prophets. She bitterly repented of what she had done.

But if you have not repented, you are not a descendent of Eve, spiritually. You are not part of the seed of the woman. This same symbolism is picked up again. When I was a boy attending evangelistic meetings, this is the way the Adventist evangelists always showed the public who and what the true church was. They went to Revelation 12:17 and they said, "There is the woman and there is her seed. This is a pure woman. She represents a pure church and her seed are the people who keep the commandments and have the Spirit of Prophecy. That is how you can find the true church."

That is the way they always taught when I was a boy. I still believe it! So there are two descendants, there are two lines, there are two groups, there are two classes. There is the seed of the woman, that is the true church, and there is the seed of the devil, that is the devil's church, the Synagogue of Satan. And there is enmity between them and you will never be able to bring unity between those two groups because God said He was going to put enmity between them.

The devil has been trying to wipe out, erase, or destroy that enmity ever since; but it is impossible. If you destroy the enmity, all you have done is join the devil's group. That is all you have done, because that enmity is there and it will be there until the end of time. We do not have time to develop this subject tonight because we are going to go to another subject, but I want you to see that there are two groups and there is enmity between those two groups. There is the church, the seed of the woman and there is the seed of the devil. How can you tell?

Ever since the Garden of Eden, you could tell the issue in the great controversy, because the basic issue has always been the same. The issue is the Law of God. So the Apostle John tells us in 1 John 3:8, "He who sins…." [What is sin? It is breaking the law of God.] "He who sins is of the devil." If you are living in sin, you are the devil's child and you are telling the whole universe that you are the devil's child, because that is the principle of his government. He does not care which commandment you break as long as you break one or more. If you break one or more and you are living that way, you are telling the whole universe that you are the devil's child. You are not the seed of the woman. You are the seed of the serpent.

Let us get it straight, friend. You cannot be both the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This is an either/or situation. Do you see that? You cannot be fifty percent the seed of the serpent and fifty percent the seed of the woman. You cannot be that. It is one or the other.

Let me read you just one statement from the pen of Ellen White on this subject and then we are going to go directly to John 10. It says, "There must be open and avowed enmity between the church and the serpent; between her seed and his seed." Signs of the Times, August 26, 1889. There are two groups. There is the seed of the woman--that is the church--and there is the seed of the serpent--the people who live in sin. They have never been the same and they never will be the same. There is enmity between them.

Now the story is going to get much more complicated. Turn in your Bibles to the gospel of John 10. You see, the seed of the serpent, the Synagogue of Satan, wants to call themselves Jews, they want to be part of the professed people of God and they want to be in the fold. They want to be in the church. So look what Jesus says about this. John 10:1, "Most assuredly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."

There is a fold, friends, and if you are in this fold, you are safe. You are safe for eternity if you are in the fold. What is this fold? Let me read you quickly two statements: Ellen White says, "The Lord can carry forward His work without our cooperation. He is not dependent on us for our money, our time, or our labor. But the church is very precious in His sight. [Now notice the next sentences]. It is the case which contains His jewels, the fold which encloses His flock, and He longs to see it without spot or blemish or any such thing." In Heavenly Places, 324.

The fold is the church. The church is the fold that encloses His flock; it is the case that contains His jewels. The fold is the church, but notice what Jesus says here. There are some people who do not go through the door to get into the church. They climb over the wall. And who are these who climb over the wall? Well, Jesus says they are thieves and robbers. They are wolves in sheep's clothing. That is what they are.

So now you have a very complicated situation. You have the fold, and the purpose of the fold is so that the sheep might be protected. But now you have wolves in the fold. They have not gone through the door, but have climbed over the wall and they are in there. Those wolves are in sheep's clothing and the sheep cannot tell the difference.

Now, for lack of time we are going to mix up a lot of metaphors very quickly tonight. Do you know who it is that climbs over the wall, the wolf in sheep's clothing, do you know who that is? It is the tares. The sheep are the wheat. The tares are the ones who climb over the wall and they are in the church, they are wolves in sheep's clothing, they are tares. They are not the sheep. They are not part of the royal family of God like the sheep are, but they are in there.

They are not part of the church. It is like this. I have a house, and in my house I have doors and I have windows. All of my family always comes through the door into the house. That is the only way that anybody in my family ever comes into my house. Everybody in my family has keys, they unlock the door and they come into the house. What if I go into my house and there is somebody there who does not have a key and he has come in through the window? Now he is in my house. And he says, "I am in your house." I say, "Yes, but you are not a member of my family. You are a thief. You are a robber. Just because you are in the house does not mean that you are a member of the family. You are not part of my family."

Those people who climb over, they are not part of the church. Jesus said they are thieves and robbers. They are wolves in sheep's clothing. They are tares, and they are in there.

And do you know what happens when these wolves in sheep's clothing get into the church? Did you know in speaking of the wheat and the tares, Ellen White talked about the danger of the tares choking out the wheat because they become so dangerous. Have you read those statements? Ellen White talks about how the tares become so thick that they can choke out the wheat.

I do not know how many of you here have ever raised sheep, but I have. Now, I have never raised sheep for a business or for a living, but when I was a boy we used to raise bum lambs. It was a good education to get some experience like that. Two different times we raised bum lambs. Now a bum lamb is a lamb that the mother rejects. So you go to somebody who raises a lot of sheep, and if the mother has too many sheep to nurse, she refuses some. If somebody does not take those lambs and bring them up on the bottle, they will die.

When I was a boy, my parents would get these bum lambs for free. Somebody had to take care of them and there were too many for the shepherds to care for. We got bum lambs and at nighttime, in the winter, we would put them in a fold to protect them. One time we had some dogs that jumped over that fence and got in. And our favorite sheep got mauled so badly that we had to have it killed. That one sheep was the gentlest animal that I have ever seen in my whole life.

I want to tell you, friends, it is a dangerous situation when you get wolves in sheep's clothing in the fold, because they bite. They may have on sheep's clothing, but they bite. And the sheep get turned out of the fold! The very people that belong there get turned out, and the wolves take over. The tares take over the field; the wolves take over the fold. That was happening in Jesus' day. In fact, to understand this parable of Jesus about the fold and those who climb up over the wall as thieves and robbers, which is recorded in John 10, maybe we should look at the context in which this story was given.

Just before this story was given, Jesus, on the Sabbath day, had healed a blind man and restored his sight. You can read in John 9; how as a result of confessing Christ, this man who had been blind, who confesses, "I do not know about this Man, but I know that I can see." They got so angry with him. He said, "Well, I can see. I know I was blind and I know I can see!"

They got so angry with him that they disfellowshipped him. When you disfellowship someone, you cast them out of the fold, right? Here is what Ellen White says about that. "In no gentle manner they thrust him out of the synagogue. The sheep was cast out of the fold for being a living witness to the power of Christ." Signs of the Times, December 4, 1893. This is the context in which the story in John 10 is told. The sheep is cast out of the fold for bearing witness to the truth.

Ellen White says, "Many have been cast out of the church whose names were registered upon the Book of Life. Wolves in sheep's clothing were ready to cast out of the fold and devour one who was entitled to the Lord's pasture." Ibid.

What should you do in a situation like this? Well, the way we find out what to do in situations like that is to look at what Jesus did in situations like that.

What did Jesus do when this man was disfellowshipped? You can read it there in the last part of John 9. Ellen White makes a comment about what happened after this man was disfellowshipped. She says, "But Jesus, the true Shepherd, sought him and gave him a place within the fold." Ibid.

I want you to think through that statement for just a moment. We have several more symbols to look at in this story. It says that Jesus went and found this sheep who was cast out and He gave him a place within the fold. How do you suppose Jesus did this? Do you think that Jesus went to Caiaphas and said, "Look, there is a man over here and I restored his sight. Now your subordinates disfellowshipped him, and I want to get his name back on the church books." Is that the way Jesus got him into the fold? No! Some people need to rethink who and what the church is, because it says here that Jesus gave this man a place within the fold.

He gave him a place within the church. The reason we need to think this through is that this is not the last time somebody like this was disfellowshipped. Friends, you and I have a responsibility to the sheep who have been mauled by wolves and have been cast out of the fold. We have a responsibility to give them a place in the fold. Ellen White says, "With proper labor, many souls might have been added to the church who are driven from the fold into the wilderness of unbelief." Manuscript Release, vol. 2, 274.

Jesus gave this man a place within the fold. "All the way along in the history of the Third Angel's Message there have been found, among the believers, men who have done much harm to God's cause. These men are spots in our feasts of charity; tares among the wheat; wolves among the sheep, ready to bite and devour." Review and Herald, May 12, 1903.

Do not forget the fold, friend. The fold is the place for the sheep, but there are wolves in sheep's clothing inside. Jesus says there is a door; and I want to tell you, friend, in the Day of Judgment, the only people who are going to be saved are the ones who come in through the door. None of the people who climbed over the wall are going to be saved. They are going to be lost. You cannot be saved unless you go through the door.

I want to spend a little bit of time on that symbol next. When Jesus told this parable, it says that they did not know what He was talking about. In fact, in the Greek language it calls it not just a parable, it calls it a dark saying. And they said, "What is Jesus talking about?" They could not understand what He was talking about.

Let us read the dark saying that they could not understand. We already read John 10:1, but it says in verses 2-5: "But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."

I want to look at the sheep next, but before we look at the sheep, I want to look at the door. Oh, friend, it is not enough to be inside the fold. All the people who go over the wall, even though they are in the fold, are going to be lost. They are going to be wrapped up in bundles and thrown into the fire. If you want to be saved, you have to go through the door. You cannot go through the window. You cannot go over the wall. You have to go through the door, if you are going to be saved.

They did not understand what Jesus was talking about, so Jesus started to explain. Notice what He says, "Then Jesus said to them again, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.'" John 10:7-9.

Now, it is important to belong to the church. It is important to get into the fold, but it will not do you any good to get into the fold unless you go through the door. Is that clear? I am always amazed at these simple stories Jesus told. You can tax your mind on these stories for your whole lifetime.

Let us look at the door. Jesus says, "I am the door, and you have to go through this door if you will be saved, and if you do not, if you climb over the wall, you may be in the fold, but if you have not gone through the door, you are still going to be lost. You are a thief and a robber. If you are going to be saved, you have to go through the door just like lawful people do."

What does this door represent? Jesus said, "I am the door." But this is a multiple symbol. Notice also what He said. Who is the shepherd? In verses 11 and 14 Jesus said He is the Good Shepherd. But notice again what He says in verse 2: "He who enters by the door is the Shepherd of the sheep." Notice there is a double symbol here. Jesus says, "I am the door," but then He also says, "I am the Good Shepherd and the Shepherd goes through the door."

Do you understand that? He is the door, but He is also the Good Shepherd and the Good Shepherd goes through the door. Let us think that through a moment. Think through John 10:2 and look at the symbolism Jesus is using. There is a door and the Good Shepherd goes through the door. Here is the question: If there is a door and if you go through the door, is there a time before you have gone through the door, and is there a time after you have gone through the door? Yes, there is.

If you go through a door, there is a time before you have gone through, and there is a time after you have gone through the door. Now, friend, our subject tonight is not either the divinity or the godhead of Jesus Christ--although that is a very interesting subject and it is troubling Adventists all over the world. That is not our subject, but I will just mention in passing that this could not be referring to the divinity of Christ, because there never was a time before the divinity of Christ. This parable talks about something that there was a time before. There was a time when He went through the door, and there was a time after He went through the door.

The Shepherd goes through the door. Concerning the divinity of Christ, Jesus assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the Father. Ellen White has some very powerful statements to say on that subject. There was never a time when the divinity of Christ did not exist. There never was a time before that. No matter how far back you go, He was there. He was in the beginning, it says in John 1:1. You cannot go before the beginning; otherwise it would not be the beginning.

When He says, "the Shepherd goes through the door," we are entering on holy ground, because I want to tell you, friend, there was a time when Jesus left His throne in heaven and He came to this world and He became incarnate. He took upon Himself human flesh and a human nature like ours, and He united His divinity with our humanity. Now, friends, this is the mystery of mysteries. This is a mystery that we will be studying throughout all eternity.

He became one flesh with us so that we could become one spirit with Him. He went through the door. He united His divinity to our humanity and that is how He became the Good Shepherd who could reach clear down to the bottom of the sin problem and pick up a lost sheep and take him back to the fold. Now friend, do you understand what it means to go through the door? Just as He united His divinity with our humanity, our humanity must be united with His divinity or we cannot be saved.

That is what it means to go through the door. Your humanity must be united with His divinity. You and I, as it says in 2 Peter 1, must become partakers of the divine nature. That is why Jesus used the symbol of being born again of the Spirit. When you are born again, you are receiving of the divine nature; receiving a new mind, a new spirit. Paul said, "All things are passed away, everything has become new." You are a new creature.

That is what it means to go through the door. Oh, friend, you may have been baptized with water, you may have your name on the church book, but if you have gone over the wall, if you have not gone through the door, you are not saved tonight. You are just as lost as the people on the outside of the fold.

One of the things that we get criticized for, people say, "Well, you historic Adventists, you think that you are right and everybody else is wrong?" It is not a matter of trying to figure out who is wrong so much as it is trying to figure out what the Bible says and whether I am in harmony with it. I want to tell you, friends, if you read the gospel of John, it is in this book, over and over again, almost every chapter, this truth is taught in some way-- your humanity must be united with His divinity or you are lost.

That is what this story teaches. You have to go through the door. He went through the door. He united His divinity with our humanity. We must go through the door. We must unite our humanity with His divinity. Otherwise we have gone over the wall and that is why there is so much trouble in Adventism today. We have too many people who have gone over the wall, they have not gone through the door. They are wolves in sheep's clothing and that is why there is so much backbiting. That is the reason so many sheep are getting mauled and turned out of the fold.

This subject of the door is a very interesting one to think about, but we need to go to another very important symbol, and that is the sheep. The purpose of the fold is to protect the sheep. Are you one of His sheep? Many times as I have studied this story, I have said, "Lord, I want to be one of Your sheep and I am going to hear Your voice. I want to hear Your voice today. I want You to direct my life today."

In verse 3 it says that the sheep hear His voice. And it says He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. It says that the sheep follow Him because they know His voice. Oh, friend, are you one of His sheep? The highest privilege any human being can have is just to be one of His sheep. If you are one of His sheep, you will know His voice.

This is something that is alarming to me tonight; because in Adventism today, there are so many people, that for one reason or another, do not recognize the Shepherd's voice. If you are one of His sheep, you will recognize His voice. When He speaks to you through the testimonies of His Spirit, when He sends a special messenger to the remnant, when He speaks to you through the prophets and the apostles, you will recognize His voice.

Not only will you recognize His voice, but it says that He leads them out and the sheep follow Him. They hear the voice and they follow where that voice tells them to go.

Oh, friend, if we have the inspired writings in our possession and we are not living in harmony with them, what does that say about our situation? The sheep hear His voice and they follow!

And they will not listen to a stranger. If you are really a sheep, you will not listen to the voice of a stranger. They will flee from him. Oh, friend, what voices are you listening to? What voices are your children listening to? It is an amazing thing to me that among our dear people, people will be listening to all these voices. They are reading all these different books and all these different magazines, looking at all these different videos and television programs and listening to all these different radio programs. They are reading all these things and listening to all these things, their children go right out into the world and then they come to us and they say, "What happened?"

What has happened is that your children have been listening to the voice of a stranger for twenty years. What do you expect? Oh, friend, are you really one of His sheep? As I prayed about this, I said, "Lord, You promised, if I am one of Your sheep, I am going to hear Your voice. Please help me to hear Your voice." Well, I will tell you something. When I read the Bible and when I read the writings of Ellen White, I hear His voice and I do not have any questions in my mind about these things. I have checked it out, but it is not just a matter of being able to prove it.

When I was a young man and was going to the Seminary, I started checking out the proofs. Why do I believe, for instance, that all sixty-six books of the Bible are inspired? I have studied that out for long periods of time. I have checked the evidence and I know why I believe those things. I have checked the evidence as to why I believe that Ellen White is a prophetess. I still have notebooks full of the research I did showing the evidence for those things.

But, friend, if you are one of His sheep, when you read those things, you are going to hear the Shepherd's voice and you are going to follow. You are going to obey. Oh, friend, how is it with you and me tonight? Are we sheep? Or are we goats? You know, goats do not listen so well. Have you noticed that? Have you ever raised goats? They are not like sheep.

If you are one of His sheep, you are hearing His voice, you know His voice, you know Him, He knows you and you are following Him. That is, you are obeying whatever He tells you to do. Whatever He tells you to do, through the prophets, or the apostles or through the special messenger to the remnant, you obey--if you are one of His sheep.

As Adventists, we do not like the doctrine of once saved always saved because it is a false doctrine and we are told in Christ's Object Lessons, 155 that we should never teach people to think that they are saved. However, I want to tell you, that if you are one of His sheep, and if you are meeting the specifications that we have talked about tonight, Jesus makes some pretty strong statements about assurance.

You can have assurance and God wants you to have assurance--if you are hearing His voice and if you are following, if you are obeying, you can have assurance that you are going to be saved. Notice what Jesus says in John 10:27-29. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand."

The older I get, the more I realize that the plan of salvation is simple. You do not have to be a theologian, you do not have to have a brilliant I.Q. and you do not have to have a college education, but you do need to hear His voice and you need to follow and obey. When you hear His voice, when He speaks to you through the prophets and the apostles, or through the special messenger to the remnant-- if you hear His voice and follow and obey, He is going to put you in His hand and nobody is going to take you out. You do not need to worry. "My Father who gave you to me is greater than all and nobody can snatch them out of my Father's hand." "I and my Father are one." John 10:30.

You have the promises of the Father and the Son. His government and His throne in heaven will have to be demolished before you can be lost. That is strong assurance. But, oh friend, if you want that assurance, you have to be willing to listen to His voice. As you keep listening to His voice, if you keep reading the inspired writings, if you keep reading these books, what will happen? After a while you will be able to tell the difference between His voice and a stranger's voice.

That is one of the big problems in Adventism tonight. There are a lot of people that have not listened to the Shepherd's voice enough so they can tell the difference between His voice and the voice of a stranger. They cannot tell the difference. I want to tell you, if you are in that situation in our time, you are going to be lost. But if you listen to His voice, if you keep listening to His voice every day, you will be saved.

Are you having your devotions every day? When you get up in the morning, before you talk to anybody else, are you studying the Scriptures? Are you praying? Are you saying, "Lord, I want to hear Your voice, speak to me today from your inspired writings? Speak to me. Open my ears so I can hear. Open my eyes so I can see." Are you listening to His voice?

Are you listening to His voice so much that when some other voice comes along, you may not be able to tell exactly what is wrong with it, but you know it does not sound like the Shepherd's voice? You know that we have been warned that before we get to the end of time, it is going to become so deceptive, that error and truth are going to be so close together, that only by the Holy Spirit will you be able to tell the difference.

You and I need to be listening, day by day, to His voice so that we can tell the voice of the Shepherd from the voice of a stranger. Otherwise, we are not going to make it. When Ellen White talks about error and truth being so close together that only through the power of the Holy Spirit will you be able to tell the difference, I want to tell you, she was talking about something that is very deceptive. It will look like the truth.

God is going to have a people who will know the Shepherd's voice from all other voices. We did not study all of this passage of Scripture in John 10, but as we have studied a few points, I want to ask you this question before we go. Remember that you have to go through the door. Your humanity has to be united with His divinity.

When your humanity is united with divinity that is what gives you the power to overcome sin. That is why people who do not go through the door, think that you have to continue in sin and there is no other way to be saved. Then you have to have a new theology to teach people how to be saved in sin, because, if your humanity is not united with His divinity, if you have not gone through the door, you cannot overcome sin. You are stuck.

But, oh, friend, have you listened to the voice of the Shepherd so much that you can distinguish His voice from all the other voices? It has a different sound to it. But you have to listen to it for a while before you can be able to distinguish it from all other voices; all the others that say, "I have the truth," and from all the antichrists. There are going to be many antichrists, you know, before the end. The Bible is very clear on that point.

You know what an antichrist is? An antichrist is somebody that steps in the place of Christ and says, "I am a representative of Christ." They are all over the world today, and it is going to get worse and it is going to be within Adventism. Ellen White said that there will be many voices. They will say, "I have the truth. I have great light." Oh, friend, if you have not been listening to the Shepherd's voice, you are going to get deceived.

As I have studied these things, I have said, "Lord, what can I do to stimulate God's people to spend time listening to the Shepherd's voice every day?" Study the inspired writings, memorize the promises. Memorizing the important passages, important texts, so you know what the Shepherd's opinion is on everything--and you are following His leading.

When Jesus comes, He is coming back to get His sheep. Read it in Matthew 25. He is going to separate everything out. If you are going to be saved, you have to be one of His sheep. But to be one of His sheep, you have to listen to His voice, follow and obey.

Before we close, maybe there is somebody here, and the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart, telling you that you need to go through the door. You need to become one of His sheep. The way you become one of His sheep is by going through the door. When your humanity becomes united to His divinity, then you have power to overcome sin. Then all those things, those thoughts, those words, those actions that you could not overcome before, you will have power to overcome them now. You will be called with a holy calling.

Maybe there is somebody here, maybe you have been discouraged. I meet lots of discouraged people. Maybe you have been discouraged because you are saying, "Pastor John, you know I have tried to overcome such-and-such a hundred times or who knows how many hundred times, and I cannot!"

I say, "Yes, I know you cannot, but Jesus can. If you are united with Him, you and He combined can overcome." If you are willing to go through the door, you can overcome. You can then become one of His sheep. You will not just be in the church, a wolf in sheep's clothing or a tare. You will be one of His sheep.

And, oh, before we go we must pray. Maybe there is somebody here and your heart is crying out, and you say, "Lord, I want to become one of Your sheep. I do not want to be a tare. I do not want to be a wolf in sheep's clothing anymore. I want to really be one of Your sheep." Remember, if you are one of His sheep, you are in His hand and the devil and all the hosts of hell cannot take you out. You are secure for eternity--as long as you are one of His sheep. It is the best, safest, position that anybody can be in. If you want to be one of His sheep, I want to pray for you.

The way you become part of His sheep is to make a decision. Say, "Lord, I am willing to go through the door. I am willing to overcome sin if you will unite my weak humanity to your powerful divinity, I am willing to do it so I can overcome sin so I can be one of Your sheep."

If you are willing to go through the door, you can be one of His sheep tonight. You can leave this building as one of His sheep, if you are willing to go through the door. If you want to do that, I want to invite you to accept His invitation to come through the door as we kneel and pray. Afterward, if you have never been baptized before and you want to prepare to be baptized, come up here to the front and see me after the meeting. I will be glad to make arrangements so you can prepare for that.

But even if you have been baptized, if you went over the wall, you need to go through the door and become one of His sheep so you are not a wolf in sheep's clothing or one of the tares. Will you not decide to do it tonight? While we pray, if the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart, will you yield to Jesus? Will you choose to go through the door tonight? Will you say, "Yes," now while the Holy Spirit is speaking to you?

Remember, friend, you do not get to choose when the Holy Spirit speaks to you. If the Holy Spirit is speaking to you now, you do not know when the next time is going to be. You had better answer now.

As far as possible, let us all kneel and pray and ask the Lord for this experience.