Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 23, the first psalm
we read, and reading for our text the first part of verse
3. Psalm 23 and verse 3, the words,
He restoreth my soul. He restoreth my soul. David here, as a shepherd, would
have been very aware of the work of a shepherd. in bringing back
sheep that had wandered away, those that had got into the ditch,
those that had been attacked maybe by animals, and he speaks
of how he delivered the sheep out of the paw of the bear and
out of the paw of the lion. When he fought against Goliath,
he testified that God had given him that help to do that. And
so we know that David was very active in that way, looking after
the flock that he was over. David then could equate that
and look to the people of God as God's sheep. We have the beautiful
account in John chapter 10 of the Lord saying that, I am the
good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. And David, by faith, would have
known, been able to see past his occupation, as it were, as a
shepherd, to the Lord his shepherd. And that's why he says here,
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And those things that
he did to his sheep, he knows the Lord did for him. David, when his sheep got out
of the way, he didn't blame them. He didn't chasten them. He didn't
kill them. He didn't cast them off. He didn't
say, well, you go into another field, you'd be someone else's
sheep, not mine, not having any sheep that get into the ditch
or leave themselves a prey for the lion or the bear. No. The compassion, the care, the
mercy that he showed to his sheep, he knew the Lord would also show
to him as one of the Lord's sheep. And it's good for us to remember
that. We would not expect that those
sheep had any ability themselves to keep them out of harm's way
or danger. And very often we know that they
would run into it themselves, heedless and careless. And we're
just the same. And we need the Lord as our shepherd. And we need the Lord to do what
David says the Lord did for his soul. He restoreth my soul. So I want to look with the Lord's
help this evening. Firstly, the need of restoration. And then secondly, the restorer
of the soul. He. He restoreth my soul. It is Christ, the Lord. He is the restorer. And then
thirdly, the means of restoring. What means does the Lord use? Firstly, the need of restoration. In one sense we must begin with
our condition in the fall. As we are born into this world
we are born the fallen sons of Adam. All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We are dead spiritually. We are
not what Adam was when he was created, that is in God's sight
pronounced good and he had fellowship, communion, and union with the
Lord. That is broken. We do not have
that. Spiritually, we are dead. We
are banished from the sight of the Lord. We are far off from
the Lord. We are under the sentence of
death. We are under condemnation. The
soul that sinneth, it shall die. Whoso offendeth in one point
is guilty of all, and all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. All we light sheep have gone
astray, all have done. And so in that sense, the first
need of restoring, and that restoring is not back to Adam state, that
cannot be so. cannot be restored to a sinless,
spotless condition here below, or restored to a position under
the holy law of God, as if we had not sinned under that law. But the restoring is in the way
of grace, and it is under the gospel, and it certainly is a
restoring to communion and fellowship with the Lord here, delivering
from condemnation, and to be with the Lord hereafter. We need that restoration. What a solemn thing. If we are
born and we die without a change, without being restored, without
being restored to friendship with God, fellowship with God,
to at peace with God, without being restored to being without
condemnation, and to be restored to a prospect of being with God
forever, that is a most solemn, solemn state to be in. We have
only judgment to be before us if we die at enmity and hatred
to God, and separate from him, then it shall be forever judged
separate from the Lord. Depart from me, ye cursed into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. One sentence, that sentence that
we are under. We need the work of God, we need
his salvation, we need the gospel, we need saving. We need the new birth. But what of those that are born
again? Those that have been brought
to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? There's a need of restoring them. David is a believer. He says,
he restored my soul. David knew that he was like the
sheep that he cared for, and certainly with Psalm 51, David
had committed adultery with Bathsheba. He had then killed her husband
trying to hide the fact, but God had found him out, brought
him as a convinced sinner and guilty of death, but had brought
him to confess it, repent, and forgiven him his sin. And that
psalm that we read, Psalm 51, shows of his great sorrow and
grief and real repentance because of what he had done. David, in
that sense, was a backslider. He had gone back from a close
walk with God, and David is said to be a man after God's own heart
and that instance to be the only instance in his life where he
departed away from the Lord and did those things that brought
great reproach upon the name of the Lord and brought him under
the chastening hand of God. As a backslider we need to be
brought back, to be continually going away from the Lord going
back to the world, back to what the practices were when we were
in unbelief and enmity to God, we need to be restored. God's
people do backslide, but the very proof that they are God's
people is that He restores them and He doesn't leave them to
go on that way which is a downward road to hell. We've sung in our
middle hymn, a soul desiring and made willing to return and
to be restored again. A backslider needs to be restored
to restore assurance, comfort, joy, and to really show that
they truly are God's children. Often when God deals with the
backslider, He chastens them. He corrects them as they father
His children, and that can be very painful, feeling they banished
from the Lord, It may be under afflictions and trials, and we
read in Hebrews 12, now no chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth a peaceable
fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. So one under chastening needs
restoring. They're not forever under chastening. We wouldn't think of that with
our children, that if they'd done something wrong that we
deal with them, whether corporal punishment or banishment from
something or depriving from something, but that they remain to be under
a chastened condition indefinitely. No, it is a joy to the child
and a joy to the parent. that they're actually restored
to loving favour again, and that matter is forgotten, it's put
behind, it's healed. And so if we're under chastening,
then we need restoring. There needs to be that nevertheless
afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruits of righteousness. Another
aspect where we need restoring is if we've been left to imbibe
error. The Church of God has often been
plagued with errors. Those who have crept in unawares,
those who have not really been God's children, and they perverted
and turned the Word of God around and taught those things that
are real errors, opposite to the Word of God. In some cases,
downright anti-Christ, going against the Lord. And if we have
imbibed errors like that, if we have gone down a track and
a path that is contrary to the teaching of the Holy Word of
God, then we need restoring from that and not left in error and
left to walk in a path that again is a downward path, a destructive
path, and very often will bring others down with us. But what of that time when we
may say, well, we're not in error and we're not in open sin, but
we've just grown so dull and so lifeless. We may be being
very discouraged and disheartened. The churches, few come to the
solemn feasts. We may feel we get no refreshment
from the Word of God. We feel very, very discouraged. We see many things on every hand
to discourage us. We feel very down and very low,
very disheartened. Again, there is a need to be
restored again, to be refreshed, to again have the joy of the
Lord and to have fresh seal again. You know Elijah, when he had
dealt with the false prophets of Baal upon Mount Carmel, And
the Lord had answered his prayer and sent fire from heaven to
kindle the sacrifice, and then answered his prayers to send
rain again after the three and a half years of famine. Then
Jezebel, she says, that is Ahab, the king's wife, the wicked wife,
a Baal worshipper, she threatened his life, said that she would
kill him like he had been the means of killing all the false
prophets. And so he fled. He went to Judah
first, left his servant at Beersheba, and then went a day's journey
in the wilderness. And he just wished that he might
die, just lay under a juniper tree. But the Lord sent an angel
to him, revived him, and then brought him 40 days journey into
the wilderness, and gave him Elisha, to be with him for the
rest of his days and gave him a fresh charge and fresh life
and vigour and health from that time to the time he was taken
up into heaven. And sometimes we get low like
that. We need reviving. We need fresh
life. We'd say with the hymn writer,
pour fresh life upon the whole. Maybe that is our case this evening. fresh life in our soul, fresh
vigour, some encouragement, some help in the Christian pathway. But maybe it is that we've drunk
into the world and we've become very carnally minded. Paul is
very clear that to be spiritually minded is life and peace, to
be carnally minded is death. And the more and more we follow
the carnal mind, the more and more we get dead and far off
and more in the mire and it seems an endless spiral down and down
and the relish for the word is not there, the desire for the
word is not there, prayer is oaksome and hard and it is an
effort, anything spiritually. Well we need restoring from that
condition as well. A soul that is sick, a soul that
is far off and worldly and carnal minded. And there's many, many
conditions of the soul. Many conditions that are not
Christ-like. Many that are going back and
have every symptom of turning back to what we were before the
Lord mercifully passed by us and bid us live and gave us the
new birth and quickened us into life. And so each of those backslidden
states, whatever it is, there is a need of restoring, a need
to prove the Lord is our God. He has not forsaken us. He will
not leave us. and that he is our shepherd,
and that especially in these occasions that we are helpless
and we've got ourselves into the trouble, we can only blame
ourselves. But we need the Lord then to
deliver us, and he shows afresh that great mercy and blessing
that he showed at the very first in quickening the soul. So the
need of restoration is great in the first instance of calling
by grace and giving spiritual life, and in maintaining that
life and delivering from every backsliding and every path of
error, we need that restoring. David says here in our text,
he restoreth my soul. What a testimony, what a wonderful
thing. To be able to say, and I wonder
how many of us here can say, he restoreth my soul. And so our second point is, who
is it restores the soul? The restorer of the soul, he,
Christ. Now the text says, he restoreth
my soul. May just this thought alone be
an encouragement and a help to us here this evening. David doesn't say, I restored
my own soul. He says, he restoreth my soul. He doesn't say he restored my
soul as something in the past. He says, He restoreth my soul,
which is an ongoing thing. A work of God that is going on,
is continuing. And you know, it will be right
through our lives. Our Lord is very clear that no
man can keep alive his own soul. In John 10, He was very clear
of the security of God's children, he says, none shall pluck them
out of mine hand. My father is greater than I and
none can pluck them out of my father's hand. The security of
his children, who would think of a shepherd that had sheep
and think, well, they'll only go astray once. They'll only
fall into the ditch once. But what Shepard knows that he
no doubt has to restore many times. An ongoing thing you and I need. One that is able to, on an ongoing
way, restore our souls. And our minds are directed here. to the Lord. This is the work
of God. This is God's work. We might
look from a backslidden stake, a path of error. We might look
from a place where we say my case is hopeless. But this is
the work of God. Right from the start it is. God
commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. I passed by thee when thou wast
in thy blood, and when thou wast in thy blood, I bid thee live. The Lord drew Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus came and saw where
the Lord passed by. The Lord look up, and he knew
him by name, and he had his appointment at his house. Come down, Zacchaeus. I must dine at thy house today. He also is a son of Abraham,
or one of God's children that must be found out. The woman
of Samaria as well, come see a man that told me, all things
that ever I did is not this the Christ. It is the Lord that sovereignly
finds out his lost sheep in every nation, kindred and tongue, and
he restores them from the ruins of the fall. and he brings them
into sweet fellowship and communion with him from being an enemy
of God to being a friend of God. Ye who sometime were alienated
by wicked works hath he brought nigh by the blood of Christ. This is God's work and it is
a work that needs almighty power. It needs the power of God. It
is not a work for man. It is not for the sheep to restore
itself. It is not for the people of God
to bring themselves back. It is not for them to bring themselves
to be saved in the beginning. It is God's work. A beautiful name that our Lord
has been given, the name of Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. He shall save His people from
their sins. He shall do it. He is the one. He is the restorer of the soul. He is to have the crown upon
His head. The glory is His, that no flesh
might glory in His presence. And that is so vital, it's so
important, that in His temple everyone shall speak of His glory. In whatever state and condition
we may be found in this evening, may we look out of self and unto
Christ. Look from our hopeless condition
to one that is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto
God by Him, by Christ. That we might be strengthened
and encouraged that what the law could not do, the Lord Jesus
Christ could do. If a way of saving could have
been done in any other way, it would have been, but it had to
be done through our Lord Jesus Christ. And he is he that is
the author of it and the worker of it. He restoreth my soul. So the restorer of the soul is
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord, as in verse one, the
Lord. The shepherd, as in verse one. The shepherd, as in John 10,
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the shame. I want to look then in the third
place of the means of restoring. He restoreth my soul. What means are used? Thinking of means, you think
of David with the lion and with the bear. We're not told, as
it were, the means that he used to deliver out of their poor,
the lambs. But we are told the means that
he used in the case of Goliath and when he came to Goliath after
40 days there was none in Israel that was able to go out against
Goliath and use spear or bow or arrow or whatever to fight
against Goliath they wouldn't do it but David comes and David
does not take Saul's armour he had not proved that King Saul's
armour But he took his sling and his stone. We can be almost
certain that those are the weapons that he used against the bear
and against the lion as well. But the most weapon, the greatest
weapon, he says, I come to thee in the name of the living God. He came in God's name and with
his power, with his blessing, And so the means that he used
you might say were very mean, very small, very weak, a sling
and a stone. He didn't even have a sword.
He used Goliath's own sword when he had slain him with the stone
or sunk it stone into his forehead. And we think then of David's
greatest son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And we say his
greatest son because two of David's sons, Solomon and Nathan, were
in the line to Christ. If we trace through with Solomon's
line, that you can find in Matthew chapter 1, which leads straight
to Joseph, who was the husband of Mary, that is the kingship
line of the kings of Judah. And it led directly to pointing
to the Lord Jesus as the King of Israel. But we have Nathan,
whose line goes through to Mary, that is the bloodline, and in
Luke chapter three, that is traced right back from Mary right down
to Adam and to our Lord. So our Lord Jesus Christ truly
was David's greatest son. David is the pivotal character
of which those two lines meet. The means then of restoring,
the means that God used in the first place to restore and save
his people lost and ruined in the fall, was to send his only
begotten son into this world as a real man, God and man in
one person. And that as a man, he with the
authority of his father, the Jews asked him, by whose authority
doest thou these things? And he testified that that authority
was from his father. When he spoke of his death, he
says, I have power to lay down my life. I have power to take
it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. He came to do his father's will. When 12 years of age he was found
in the temple, he said to Mary, his mother, wish ye not that
I must be about my father's business. And that was his heavenly father's
business, not Joseph's. Joseph was seeking him with Mary
because they'd gone on their journey, hadn't realised he'd
stayed at Jerusalem. Now our Lord came with the authority
of heaven and the miracles that he performed showed that. They
showed the witness of God that he truly was the Son of God,
that he was the spotless one, the only sinless man that ever
lived, apart from Adam before the fall. And it had to be a
spotless, lamb for a sacrifice. It had to be an offering that
was to be made, that was a shedding of blood, that was spotless blood. And the law states without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission. So our Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world, made like unto his brethren,
but sin accepted. The means that God used to recover
his people to restore his people was to supply a surety, one to
stand in their place, one to endure the wrath of God instead
of them, one that should be perfect, spotless. And in the Lord Jesus
Christ is God's provision. He is the Christ, the anointed
of God, the saviour, the only name, given among men whereby
we must be saved. And so the means, the way of
salvation was for him to have laid on him by God the sins of
all of God's people, his sheep, those that were chosen in him
before the foundation of the world. In love he took their
sins, in love he laid down his life for them, and he took it
again. God accepted his sacrifice and
the tomb was empty. In the Lord Jesus Christ and
in his resurrection, God has given assurance unto all men
that that sacrifice has been offered, has been accepted. The perfect life and obedience
of our Lord was then to be imputed or put to the account His people,
those that believe, those that believe are given a righteousness
which is not their own. That is, they're given, as it
were, a life that is a perfect life. Have you ever thought what
it would be to get to heaven, to have our sins washed and pardoned,
but to get to heaven and then someone asks us, well, you know,
you tell us what you did in your life. And we'd hang our head
in shame. We look back over all of our
good works and the Word of God says our righteousness, our good
works, are but as filthy rags. There's no man that doeth good
and sinneth not. But instead of that, the Lord
gives us His righteousness so that we don't have to recount
all what we have done. but it's what Christ has done
and his perfect life on our behalf. It's like a wedding garment.
It's like that which enables us to stand spotless before the
throne. There's two things that's vitally
needed and that is our sins put away and we being made fit to
stand before the throne. The means then, firstly, is a
provision in the Lord Jesus Christ of what He has done at Calvary. These Old Testament saints, they
look by faith to what He would do. We look back to what He has
done. Well then, what about the means
for you and I? The means that we should be The Lord has ordained that it
should be through the preaching of the gospel, through the preaching
of the word. His commission to his disciples
was, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. The disciples
had to tarry at Jerusalem until they were endued or had the Holy
Spirit fall upon them in the day of Pentecost and they went
forth and the word that they spoke was accompanied with power
and it is still so today. We as sinners, sinners that know
the grace and blessing of God and are anointed by God to preach,
we preach the word, we preach the Holy Bible, the text like
we preach tonight, the truths of God, expounded and opened
up as they are in the Word of God, and the Lord has promised
that he will bless that Word, and that he will give faith for
those that hear it, and those that are ordained to eternal
life will believe, and it will be the means of opening their
eyes, and the means of saving their souls, and bringing them
to a knowledge of the truth. Our Lord said to those that believed
on him in John chapter eight, he said, if you continue in my
word, then you shall be my disciples indeed. You shall know the truth
and the truth shall make you free. And so the Lord uses the
word, the preached word, as a means of restoring a soul, of imparting
the truth of God to that soul, faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. And that through, that means
those souls are brought to know the truth, believe the truth,
embrace the truth, and to walk in the ways of the Lord, to trust
solely in what He has done and not what they have done. It is
through that means as well they are warned of their danger And
it's through that means as well that they are fed and instructed
and kept and taught. All through the means, what we
call the means of grace. And it is the means of restoring
in the first instance. He restoreth my soul. But then what about the backsliding
soul? What about the soul that is in
error? Or what about the one that is
grown lifeless and carnal-minded and worldly-minded? What means
shall the Lord use there? We're told in Romans 8 that we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them that are the called according to His purpose. And the things
that the Lord brings together are His dealings in providence,
or in our lives, and the Word of God. Those two things, they
work together. It may be the Lord will use sickness,
affliction, trial, trouble, in the lives of his people. To bring
them again to be in want, to cry unto him, to call upon him
in the day of trouble, as he has said, I will deliver thee,
thou shalt glorify me, and then open their ear to hear the word
again, and to pour fresh life upon our souls. And the Lord
has all things at his disposal in that way. He can use all sorts
of things to chasten, to correct us, to restore us again. In our text, the very context
of it, he restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. the Lord leading in paths
of the Lord, paths that he has set forth, upright paths, good
paths, paths that magnify the Lord, paths that are not paths
of uncleanness and wickedness and sinfulness. The Lord leads,
he doesn't drive, and in that he restores the soul. And then
he says in verse four, Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I fear no evil. For thou art with me, thy
rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Those two things, a rod and
a staff, that which this shepherd uses to count the sheep, to bring
the sheep back out of the pit, those things the Lord uses for
his people. both to comfort and to correct. The hymn writer says, the lash
is steeped, he only lays, yet softened in his blood. The things
that the Lord does with his children is in love. In Psalm 107, we
read of the experience of God's children, often because of their
foolishness and sinfulness and rebellions, got into a very low
place. They fell down. There was none
to help. But then we read, they cried
unto the Lord. He brought them to pray. And
prayer is a vital means. And prayer is what the Lord gives
His children at the beginning. And when it grows cold, and when
they stop praying, the Lord brings things to bring them to pray
again. And so in Psalm 107, again and again we read, they fell
down. was none to help, then they cried unto the Lord in their
trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. So that
men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his mercy
to the children of men. At the end of that psalm we read,
Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall
understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. The lovingkindness
of the Lord to bring into things where we fall down and have no
help, where we're chastened, we're corrected, the things that
the flesh dislikes, the way, the troubles, the crosses, the
problems, and those that are raised up against us as the Lord
raised up for dear David, even his son Solomon against him,
not Solomon, Absalom against him, and Solomon in his time
because he walked in ways of evil with ungodly wives and followed
their gods, the Lord raised up Jeroboam and others that were
thorns in his side and adversaries to him, and that in chastening,
in correction, to bring him back again to the Lord. Even wicked,
wicked Manasseh, who was fifty years or so king over Judah,
and yet so many wickednesses, shed innocent blood very much.
And yet when he was brought in captivity and in distress and
sorrow, he cried unto the Lord and the Lord delivered him, restored
him, and brought him to repentance. Repentance is a gift to save
a soul from death. It is absolutely vital. Repentance,
we turn, we change. We're restored, we don't continue
on in the way that we were going. And it's the Lord that gives
repentance. The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted
to give repentance and remission of sins to Israel. That's to
a spiritual Israel, his people, his spiritual people. And he
gives those gifts. May he give it to us. Give us
godly sorrow, repentance. mourning over our sins and after
him, and the two go together. The token of sins forgiven is
sins forsaken, sins that we're sorry for, sins that we grieve
over, mourn over. The Lord Jesus Christ died to
put away our sin. He died because of our sin. He
suffered because of our sin. And shall we be at peace with
sin, at peace with the world, God forbid. May we hate the sins
that nailed Him to the tree, hate those sins that breathed
the Holy Spirit, drove Him from us, that brought us into a low
state in our soul. May the Lord be pleased to use
the means, use the Word of God, use the preaching, use those
things we pass through in our lives, Things that we think,
oh, wish that didn't happen. Wish I didn't have that problem
and that trial and that disappointment and that sorrow and that adversary
and that troublemaker and this problem in my family. Wish I
didn't have those. But if the Lord uses them to
bring us to prayer, to bring us to seek Him and to cry unto
Him in our trouble, then we can see love inscribed on those things. that the Lord is using them to
restore our soul. Man is body and soul. The Lord said, fear not them
which kill the body and after that there's nothing that they
can do. But fear him that hath power after he hath killed to
cast both body and soul into hell. The dying thief was brought
though a sinner and a thief to see in the Lord the Saviour.
He says, we indeed justly, we receive the due reward of our
deeds, but this man hath done nothing amiss. He turns to the
Lord, he said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. The Lord said, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. And when he died, his body was
still on the cross. But his soul was with Christ
in paradise. Apostle Paul says, absent from
the body, present with the Lord. Our soul lives on. Our soul is
eternal. Here below, it's in our body.
But when we die, it returns immediately to God. Our body returns to the
ground. But at the last great day, Our
bodies shall be raised again. We shall be given an incorruptible
body that we shall live in forever. The soul is of infinite value
because it is eternal. We don't follow religion or follow
a faith to prosper, as it were, in this world. We follow our
Lord that we might be saved eternally, saved from our sin, restored,
our soul restored to sweet communion, fellowship, and walk with the
Lord in harmony, in love, with no jar. To be able to say with
the psalmist here, the Lord is my shepherd. If we just go on
as we like in this world, And we never have a shepherd to restore
us. We don't even know what it is
to be restored. We don't really know what it
is to be lost. What a solemn position. But if
we have made many a slip and many a fall, if we know that
we are not now what we once were, and that the Lord has revived
his work in our hearts, strengthened, encouraged us, and brought us
again to repentance, We can say this, he restoreth my soul. The hymn writer says, I cannot
promise future good to bring, we cannot. But when we say with
the words of our text, he restoreth my soul, not that we should live
carelessly, God forbid that that should be so. But how often as
we meet together, often as we read the word of God, often as
we go in the path of prayer, It's a blessed thing if we can
say, He restoreth my soul. Maybe even in a day, we've gone
through a day, we've seen things we should not, we've heard things
we should not, we've grown carnal and hard, we come to the evening
hour and we come whether in the house or come to the word of
God in secret, and we come to the throne of grace and through
reading the word and in prayer and confession, day by day, and we'll be able
to say this, he restoreth my soul. May we have those sacred
times, times of restoring, times that we're able to say, that
was good, that was good to meet with the brethren, it was good
to read the word of God, it was good to be in the house of God,
it's restored me, it's revived me, it's strengthened my soul.
Be able to say, he restoreth my soul. May the Lord bless these
words so that we may use this language.