John 10:7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

Many churches, even well known ones, have attempted to replace Jesus as the door of the sheep. They’ll come across as religious, pious, complete with smoke, incense, prayer, altars, etc. to hide this fact.

Here in John 10, Jesus confronted a world religion mainly the Pharisees who did attempt for decades and decades to replace the person and work of the Messiah by which they implemented their own system of justice and salvation. Mind you, they didn’t eliminate God’s laws, but they went much further and invented new traditions and laws. They did so in my view because knowing that keeping the law, albeit to a subjective level, was never going to be enough, they would replace the Messiah with a new law and delusionally thought God would accept this.

So when the Messiah came and looked them straight in the eyes and said “I am the door of the sheep, not you or your religious system”, that was what sent them into a frenzy as they then sought to kill Jesus. They did NOT like this one bit, as if they were not this door for God’s sheep, they’d be out of business. Their control over sinners would be squashed.

The Pharisees understood that only God could forgive sins, and here was Jesus claiming He was this God. “How DARE He”, they thought, because the god they invented had they as his executioner and door for the sheep. So they needed to get rid of this guy, or the sheep would hear and believe Him and directly be forgiven, there would be no further need for their temple tax system either. The unreachable salvation carrots they put in front of the sinner’s nose would be gone if Jesus had His way.

Many modern religions also have attempted to replace Jesus. Look no further than the Catholic Church, the Mormon church, the Jehovah Witnesses, and others who say they are modern day replacements in their theology. They claim to be the door of the sheep, and tell the sinner “we are Jesus’ live in person representative”, knowing mankind naturally needs to see in order to believe, knowing that sinners are lost and need hope.

So hooking the sinner into their cult like systems is easy by just stating “in order to be forgiven of your sins, we MUST do this for you”. The sinner being duped just like the Pharisees did to their flock, becomes then dependent on their system for a perceived salvation. They really don’t want to go to hell, so they’ll buy anything without discerning who the door is for their forgiveness really is. And His name is Jesus Christ, the ONLY door, the ONLY way to salvation, He is the DOOR, not a church!

Are you locked into a system which holds your forgiveness hostage?? Answer this question honestly. Because there’s just one path to forgiveness, and it is directly going by faith alone to Jesus Christ!! He turns NO sheep away nor does He lose any granted to Him! Stop wasting time, and start believing!

If you open a Bible and it seems like a convoluted complicated mess, there is a reason. While God’s word is readily available to every living soul, it isn’t going to make sense to everyone. God is behind this, as He is the only One who will allow enlightenment.

So who does God enlighten? That is of His counsel alone, to His will, to His purpose. When does God do this? Again it would be to His timing alone, but it happens when He regenerates a fallen sinner’s heart. I can say in my case, before that point, I really understood NOTHING. Based on pride, I was reading INTO the Bible everything I wanted it to say.

Upon my regeneration, God said “STOP, and learn”. And it was then, while I thought I knew everything, I realized I knew nothing at all. But then the Bible starting making sense. The words were literally jumping off the page as I asked myself “why didn’t I see this before!”.

But the learning never stops, God will keep teaching and applying His word so that while one day it might mean an application for one thing, and the next year He’ll add more to this application. Again, all to His purpose and will.

Some will have a fast track, some will need to proceed slower. Again, if you are trusting that it is God teaching you, that trust means He will only let you learn what He wants you to learn. So try and not get frustrated as in this lifetime we’ll NEVER know everything.

ONE HUGE TIP!

What I learned from God is that you MUST, I repeat MUST view God as sovereign when you read and study His word. This means He is the Authority, you are the servant. There is no “co-teachers” or “cooperation” or “collaboration” when it comes to His word. So this means every teaching you hear or learn from others is BELOW God’s word in authority. If you place it above? Well, vast areas of Scripture will NOT MAKE SENSE.

And lastly NEVER, I repeat NEVER interject what your heart personally wants Scripture to say. Born in sin, our hearts are “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9). So this means a complete surrender to what God has said, NOT what you want Him to say. By doing surrendering this way, be prepared for a JOYFUL enlightenment! You will most likely say as I did “why didn’t I see that before!”. You will grow to really love God’s word and see a systematic string all throughout, and that is the person and work of Jesus Christ, God’s redemptive plan, God’s purposes, and a revelation of who He is.

The common theme throughout the years is that America is predominantly a Christian nation. But let’s analyze a few things in today’s society to discern this theme.

While it is true, that the nation was founded on Christian principles “in God we trust”, and whose founders implemented those the moral and virtuous theme of Christianity into the constitution and founding principles, America is hardly a Christian nation.

Look no further than the murder of the unborn. A nation whose zeal, whose desire was to call abortion good and pro-life principles evil cannot be “Christian” no matter the rationalization. Look at the zeal for immoral lifestyles, where the highly degenerate Kardashian family gets much more press and attention than any actual Christian family. Look at the zeal for living for self, and how sports teams squash any following of Jesus Christ. Look at how actual Christians are treated.

Look! If hypothetically Jesus Christ Himself ran for political office in the United States, He wouldn’t make it out of the primaries. Jesus would summarily dismissed as an “extremist” or “domestic terrorist” and most likely labeled a “racist”. You think the Pharisees and scribes persecuted Him, well there would be NO comparison on how He’d be tortured, threatened, and persecuted by a modern day America.

And don’t me get wrong, several churches would join in on the persecution, they’d call Jesus an “intolerant bigot”. They’d call His doctrines “unloving” and “hateful”, and like the Pharisees of old would most likely be the ones calling on the secular authorities to arrest Him and put Him to death!

So is America a Christian nation? Hardly!

Psalm 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.”

Believe it or not, but every human being born after Adam less Jesus Christ, was born a real fool. We naturally lie to our hearts and say “there is no God” and would live out the rest of our lives this way unless God intervenes.

And unless that intervention comes, we delusionally continue to lie and then attempt to become our own god. We make the rules for right and wrong, we decide what is ethical, moral, and good. We decided what is sin as well. This is why the Psalmist says “there is none who does good”, because “goodness” compared to a holy God is an unachievable endeavor.

The real fools are those who will continue to say “there is no God” until their dying breath. Only then to discover that absolutely EVERYTHING they ever accomplished in this life including the very breath they too was all given by God. They never realized that God sent them their spouse and children, their jobs, their provision, the many good things, as their deluded fallen hearts told them they created this through their own will and exertion.

What a regret that day will be! To finally realize the TRUTH, that the Almighty God is sovereign. And as mentioned, we ALL have been fools. Just because God intervened doesn’t dismiss the fact that if saved, you were a deadly fool as well. Some forget this fact, or try to portray themselves as never having been real fools as anyone else.

And let’s be clear as well, if you are trying to save yourself by your “goodness”, it doesn’t matter how much lip service you give to God, you are actually saying IN YOUR HEART, “there is no God”. You invented a god to suit yourself most likely through a world religion such as Roman Catholicism or other religions who use the humanistic “goodness scale” to determine who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. Whereas God is using His own scale, which is His holiness compared to everyone else.

Jesus Christ is the only who has met the “goodness” standard, and there is just one way to eternal life, it is through His person and work alone! Place your faith alone in Him!