Congregational Pulpit John 10:3-5 To him the porter opens; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.… Christ came — I. TO IMPART THE BLESSEDNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. Note — 1. That a state of sin is moral death — a want of spiritual discernment, feeling, activity. When life from Christ comes the eyes are opened, the ears hear, etc. 2. The enjoyment of religion is comparative life. Death is stamped on all else. Honours die; wealth perishes; so do pleasures. Gourds wither; "nature decays, but grace must live." "I have," said a sickly Christian man, while beholding his natural face in a glass, "I have the image of death on the outer man, but I have the image of life on the inward one." 3. Life from Christ is the only true life. It is a state of favour with God — "In His favour is life." And it comprehends an existence for highest and noblest objects — a life for God and souls. II. TO COMMUNICATE SPIRITUAL LIFE IN SUPERABUNDANCE. This great truth applies — 1. To each individual believer. In nature there are degrees of life. So in grace — one lives at a "dying rate," another lives happily, energetically, zealously: faith is lively, prayer fervent, labour great, hope strong. Let no one be content with bare spiritual existence; in Jesus there is a blessed fulness and freeness, and you may receive grace upon grace. 2. To the flock of Christ collectively. 3. To the blessedness of life eternal. It will exceed all present enjoyment. (Congregational Pulpit.) Parallel Verses KJV: To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. |
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