Hello again. Good morning. We'll set a timer. I want to
get through this whole portion of scripture, but we
can stop short. It'll be okay if I need to. If you will, let's
turn to 1 Samuel 17. Judges Ruth say, don't forget
the kings, you went too far. We're going to be looking at
Psalm 23, but we're going to start First Samuel. Brother Rob read there in Ecclesiastes
about that wise preacher, that good preacher that seeks a word.
That all comes from the one shepherd, it says. The one shepherd, that's
his word. And I hope I have a word of his,
and just tell you what he said. I wanna look at that good shepherd,
the person of salvation. Jehovah Rea, the Lord our shepherd. Lord, my shepherd. But I wanna
see here in Psalm, or 1 Samuel 17, David wrote, and we all know
this is the most quoted psalm. in scripture. Psalm 23, the Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. One time there was a thespian,
an actor, got up on stage, and he was accepting a great award
for acting, and he got up and he read Psalm 23, quoted it. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. However he acted it. And all
the people were just happy and moved, and they probably clapped
and things. Well that Sunday, him and one of his friends went
to the services, went to church, and a man got up and he read
Psalm 23, and he just stuttered. and fumbled, and said the words
backwards and had to kind of rewind and say it again. The
Lord's my, well, he's my shepherd, and he just fumbled through it.
And people there in that audience just wept. Those in that church
just wept. And his friend said, hey, you
read this the other day at the theater, and people clapped.
These people's crying, what's the difference? He said, I know
the psalm, he knows the shepherd. That's the difference. David
said, the Lord is my shepherd, and he knew what he was talking
about. These aren't just idle words that he was using. He knew
the shepherd and he knew what it meant to be a shepherd. First
hand. Look here in 1 Samuel 17 verse
31. Goliath had just showed up on
the scene. Everybody's worried. Here's this giant going to whoop
everybody. That's Philistine. So 1 Samuel
17 31. And when the words were heard
which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul. They went and
told Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, let no
man's heart fail because of him, because of Goliath. You boys
don't worry. Thy servant will go and fight this Philistine.
Here's young, small David and this mighty man of war out there,
this giant. And he said, it's all right,
I'll whoop him. I'll take care of it. Your servant will take
care of it. And David said to Saul, thy servant, I'm sorry,
verse 33. And Saul said to David, thou
art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him.
Thou art but a youth. He, a man of war from his youth. You're just a young boy. This
man's been fighting since he was your age. And David said
to Saul, thy servant kept his father's sheep. And there came
a lion. and a bear, and took a lamb out
of the flock. And I went out after him, and
I smote him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he
arose against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and
slew him." Now you see this. There's a shepherd boy. He kept
his father's sheep. And a bear and a lion came. The
lion took off with the sheep. David dealt with it. He went
and hit that lion. Cracked him on the head and it
let go of the sheep. The sheep ran to a bear. David went up
and grabbed a bear by the beard and slapped that sheep out of
his mouth. I don't want to do either, do
you? That's what David did. Did this really happen? Of course
it did. He wasn't lying. Why? Our great shepherd, we're
his sheep, his people. We were taken by the lion. What's
that? There's a lion that walks around this earth seeking to
devour who it may, who he may, right? Our great adversary, he's
got a hold of us and we cannot defeat him. We have no defenses
of ourselves. We have no offensive weapons.
A shepherd has to come and save us from Satan. Save us from that
great accuser. So often our nature, our nature
as dumb, filthy sheep, is to say Satan's bad, evil's bad,
sin's bad. What can we do to defeat the
lion? Run to the bear. What's the bear in scripture?
Hosea tells us that. It's the law. It's the law. How are we gonna keep from doing
bad things? Do the law. That's what it says. Now you
better get to it. No, we're dumb sheep. We're going
from something that wants to tear us limb from limb to something
that's just going to eat us. Going to eat us alive. We're
no match for it. Say no match for the law. What
are we going to do? Well, we'll have to have a shepherd.
Somebody's going to have to come and deal with that great accuser
and someone's going to have to come and deal with that law.
Both of them at the same time. One shepherd can't. That's what
David was showing here. He said, I went out, verse 35,
I went out after him and smote him and delivered him out of
his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his
beard and I smote him and slew him. Thy servant slew both the
lion and the bear. Our Lord come and he handled
our great adversary and he handled the law for his people. Now,
there's a giant. That's right in front of you
tomorrow. On a Tuesday morning, you show up to work, and there's
a giant, and he's clanging his sword, and he's got his helmet
on, and his breath plate on, and he's gonna whoop you, and
he's been doing this a lot longer than you have. You think the Lord
can handle that? He said, thy servant slew both
the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall
be as one of them, seeing he hath defiled the armies of the
living God. David knew what he was talking about when he said,
Lord's my shepherd. He physically went out and fought
a bear and a lion and saved a sheep, and this Philistine's nothing.
The Lord our shepherd, the Lord my shepherd, Jehovah-Raya, he's
defeated all my enemies, he's defeated the law for me, satisfied
it completely, and what else could come up in my life that
I shouldn't take to him? I can take my burdens to the
Lord, I ain't got no problems with that. Leaving them there
is another story. He'll handle it. This Philistine's nothing.
He'll take care of it. Psalm 23 says, Jehovah Rapha,
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. As we go through Psalm
23, we'll see all the names of the Lord. We always say there's
seven names of Jehovah, because seven's perfection, and man just
thinks he's got a corner on God, don't we? It's gotta be seven,
because that's what I can see. That ain't the case. He said,
he's a man of war, that's his name. That's the Lord's name.
We read there in Isaiah, he's the counselor. Call his name
Wonderful, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Mighty
God, that's his name. He's got a lot of names, and
boy, we need him. We have a mighty God, and I can only take a little
bit at a time. My feeble brain can only understand
so much at a time. And I need to learn that he's
gonna provide. I need to learn that he's my shepherd. I need
to learn that he's the one that heals. But he said, the Lord's
my shepherd, Jehovah Rapha, and I shall not want. That's Jehovah
Jireh. The Lord provides. The Lord provides. Remember Matthew chapter six.
Matthew chapter six. The Lord says here in Matthew
6 verse 25. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought
for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink,
nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Is not life more
than meat? Is not the body more than raiment?
Behold, the fowls of the air, they sow not, neither do they
reap, nor gather in the barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking
thought, can add one cubit to his stature? Can you make yourself
taller? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow, and they toil not, neither do
they spin. And yet I say unto you that even
Solomon, 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 in the oven, shall he not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Wherefore, take no thought,
saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink, or wherewithal
shall we be clothed? For all these things do the Gentiles
seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
That's what the Lord instructed us. You seek his kingdom first. You seek his righteousness first. And he provides, he provides. Peter said there, throw Matthew
19 real quick. Matthew 19. This rich young ruler
had come and the Lord spoke to him and said, you lack one thing,
you lack one thing. He said, I've kept the law for
my youth up. I'm good on the outside. He said, oh really?
OK. You lack one thing. Get rid of everything you've
got. Throw away all your law keeping. Throw away all your
good works. Throw away all your obedience. And you take Christ's
obedience. How about that? Sell off everything
you've got and follow me. Follow after my obedience. And
they said, Lord. I can't do that. He took off,
didn't he? And the disciples said, the Lord said, it's easier
for a rich man or a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than a rich man to enter heaven. And the apostles said, Lord, who
then can be saved? Were they all rich? Were they
multi-millionaires? Maybe we ain't talking about
wealth, huh? Maybe that's talking about something else. But Peter
responds to this. They're in Matthew 19, verse
27. And Peter, then answered Peter
and said unto him, behold, we have forsaken all and follow
thee. What shall we have therefore? We've left everything for you.
What are we gonna get? And Jesus said, then verily I
say unto you that ye which have followed me in the regeneration,
when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye
also shall sit upon 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
That's to come. But verse 29 says, and everyone
that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father,
or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake,
shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting
life. He says later in Luke 22, that
the Lord sent out the 70. He said, I sent you out without
purse, without script, without shoes. Lacked ye anything? I told you not to take those
things. Have you lacked anything? Have I provided? And they said,
nothing. They've lacked nothing. I've
known that from my youth. The Lord said, you follow me,
you forsake your mother and your father and your sisters and your
brothers, you follow me and I'll give you a hundredfold on this
earth. And I thought, that's not quid pro quo, I know that,
but I believe what he said. And you know what's happened?
I have two brothers and a sister that go to church and profess
to know who God is and stuff, and they hate the gospel. They're
churchgoers and they hate God. And I can't talk to them about
these things. And I've had to leave them. That's why you're
moving to California. That's crazy. You got no family out there in
California. I said, yeah, I do. And the whole way from here to
there. I can stop in Pennsylvania. I can stop in Ohio. I can stop
in Kentucky. I can stop in Tennessee. I can stay in Missouri. I had
brothers and sisters. Look how many the Lord's gave
me. Has increased me 100 fold. Then some, hasn't it? What if
I had a flat in Texas? I know a couple of places I could
go that would help me fix the flat, wouldn't I? He's not lying.
He's proved himself to me. He's proved himself. I've lacked
nothing. And that's just physically. That's just here on this earth.
Like a sparrow getting fed that doesn't have a barn. I've got
clothes on. I've got a wife. I've got food
in my belly. All the Lord's doing. Well, what about spiritually?
Have we lacked anything spiritually in the Lord our shepherd? This
one that's totally responsible for us. In all of our ways, have
we lacked anything? Have we lacked anything? Have
we got our daily bread? Have we seen Christ today? Has
he gave us something to eat? Has he provided all of our righteousness?
Has he provided all of our wisdom? That's what Paul was saying.
He said, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has
made unto us wisdom. What do I know apart from Christ
that's worth anything? Nothing. And righteousness. What's the acts of a holy nature
that I could have apart from Him that's better than Him? And
sanctification. How could I set myself apart,
make myself holy, anoint myself? He does that in Him. And redemption. How could I redeem
myself? He's our redemption. He's our
resurrection. You need to do something to that
cup he gave you? You need to go polish his shepherd's
hook? I think he's just fine, don't
you? Everything's ready. How did Jehovah Rea, the Lord
my shepherd, give us such things? He was made just like his people.
This person that saved us, the person of our salvation, he was
made just like us. He's the only shepherd that ever
lived that knew what it was like to be a sheep. I've seen one guy that raises
goats on YouTube. It walks around on all fours.
But he don't know what it's like to be a goat. He can act like
one. This great shepherd knows exactly
what it's like to be one of his sheep. Turn over to John 10.
John 10. I promise we'll get to Psalm
23. John 10 verse 11, the Lord was
made like us. He came here to this earth to
do something. For his sheep, he came to save
his sheep. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. How's he gonna do that? By being
our shepherd, Jehovah Rea. John 10 verse 11, he says, I
am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. He came to this earth as a man,
as the good shepherd, and he laid down his life for the sheep.
I know there's probably some people on this earth that would
die for their dogs. I'm not one of those people.
I get that. But would you take your only
begotten son, your only begotten daughter, your flesh and blood,
and go and slay them, and torture them, and have them spit upon,
and a crown of thorns put on their head for a chihuahua? Mm,
that ain't happenin'. This good shepherd came, and
he willingly, I cannot get over that, that's been just, with
the joy set before him, he willingly laid down his life for this worthless,
stinkin' dumb, halt lane blind sheep. That's a good shepherd, isn't
it? Is that good? Gets better than that, Hebrews 13. The Lord came, this great shepherd,
he came to this earth, was made like us, laid down his life for
his sheep, and he rose for us. Hebrews 13, verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep. through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Who does that? The shepherd does. The shepherd does. Make you perfect
in every good work to do his will, working in you that which
is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom
be glory forever and ever, amen. If I can work something good
in you, Who gets a glory for that? If you can work something
good in me, now Kevin, come on, we're gonna buddy up and we can
quote a lot of scripture to make ourselves think we're doing something.
Iron trough burns iron or whatever. Who gets a glory in that? Where
do we stand in glory? The shepherd has to do that.
And how does that under-shepherd do it? You get a word from him.
I get a word, you get a word from him. What's he say? Just
tell you what he says. I told our folks here in San
Diego. In a sense, okay, that's the, In a sense, I got the easiest
job on earth. I say, come, everything's done.
And if anybody has anything, questions, well, what about this?
Well, what's God say? Well, what about that? Here's,
thus saith the Lord. That's what he says. In a sense,
that's the easiest job on earth, isn't it? Don't plan out that
way, but. This good shepherd came and was
made like us. This great shepherd, he was risen
for us to make us perfect. We became him, he became us.
He's our righteousness. He's our axe from a holy nature
and He is our holy nature. He's everything, the water and
the blood. He's bought us and He's washed us clean for eternity.
It gets better than that. 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. He's the chief shepherd. This good shepherd came, laid
down his life for the sheep. He was the great shepherd that
rose again from the grave for his sheep. And he's the chief
shepherd that shall come again for his sheep. 1 Peter 5 verse
1. The elders which are among you
I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind. neither as being lords over God's
heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief
shepherd shall appear, that day is coming, he shall receive a
crown of glory that fadeth not away. He's coming again. That's what God's prophets in
our day, people flinch at that, and I do too, but what does a
prophet tell you? So what's gonna happen, God's
gonna save his people and he's coming again to get them. Well,
it's not too complicated. No, it ain't, is it? He shall
save His people, and He's gonna plumb save them. He's gonna return
and take us to, what a day that'll be. That's when this sin-cursed
world is watered up and threw away, and we'll be made like
Him and worship Him as He ought to be worshiped. And how do we
get to that point? From eternity past to right then,
that shepherd guided us, that Jehovah-Jireh provided everything
we were, everything we needed in totality. Philip and that
Ethiopian eunuch were reading Isaiah 53. We'll turn there too.
I know we've read it a lot, but boy, it's just precious. Isaiah
53. Isaiah 53 verse 6, here's what
this Ethiopian eunuch was reading, and Philip said, hey, do you
know what you're reading? He said, how can I unless a man tell me? Well,
if there was a portion of scripture he could have got a hold of,
this would have been it. If man could discern these things, and it
was private interpretation, this would have been the private interpretation.
Isaiah 53 verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. That's us. Well, most of us has
gone astray. No, it says A double L, don't
it? All we, all we, like sheep, have
gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. All of our going astray, all
of us going our own way, all that was put on Christ, all of
our sin. You start, Dividing this stuff up, you get
your dry erase board and say, well, there's sins of omission
and commission. Well, let's define these. There's
cardinal sins. We have to define those before
we can deal with things. Next thing you know, you're Roman
Catholic. Don't take a short waterfall
trip to find out where you are, is it? All the sin that we committed
willfully, conscious or unconscious, was laid on Christ. All of our
iniquity, all the things that we thought we was doing good,
That's dangerous. Laid on him. Laid on him. Everything that's sheepish about
us was put on him. The Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before his shears is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth. Why was this great shepherd,
why was he quiet? Why didn't he open his mouth?
He was made his sheep. He could have said, here's what's
happening. I'm going to go to this cross, because Eric, you
did this bad. Michelle, you did this bad. Christina,
go all the way down. Kevin Thacker, here's all Kevin
Thacker's sins. Now here's all the bad things he did, and I'm
going to go pay for them. That would have glorified himself,
and he's right to do so, isn't he? But he would have justified
himself and not justified his people. He had to keep his mouth
shut because he was made me. He was made you. And he went
to that cross. And God Almighty went to punish
him. And he said, it's right, strike on. This is just. This is holy. It's good. I'm
going to keep my mouth shut for me. Now, do you want to go out
and sin more? Do you loathe yourself? Do you abhor yourself? Lord,
stop it now. Take a sin from me. Don't let
me say no more. I know what the payment is. I
know what the cost is. A shepherd was made his sheep,
verse eight, and he was taken from prison and judgment, who
shall declare his generation. For he was cut off out of the
land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked and the rich in his death
because he had done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his
mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. hath put him to
grief, and thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He
shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. How are you gonna make, people
say, how are you gonna make God happy? It's gonna take him, it's
gonna take his son. How is God gonna be satisfied
with my sin and iniquity and my war against him? It's gonna
take Christ. That's always gonna be satisfied.
He shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, will I divide with
him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil
with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death,
and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bear the
sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. That's
the work of the person. That's who saved us. That's the great shepherd. That's
my shepherd. Look here, back to Psalm, well,
I guess for the first time, Psalm 23. Well, now I'll get to my
text. I got six minutes left. Psalm
23. Psalm 23 says, the Lord is my
shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me,
he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside
the still waters. He makes me lie down. What does
that word lie down mean? Crouch? Submit, bow. If you're gonna bow to God, he's
gonna have to make you bow to God. He's gonna have to break your proud
spirit and make you bow to him alone like nobody else is in
the room. It also means recline. You know what happens when the
Lord makes you submit to him, makes you bow? We just flinch
in this generation when you hear the word submit. Boy, that's
freedom. You got a good shepherd, that's freedom. You recline.
That's the best lazy boy we ever heard of. You rest. There's submission
and rest in the same thing. And he makes it happen. Green
pastures. Sheep eat grass, don't they?
That's the word. That's his word. I spoke to a guy that kept sheep
one time. I said, boy, how do you keep his sheep so healthy?
He said, I keep good grass. He said, you've got to be a grass
farmer, not a sheep farmer. That's the Word that He gives.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. That's the green pastures He
makes us rest in and submit to. His Word. His Word. His person
and His Word. Jehovah-Rei, Lord's my shepherd.
Jehovah-Jireh, He provides, and Jehovah-Shalom. He's our rest. He's our peace. He makes me lie
down. Makes me rest. Verse three. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in passive righteous for my name's sake. He restores my soul.
Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. Well, what was
I? What I still am in this old man,
but left to myself, well, he's healed us. This great physician's
given us life, hasn't he? Jehovah Rapha, he heals us. The
Lord's our shepherd, he leads us, he leads his sheep in paths
of righteousness. What path of righteousness? Jehovah
Sitkenu, the Lord our righteousness. That's where we're led. All the
way to that altar of marriage. Right to him. And we're given
his name, the Lord our righteousness. Why does He do such things? Why
does He guide us? Why does He heal us? Why does
He give us rest? Why does He provide for us in
all things? It says, for His namesake. He leads me in paths of righteousness
for, because of, His namesake. 30 times in scripture it says,
for his namesake. There in all the Old Testament,
19 times the Lord says, gives us his promises. Here's what
I'm gonna do for my spiritual Israel, for my people, my elect
throughout time. And I'm gonna do it because of
my namesake. For his honor, for his good pleasure, for his glory,
that's why he's doing it. 19 times he tells us that. Our
Lord came to this earth, he walked this earth as the good shepherd,
and nine times he says, for my namesake. for my name's sake. He came to fulfill that promise. God was promised of old and he
brought it to pass, all those promises, in his son, in the
incarnation of his son to walk this earth. Therefore, because
of what has now been accomplished, when Christ came and did accomplish
those promises, and mankind knows it, that's why they get mad.
His sheep are going to be hated. He said, for my namesake, you'll
be hated. For my namesake, you're going to be killed. For my namesake,
you're going to be persecuted. You're going to have hands laid
on you. They're going to try to take stones and bash your brains
out. You're going to be made to suffer all for his namesake.
And then John tells us twice. He writes in 1 John, his third
epistle, he refers to his namesake. He said, your sins are forgiven
for his namesake. All those promises fulfilled
in Christ, we're gonna suffer as he said, but we're saved because
of his namesake. And he says it's just a reasonable
service for the church of God, one to another, for his namesake. For us to lay down our lives
for one another, to suffer for one another, to give our all
for one another. That's reasonable. Why? His name's
Satan. Verse four says, yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, for they are with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. The sheep are at peace in the
valley of the shadow of death. That's this world, that's this
body. If I was all alone on a deserted island, and I read the scriptures,
it's every bit true what's going on right there with me and me
alone. the war that goes on, the accusing that goes on. There
ain't no way I could be a child of God. I don't need nobody else
to tell me that. Tell me that in the mirror every
day. But the Lord's present. This great shepherd, he's present. He said, for thou art with me.
Jehovah Shema, the Lord's present. His rod and his staff, they comfort
me. They comfort me. To be chastened
to the Lord, we know your son. I know y'all have heard that
story of the groovers down in Mexico. They ended up caring for a young
girl. And Walter would go in and he'd
whip his children. They'd do something wrong and
he'd say, now you stop doing that. But he'd go take his children aside and
whip them. And finally, that girl started pitching a fit in
the living room. He said, now you stop that. She got a little
louder. He said, you quit that or I'm
going to whip you. And she just turned it up to 11. And he took
her in the back room and Cody and all of them was like, oh
buddy, you don't know what's coming. You don't know what happens back
there. And he took her back there and just whooped her good, spanked
her. And he got through spanking her
and he said, what you did is wrong, don't you do it again. And she reached
up and hugged his neck and she said, now I know you love me.
Now I know you. Whenever you take a trial that
the Lord gives, you think, boy, this is hard, we gotta do something
about it. Don't throw that blessing away. Lord sent that to chasten his
child. That's precious, because you're going to see Christ at
the end of it. Old Brother Spurgeon said that too. He said, you know,
we've got to comfort one another, bear one another's burdens, suffer.
We've got to do all these things, cover up sin one for another.
You better appreciate that while you can, because when this life's
over, it ain't ever going to happen again. You better wipe
away all the tears you can now. What an honor and privilege that
is, because there'll be no tears. We'll burn in glory. Won't be
any sorrow, won't be any suffering. That's a privilege to suffer
for another, isn't it? But the Lord's present. Well, what about
Jehovah Nisi, the Lord our banner? Verse five. Thou preparest a
table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil, my cup runneth over. The table, that's our banner. That's where we rally to, that's
where we gather. Just to get a crumb from the
master's table. A crumb. What if all we got this
weekend was one little crumb from the master's table? Would
that be sufficient? His grace is sufficient. But
what a table set before us. The sheep, for the sheep. His
body, it's broken for you. We observed the Lord's table.
His blood, it was shed for you. And he says, take, eat. It's
my body. That's a banner. He is what we
rally around. Christ is our banner. Our heads are anointed with oil.
The Lord our shepherd's done this. He said, thou anointest
my head with oil, David wrote. And the Lord was telling Moses
how to make that anointing go on, what to put on it, and what
to put it on, and he said, anything it touches is sanctified, it's
holy, it's for the use of God. And our heads are anointed with
oil. What's that mean? We consider things above. We seek not our
own, we seek his kingdom. We're called into remembrance
of him. We know a person and we remember
a person. That's not common. That doesn't
happen everywhere. This is a precious, dear thing
that we have right here, to remember him. He said, thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil and my cup runneth over. I just thought of this. How does our cup run over? Henry
used to say, if the Lord's in someone, he's going to spill
out. Christ dwells in you, he's gonna come out some way, isn't
he? I thought of that song, suffer a sinner whose heart overflows,
loving his savior to tell what he knows. Once more to tell it
would I embrace. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Knowing that the Lord is my shepherd,
my shepherd. We see him in his totality. Everything
He is for His people, but knowing He's mine. He's not just, well,
He's the shepherd, that's true. He's not a shepherd, He's my
shepherd. Can you say that? Knowing Him,
knowing who He is, that He's mine, I'm His, I'm fully persuaded
of something else. Verse six. Surely, positively,
without a doubt, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Because of him, I'll dwell in
his house forever. Surely goodness and mercy. Spurgeon
said that goodness and mercy are the watchdogs of the children
of God. Goodness rides out in front of
us, provides all things according to his will of that great shepherd. And mercy is right on our tail,
blotting out all transgressions that we just committed. That's a good place to be, isn't
it? We walk through that valley of the shadow of death. That
shepherd's with us, our great shepherd. We're in that shadow
right now, aren't we? Here in this world. But you know
what grows? You ever been on a mountain over
10,000 feet? They call it the tree line. You've been in Colorado.
What grows up there? Nothing grows up high. What grows
in those deep valleys where the sun's only up for about five
hours a day? All that nutrients goes to the bottom. That's where
stuff grows, isn't it? The Lord's going to grow us. Our shepherd's
going to feed us. It's going to be down in a valley, in a
dark valley. But He's with us, and He provides, and He heals,
and He covers, and He's our righteousness. So what do we have to fear? That's
when He comes to the heart and says, fear not. Lo, I am with
thee. I praise with us. Amen.