If you would, look with me in
your Bibles to a very familiar portion of Scripture, one that
perhaps you could recite by heart, and that is Psalm 23. I was a
little fearful that maybe somebody had already preached on this
recently, but I asked one of the men yesterday, and they said,
no, I don't think we've heard a message on Psalm 23 in a while,
which is amazing when you think about how much we have learned
this psalm. It was one of the first ones
I was required to learn by memory back when I was five years old
in a Sunday school program. But I'm thankful that as the
Lord has opened my eyes to Christ and I've gone back and considered
some of these portions that I committed to memory without any real insight
early on that now, as I read them and contemplate them, the
Lord is pleased to point me to Christ. And I believe that's
an important distinction between just merely learning scripture
by rote and understanding how these scriptures point us to
the Lord Jesus Christ. You can teach a parrot to say,
salvations of the Lord. And it will repeat it. Salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. But
that doesn't mean that parrot has any understanding of what
it is for salvation to be of the Lord. And I fear that with
Scripture, even the Pharisees, you talk about people that emphasize
Scripture memorization. They put it in phylacteries and
warts. Like you see people today wearing
it on t-shirts. Last night I saw some pretty
good scriptures on the back of some t-shirts where we ate. And
I just almost wanted to go up and tap them on the shoulder
and say, do you realize what you are wearing? What is the
significance of it? That would be a good conversation
opener perhaps. But we live just like in Crosstown. They wore these things on their
foreheads and on their arms. Somebody that even had Scripture
put on the drywall before they painted the wall to somehow sanctify
that house. These are ideas that people have
with regard to Scripture and yet no knowledge of Christ. And I pray that would not be
our case. As we look at this, don't let
the familiarity of the portion turn you off and think, well,
I know what Psalm 23 says. We all need to learn. Let me
read it for you here. And I want to speak to you about
this matter of the Lord, my shepherd. That's the title of this message,
the Lord, my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. And you notice is, is an italic. So it's in essence just attributing
to Christ his title, the Lord. Who is he? My shepherd. It would
be like you would address a prayer. Our God and Heavenly Father. So that's how this starts off. The Lord, my shepherd, and the
implication is, therefore, I shall not want. I'll not lack. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou
art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. There are some thoughts that
I want us to consider together in this portion of Scripture
that I pray the Lord will bless to our hearts. First off is who
is this shepherd? You always have to ask these
questions when you read a portion of scripture. Here it says, The
LORD my Shepherd. And you'll notice LORD is in
all caps, L-O-R-D. Wherever you see that in the
King James Version, it's the translation of the word Jehovah. That's one consistency that the
translators determined. to help us understand the use
of that particular word. And the word in the Hebrew simply
means I am. It's the verb I am. When I was taking Hebrew back
in school, when we had to conjugate verbs, that I am, the being verb,
you use the word Jehovah. That's the meaning. If you go
back to Exodus 3, in verse 14, there's different ways that God
has revealed Himself in Scripture. If it's simply the word God,
and I don't mean to belittle the name God by saying the word
simply, because every name of God is vital. But there is a
word for God, for example, in Genesis 1, in verse 1, where
It speaks of, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth. That word God is your word supreme
magistrate. It's the Hebrew word Elohim.
Interestingly, it is in the plural form. And so, yet when you read
Genesis 1 and verse 1, in the beginning, if you read it literally,
it would be, in the beginning, God's created. You might think, okay, were there
different gods involved in creation? No, that word created is actually
in the singular. So the whole idea of who God
is as Father, Son, and Spirit is set forth immediately right
from the first word. And that's who He is as Creator,
that's who He is as Judge, that's who He is as Sovereign in His
Providence, But when you see the word Jehovah in scripture,
whenever Jehovah, L-O-R-D is used, it is the word that God,
the title that God uses or chose to reveal himself to a particular
people. And that's what we see here in
Exodus chapter 3 and verse 14. You remember when Moses was given
this commission to go before Pharaoh. In verse 13, he said
unto God, that's that word Elohim, Behold, when I come unto the
children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your
fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What
is his name? What shall I say unto them? You
see, even Moses here was aware, we need a particularness here.
Because I'm going to stand before a country and a king and a ruler
where they already have a notion of gods. But what distinguishes
you from them? What name should I use? And here
it is. God said unto Moses, I am that
I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. I'm going to tell you, dear friends,
we live in a day where we need to distinguish between the God
of Scripture and the God that religion professes. It's so easy
today when people do these invocations to stand up and to make a prayer
to an unknown God. That's my whole impression. I
don't bow my head. I stand there and look straight
ahead. I don't want anybody around me thinking that in any way I'm
worshiping what that person is saying, even if they put the
name of Jesus to it. I'm convinced there is a difference
between the God we know and the God that the world worships.
I recently had this experience last week at our state kickoff
for Aflac. They asked me to do an invocation. prayed about it and accepted
that I would. Now this is the state convention
and several hundred associates, state coordinator, everybody
there. And he told me right after the
national anthem, we want you to do the invocation. So I sat
right down on the front row. What I didn't realize is they
had me as part of, they had these big screens with a PowerPoint
projector up there. As soon as they announced my
name, up it pops, you know, District Sales Coordinator Ken Wymer in
vocation. And when I stood up, the whole
place began to applaud as I'm going up to pray. And cheers. And I thought, you know, maybe
I made a mistake. Maybe this is not the right environment.
But I felt that as the Lord had led me, so I prayed. I think
right from the beginning, the whole notion of reading a prayer
or saying a prayer, it automatically struck a difference. But in the
prayer, those conventions and those sorts of things, it's all
about getting. It's all about promotions. It's
all about awards and things like that. People's minds are not
on their soul. But in the prayer, the Lord directed
me to pray that we would be mindful of our souls. And that in all
of our getting, in the end, it absolutely means nothing unless
we have a righteousness before a holy God. And I just simply
in a prayer thank God that He had purposed to save sinners
and send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to save
sinners such as I was. And when I got done, you could
have heard a pin drop. When I sat down, I heard one
of the associates across the aisle whisper to another one,
did he say sinners? It resounded. I mean, this is
language. It's scripture. The way we do
it, there's not a person there that's going to come up and pat
you on the back and congratulate you or cheer or clap because
it's so foreign to what they hear day in and day out. In fact,
the proof was Afterward, we had a dinner and whatnot and I sat
there at this table, a whole big space all around me, but
it was my wife and me and a couple of my associates, but that was
it. Everybody else, it was like you had the plague. What are
you going to say? There's a difference made. And
I don't mind. I'd rather it be that way than for them to think
that somehow I'm involved with everything else going on in religion
and so even in that prayer it was an opportunity to testify
to the God I know and to his righteousness and to righteousness
imputed as being our only hope to stand before a holy God and
that's what we see here there's a distinguishing in this name
Jehovah now this becomes even plainer when we come over the
New Testament because the question we're looking at is who is this
shepherd And it's when we see this in the context of all of
scripture that this is just not a generalization. This shepherd
is none other than Christ himself. This was very much a title that
our Lord Jesus Christ identified with in coming. That identified him as that one
of whom the Old Testament scripture spoke. And therefore, God himself
in the flesh. Because when it says, Jehovah
is my shepherd, For Christ to say, I am the Good Shepherd,
automatically, anybody that knew the Scriptures was pulling back
saying, whoa, he's saying he's the God who revealed himself
to Moses and said, I am that I am? There was no question. No question. If you look in John
chapter 8 and verse 58, You can see how our Lord used the same
terminology, and this is what He meant when He said this. In John 8, verse 58, Jesus said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was,
I am. Now again, If you look at that grammatically,
you say, well, something's not right. It should be, I was. No,
I am. What he was saying was that in
all of their talk about honoring the Father, honoring God, yet
to the exclusion of Christ alone, it was not honoring God. And
you can see that in the verse 54. If I honor myself, my honor
is nothing. It is my Father that honoreth
me. of whom ye say that he is your
God. This is a good way to deal with
our religious generation. We don't just accept the fact
that, well, I believe in Jesus. That's a term that religion likes,
Jesus. Well, who is he? Let's talk about
who he is. Let's talk about his character.
Let's talk about what he came to accomplish. And you get some
people upset that say, oh, there you go again, getting specific.
Well, You know, if I was driving somewhere and there were two
towns named Albany, they did that on the airplane yesterday
coming. They said, now if you're heading to Albany, New York,
you're on the wrong flight. Please deplane. Wouldn't make
a difference, wouldn't it? Which Albany are we talking about?
Albany, Georgia or Albany, New York? And if that's vital in
everyday decisions of life, you'd think it would be absolutely
vital in this matter of salvation. As the I Am, that means He is
the Eternal God. And this is an area with regard
to Christ that I find most disconcerting today, because you'll run into
people that say, well, I believe Jesus is God. Do you? How do you speak of him? Does
he have the authority and the honor and the power that God
alone has? To listen to the Jesus that is
being preached by many today, he's a handicapped God. He cannot
do what he would like to do unless you let him. He needs to be pushed
around in a wheelchair and cared for. Otherwise, his reputation
is at stake. You know, he can't, without your
help, he can do nothing. That's exactly the way most people
see it. We've got to do something. We've
got to roll up our sleeves and get to work for Jesus here. That's
their mindset. That's their mentality. I'm telling
you, that is so foreign from what the scriptures teach concerning
Christ the Lord. Capital L-O-R-D. If you look
over in John chapter 17, you'll learn something with regard to
this Christ, the shepherd, He said, I am the good shepherd
there in John 10, and we'll get to that in just a little bit
here, but the point is, dear friends, that Christ is not in
your hands. You know, like preachers say,
Christ is in your hands, now what are you going to do with
it? No, it's the other way around. You're in his hands to do with
what he will, what he will. That's clear over here in John
17 in his high priestly prayer in verse 2, as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, authority over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. How can
he give eternal life except he be eternal life himself? I am. In fact, there's that verse
that Christ said, unless you believe that I am, now the translators
put an extra word in there it's not in the original they said
I am he but the scriptures just say unless you believe that I
am you'll die in your sins you'll die in your sins so what kind
of Christ do you have what kind of Christ do you profess this
one is sovereign he's God and he determines who he gives life
to he determines who he passes by that's just his right to do
as He will. And you can see down in verse
5, this is a glory that he had with the Father even before the
world began. He says, And now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. Christ never stopped being God
in coming to this earth. I believe that he was every bit
man as we are men and yet without sin, but he never stopped being
God. He was the God-man. That's so
vital. He had to be both God and man.
God can only satisfy God. And as a man, he had to work
out that righteousness as a man in full obedience to the Father
in order for God to be just and justify those for whom he died. But his glory is glory as of
God himself. And you see in verse 24 the same
thing. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me, there's that electing grace, be with
me where I am. In other words, enter in and
enjoy the fellowship and the understanding and knowledge of
who I am, that they may behold my glory. If he were not God,
he could not say that, because God doesn't share His glory with
another. And so God's glory is His Son. That's how He's been pleased
to reveal Himself. Every bit as much as when you
see a sun ray, and you follow that ray all the way up, there's
the sun shining. It's one and the same. And so
He's come into this world. We see Him as a man, and yet
the ray points us back to He's every bit God, as God is. And he says, for thou lovest
me, in verse 24, before the foundation of the world. That's a hard concept
for people to get a hold of, is that this matter of salvation
has everything to do with the love of the Father for the Son,
first of all. We're beneficiaries only in Him.
But in the love that the Father had for the Son, He gave Him,
you might think that's not much of a gift. Gave Him sinners? If that, in our mind, you know,
I have a hard enough time dealing with myself, don't give me another
one like me. But that was a gift of the Father
to the Son. Why? To glorify Him as the Savior. What would be a shepherd without
sheep? What would be a Savior without sinners to save? And
so you can see, He took that as an honor of His Father. Alright? Now, if you look over
in John chapter 10, again, seeing that who is this shepherd, it's
clear as we read the scriptures that this is nothing but a prophecy
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. In John chapter 10, in verse 10, he says, The thief
cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
And if you look in the context, that sheep fold that he speaks
of in verses 1 through 5 is not heaven. The one where it says
that the porter opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calleth
his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. Christ would never
be leading sheep out of heaven or salvation. That sheep fold
of which he speaks in verses 1 through 5 is nothing other
than Judaism or religion. that was holding the sheep. And
when the Lord came the porter, there is the gatekeeper. That's
whoever that man is that's holding his sheep in bondage, you see. Then he comes and calls them
out. He brings them out. Now, the
whole thing changes because there's a door of the sheepfold in verse
1. He that entereth not by the door
into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, That's just
talking about thieves and robbers. That's what you have in religion.
One man will preach and get somebody under conviction, and they'll
walk an aisle and say a profession, and they become part of his sheepfold,
so-called. And then another will come along
and come in another way and convince them, no, that was never really
genuine. What you need to do is be following me. And off they
go. They've taken them and gone into
another sheepfold. But there is a fold out of which the Lord
calls his own, which I believe is a religion, and brings them
into his fold. And that's why I believe in verse
9, when he says, I am the door, he's talking about a completely
different fold. In fact, that's made plain there in verse 16.
Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Talking about
the Jewish fold. them also I must bring, and they
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold, completely
separate from works religion, completely separate from that
message that puts conditions on men and holds them in bondage
in works religion. So all that came before, their
goal in works religion is nothing but to steal and to kill and
to destroy. That's talking about works preachers. And you might think, well, he's
a likable guy, why do you call him a thief? Because he's not
giving God the glory. Why do you say he's come to kill? Well,
unless he's pointing you to Christ, he's killing you. He's keeping
you in darkness, in ignorance, and destroyed. The only, the
end of man, apart from the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, is
destruction and death. That's a hard message for our
generation, because they're thinking just the opposite. You know,
in our day, the ticket to heaven is death. All you have to do
to get to heaven is die. Just go to the funeral homes
and listen to the messages. It doesn't matter. If you died,
you're in. So everybody's in. That's the
message of modern-day religion. But that's not the message of
Scripture. To die apart from having Christ as a ransom, to
die apart from His righteousness having been imputed to your account,
to die without Him being your Shepherd and Lord and Savior,
is to die an eternal death. That's it. That's it. But he
says here in verse 10, The thief cometh not, but for to steal,
to kill, and to destroy. And I will guarantee you, if
the Lord's taught you and you think back to the number of preachers
you sat under, I get a little angry. You know, because of how
they misled me. How they had this same book,
but in ignorance promoted themselves, and I in ignorance followed them
for a while, there's no question, but what a difference to know
Christ and to have been taught of Him where He says here, I
am come that they might have life and that they might have
it more abundantly. I want you to see how Scripture
speaks to this matter of Christ's coming. We were talking about
this yesterday with some of the men, this notion that somehow
because God decreed it in eternity, then therefore sinners that He
decreed to be justified imminently were justified. That's how some
men reason. It's not the reason of Scripture.
It's the reason of logic. But look at how I mentioned,
as we talked about, that with the man, we need to stick with
scriptural language. And here's a good example. Christ
said, I am come that they might have life. In other words, in
his coming, there was a necessary act of obedience that was required
in order for these sheep to have life. In other words, for God
to justify them and to call them his own. There's a purpose clause
here, that they might. Might doesn't imply a possibility. Some people get upset. They say,
well, if you say conditioned on, then somehow you're saying
that it might or might not. That's not how the word might
is used here. That they should have life is
the way that should be read there. And that's why he came. If there
could be life given to a sinner in any other way, Christ would
not have come. If God could simply have decreed
it, and therefore it was done, then he would not have come.
But the scriptures say even Christ acknowledges why he came. I am
come that they might have life, that God might be just. And the
sense of life here is not just the experience of life, but the
sense of life. In other words, acquittal. Because
these sheep, as sinners, it required nothing less than the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, his shedding that blood. If it were by works
and conditions, then Christ would have just left them in that sheep,
that other sheep fall. Let them go on and do their best
and somehow satisfy the law, and in the end, well, everybody's
free anyway. It was just a game. But that's
not the way it is. I am come that they might have
life, and that they might have it more abundantly." That word,
come, I am come, has all the meaning of Christ being born
of a virgin and being under the law, that he might redeem those
who were under the law. Not only obeying in its precepts,
but satisfying its penalty. Because that's what the law required.
Perfect obedience and then a just satisfaction. You talk about
what salvation is conditioned on, that's what it's conditioned
on. The work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can see the pattern
of scripture is always, yes, God's eternal purpose. It's what
he purposed to do, but then we see the absolute fulfillment
in conjunction with what he purposed. So that's who the shepherd is.
Now, come back here to Psalm 23. For whom is he the shepherd? I know that people today just
like to quote this, some of the funerals that you'll attend,
or if someone's going through a difficult situation, you'll
have them standing there with their hands folded, eyes closed,
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want him to make me lie down.
They're just quoting this almost like it's a magic solution to
what they're going through. But dear friend, this statement
here, the Lord, my shepherd, pertains to a particular people.
Not everybody can say this. Not everybody should. Now, the
first thing you have to look at here is that word, my. I know
that you probably have been raised like I was to emphasize that
word, my. Just make Him your Savior. He
wants you to be your personal Savior. That is language again
of religion, but not of scripture. That's not the sense of the word,
my, here. I know this is going to rattle
some minds a little bit. You say, well, what is the sense?
David here is not prescribing that every single person kind
of make Christ his savior. Like a little kid saying, he's
mine. That can't be yours, he's mine. That's not the sense here. That's part of the me and God
religion. You'll hear it even in country
western music. It's me and God. I find it interesting
they even put me in front of God. Not God and me, but me and
God. That's the me and God religion,
but that's not the language of scripture. I believe when David
here is saying the Lord my shepherd, What he's stating is what every
one of us have been brought to state if he's taught us of Christ,
and that is he is my only shepherd. It's my in the sense of absolutely
none other. My only shepherd. I have no other
hope. Mine, and mine alone, in that
sense. And I believe, if you look over
in Philippians chapter 3, that's what Paul is stating here. You
know, we talked about keeping ourselves from idols. We have
no other confidence than the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no
other hope. We have no other work to which
we look other than the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's,
I believe, the sense. Here in Philippians 3, in verse
3, Paul was distinguishing himself as a Jewish redeemed one from
all the other uh... jews as far as religion he says
we are the circumcision not speaking of that ceremonial circumcision
just like we don't we don't look back to a profession or an act
that we did or being dunked underwater as any kind of confidence you
know as being our circumcision he said we are the circumcision
and notice these three Characteristics of one that is truly the Lord's,
which worship God, singular, in the Spirit. In other words,
having been taught by the Spirit. And rejoice in Christ Jesus. That's the sense there. The Lord
is my hope. I rejoice in Him alone. I'll
speak of no other work. I'll speak of no other righteousness
than what He accomplished and what God imputed there at Calvary. and have no confidence in the
flesh no confidence whatsoever in any part of my being or my
profession or my walk I'll not mention it not speak to it it
would be a dishonor to my Lord it's all Him the Lord is my shepherd
if you look over in Romans chapter 2 and verse 16 and this is not
again being cocky or haughty on the part of Paul to state
it this way, but I just wanted you to see how Paul referred
to the gospel. Again, it's the same sense. It's
not that it's my gospel and mine only in that sense, but there
is one gospel. Just like one faith, one Lord,
one baptism in identification with Him. And here in verse 16,
Paul was so confident that it was so that he says, In the day
when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, He could
have said according to his gospel, but he said according to my gospel.
That's how confident I am that these things are so. That's my
gospel. Someone says to you, that's not
my gospel. Well, alright, but the Lord my shepherd. How I see
him set forth here, that's the one that I know. You know, although a favorite
psalm that many like to personalize and quote is kind of a coverall
in times of trouble or sickness or death, yet I believe clearly
not everyone can sing this psalm. Christ himself makes a difference.
If you come back here to John chapter 10, that same chapter
we were in, John chapter 10 and verses 11. We'll begin with verse
11. I'll show you three verses in
here. John 10 and verse 11, he said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Alright, so just by stating the
Lord my shepherd, he has a particular people for whom he is that shepherd. And that's why this is not just
for anybody. If you look at verse 26, our
Lord made that distinction. But ye believe not because ye
are not of my sheep. You know, I know there's some
that say, oh, we ought not to preach that way or talk that
way. You're cutting people out. You're not cutting out the sheep.
They're the ones this is all about anyway. Those, he says,
ye believe not because you're not of my sheep. A person that
continues in unbelief, they're not the Lord's sheep. He's left
them to their own way, and they're happy to have it that way. Most
people you talk to, unless the Lord reveals Christ in them,
they don't want your Christ. They'll tell you that. Have him.
He's not my Christ. But if the Lord teaches them,
they'll find out. If he died for them, they'll find out he
is. And they'll ever repent of ever having said that. But down
in verse 29, it gets even more specific. Who are these sheep?
Well, my Father which gave them me. So it's very clearly tied
to the electing grace of God giving them to the father. So
we've seen who the shepherd is, we've seen for whom he is the
shepherd, but thirdly, how is he the shepherd? How is he the
shepherd? You know, sheep are by nature
dumb. It's the last thing we like to
say about ourselves, but we might as well go ahead and say it,
because that's how the scriptures describe us, as dumb, unaware
of danger, unable to defend ourselves, and yes, prone to wander. prone
to wander. Look over in Isaiah chapter 53. This is why we need a shepherd. If salvation could come by man's
will, just willing it, I don't believe that it would describe
the Lord's people as sheep. You might think of lions or some
animal with some determination, but a sheep? I mean, that's the
dumbest animal on earth that needs for its protection, for
its care, for its deliverance, needs the shepherd. And that's
exactly how Isaiah here describes it, verse 6. All we like sheep
have gone astray. You don't even have to go out
and commit some real bad sin, so-called, in order to be called
a sinner. All you have to do is go astray.
And we have gone astray from our mother's womb. We don't have
to teach our children to lie. You could isolate them and put
them in the house for the first five years of their life without
any connection with the outside world, and they're still going
to be liars. They're going to cheat. They're
going to do things behind your back, and you're going to be
disappointed. As much as we say we believe that children are
sinners, I don't know why we get so shocked the first time
they tell you no. You're showing them all the tender love and
care, and that first word, you want it to be mama or daddy coming
out, and it's no. You think, well, how'd they learn
that? You do have to teach them the
truth, but not the lie. That's all it takes to show that
as sinners, we need a shepherd. We need a Savior. And that's
how He is, the Savior. Now, I know the language of modern
religion, again, of you finding Jesus. Have you found Jesus?
Well, I hate to tell you, but He was never lost. It's not about
you finding Him. It's about Him finding you as
one of His sheep. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. And I'll tell you, that's what
the Lord has to do. A man has never been lost until
he's been lost. I don't know if you've ever had
that experience, but I did one time in Africa. walking with
some people that were supposed to know the forest inside and
out. But we were walking along this trail, had been at it for
a while, and I got thinking, you know, coming in, it did not
take this long. And our guide did not want to
tell us that he was absolutely lost. And as the darkness started
to fall, because in the forest the sun goes down quicker because
the trees are so tall, it's dark. And you start hearing all kinds
of noises. And we're out here in the middle of nowhere when
this man finally says, I don't know where we are. And I thought,
oh great. To me, as far as a physical sense
of lostness, I can always point to that and say, I was lost. I couldn't help him. That's what
it is to be lost. There's nothing that you can
do in any way to help yourself. And I believe unless you've been
brought to that particular point, you've never been lost. Most
people still have a little wiggle. Some little thing that they hope
in or trust in or bank on that somehow is going to help them
gain or maintain salvation. But to be lost means the shepherd
had to come find me. And that's exactly what the Lord
is as the shepherd. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. So here in Psalm 23, coming back
to Psalm 23, as in John 10, we see our Lord as the active one. You know, even that story, they
talk about the parable of the lost sheep, or the lost coin,
or the lost son. All the emphasis is on the lost
sheep, lost coin, lost son. When in reality, all the emphasis
ought to be on the shepherd that found the lost sheep. The one that found the lost coin. The one that received the lost
son. You see, that's, the whole purpose
is again showing that God in Christ is the active one As far
as salvation is concerned, and here in Psalm 23, it's the same
thing. The Lord, my shepherd, how is
he the shepherd? Well, look at the verbs that
are used in verse 2. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. All the attention is on him,
not on me, on him. He maketh me. In the original,
that means to cause to lie down. What does that imply? I would
have never laid down if it hadn't been for Him, causing me to lie
down. He leadeth me. It's interesting
that in this psalm there are two different words used for
lead in the original, even though in English it's the same word.
For example, in verse 2, He leadeth me. And then you go down to verse
3, you see He leadeth me, but there are two different words.
That's the beauty of the Hebrew language. The first one, he leadeth
me, in verse 2, is the word that means to bring to rest. It's like guiding a weary one
to the water, because they cannot find it themselves. It's like
Christ said of that Samaritan woman, if only you knew. Well,
the fact is, she didn't. It took the Lord opening her
eyes to teach her of the water of life. Brings to rest. I believe there's an important
Sense in that word to you. How is it that you were brought
to Christ? You weren't driven to him You
were led He brought you to himself as the water of life but down
in verse 3 it's a completely different word it means to lead
in the sense of lead a charge and Or govern much like you'd
have a military commander in front of troops leading the charge.
That's the word that's used in verse 3 when it says he leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness. What does that mean? He's the
forerunner. He's the forerunner. If I'm in that path of righteousness,
it's only because he's the forerunner. And he opened it up. He he established
it and he worked it out. And he imputed it to my account. So you can see these action verbs
again. He maketh me. He leadeth me. And then in verse
3 again, he restoreth my soul. That word restore is a word that
means literally to bring back or to turn around. I've mentioned
to you before that this matter of conversion is not a one-time
deal and done. My heart needs converting every
day. My soul does. So does yours. But that's His
work to do. Left to myself, I'd but wander. Knowing everything I know about
Christ and His finished work, I would still wander. Were He
not the one restoring my soul? It has to be restored daily.
Moment by moment. Lest my eyes be off of Him and
onto myself. So you can see how He's the shepherd. me to lie down. I like that word
leading in the sense of corralling. I'd never come to the water myself,
but corralling and then converting. But what are the effects of Christ
is my shepherd? I realize time's about gone,
so I'm just going to give you some things here that I see in
this verse in verse in this psalm. In verse one, you notice it says
I shall not want. That means I shall not lack. He being my shepherd, I shall
not lack. You know, in the original, it's
really left open-ended. If someone says, I think I'm
missing, and you're sitting there, okay, missing what? It has to
be completed. I shall not lack, I shall not
want implies some sort of object, but it's left open-ended. And
I believe there's a reason for that. The point is, there's nothing
you could ever put in there. But what it comes from the hand
of the shepherd. And therefore I have no reason
to complain. You know, there's no... Even if I give you a list
of things here, don't think this is exhaustive. If he's the shepherd,
that means he has full responsibility for his sheep. I like it that
way. Not to myself, but to him. And so, read it that way. Here's
some things to consider. Because, first of all, the Lord
is the shepherd, I'll not ever lack for rest. That's the idea
of green pastures, isn't it? Verse 2, He maketh me to lie
down in green pastures. That has to do with my nourishment.
That has to do with my rest. To make to lie down speaks of
satisfaction. Satisfaction. I'll tell you what,
when the Lord has taught me of Christ and His finished work,
I'm satisfied. Those are my green pastures.
Don't disrupt my rest. Christ said, Come unto me all
ye that labor and heavy laden, and I will. That's that rest. It's the rest that comes from
knowing that He finished the work. It's not Him plus what
I do. He finished it. Secondly, I'll
not ever lack for peace. For peace. You notice, He leadeth
me beside the still waters. Think of a still water where
you can actually see the reflection. The reflection is so, it looks
like the reality itself. You look at it, and you look
up at the trees and everything. It's so still, it's just like
a picture. That's rare to find. But I'm telling you, when Christ
is the shepherd, that's the peace. In fact, the original says, the
waters of quietness. What are you disturbed about?
Look to Christ. What is there that He isn't to
your soul? That's why in Romans 5, therefore
being justified, comma, by faith we have peace with God. That
faith is the revelation of Christ that causes us to look to him
as all our peace. That's the quiet waters. If you
think it has to do with circumstances, you'll never have in this life
any waters that are going to be quiet. You're looking for
a moment of happiness and you're waiting for everything to just
be right. So then you can be at peace. There's nothing in
this world that's ever going to be at peace. Just give it
some time and a wind is going to come up and stir the waters.
But Christ, the water of life, that's the water, that's the
peace that we enjoy. Thirdly, I'll never lack for
direction. He leadeth me. He restoreth me. I'll never lack
for righteousness. Fourthly, there in verse 3, I'll
never, he says, he leadeth me. You wonder why is it paths of
righteousness, plural, versus the path of righteousness. Well, I think about the path
of peace and mercy and grace and truth, but they all are in
conjunction with his righteousness. You notice righteousness is in
the singular. So that means that anything that
I expect from his hand, whether it be peace and grace and mercy,
truth, all of these are subject to that righteousness imputed
that he came and worked out on behalf of a sinner such as we
are. And it says for his namesake.
It's his glory, his praise, his honor, and his merits. Fifthly,
if the Lord is my shepherd, or because he is, then I'll never
lack for assurance. It says, Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death. I like the way that language
speaks there. It's not any valley you go through. It's only a shadow of death.
A shadow won't hurt you. A shadow won't hurt you. And you think about a shadow.
How is a shadow there but what the sun shines? So in the darkness
of that valley, whatever it is that the Lord is bringing you
through, He's still the Shepherd. And we have every reason to rest
in Him. Verse 4 again, a sixth thing,
the Lord being my Shepherd, I'll never lack for comfort. It's
an interesting word there where it says, Thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me. It's a word that literally means
to move to repentance. And you can think about the rod
and staff of affliction. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens.
Why does he have that rod? Well, it's when that sheep goes
to wander. Give him a little smack sometimes and he's back
in line. Or a hook. Bring him back. That's a sign
of tenderness. And it's also a rod and staff
to ward us, to warn us against false teachers in any false way.
But more than that, you stop and look at this. As I was studying
this, I believe this is key. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. They bring me to repentance.
Our Lord endured Himself a rod of affliction. In Isaiah chapter
53, in verse 5, it says there that He was bruised for our iniquities
and the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him. So this is a shepherd who does
not bear the rod and staff of legalism trying to get you to
line up. Have you ever seen sheep ever
walk in step? I never have. I don't know why
we expect sheep to walk in step. Some preachers like to preach
that way. If everybody's not in step, then somehow they're
not the Lord's sheep, no? What we need to be doing is looking
to him who is our peace and the rod and staff thy rod in other
words his affliction and his staff they comfort me just like
it says here surely he hath borne our grace and carried our sorrows
yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted
it's the chastisement of our peace that fell upon him and
that's what brings me to repentance when I consider what he endured
for a sinner such as I. Two other things I would bring
out here in Psalm 23, because he's a shepherd I'll never lack
for justification. This thing's not being worked
out. If you come back to Psalm 23 and read in verse 5, Thou
preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies,
thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. You don't
normally think of sitting and eating in front of your enemies,
do you? You're not comfortable. I remember one time preaching
in a church, and I know time's gone, but I just have to say
this, and they really got upset. The women had all prepared a
nice meal, and in the middle of the message, one man stood
up, angry, and just shouted me down and said, I did not bring
my family to hear this. And he marched out the door.
Well, then up stands his brother and his wife, and out they go.
So I just stopped and waited and I just said if there's anybody
else that needs to, likes to exit, now would be the opportunity
because I'm fixing to continue the message. And another brother
got up and walked out with his family. So the whole place was
empty. And it ended up there was, I could see them out the
door, they're all standing in the parking lot, so I was wondering
how I was going to get to my car afterward. But there was
about 10 people left in here and there was about 15 of them
out there. Well, after the message, you know, they came storming
back in and, you know, wanted to argue and everything. And
then I finally said, well, the women have prepared something
to eat. Why don't we go and sit down and eat? And not a one of
them wanted to. I sat there and ate by myself.
But, you know, they took the time to fix it. I was going to
eat it. That's not something common. You don't sit and eat
in the presence of your enemies. But I believe the point here
is to show, again, the rest that comes from Christ's finished
work. We have enemies. that are constantly about us.
And yet, if Christ has finished the work, we stand justified
before a holy God. It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemns? And so rest, enjoy that peace
that he brings. And then the final one here in
verse 6, I'll never lack for love, for mercy, for grace. Surely
goodness and mercy Notice follow. It's like hound dogs constantly
nipping at your heels. They're moving us. But it's also
follow in the sense of if God's been satisfied through the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, what does there remain but goodness
and mercy that follow me all the days of my life? And I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Well, I pray the Lord
will bless that to your hearts.