Psalm 23. We are worthless, but Christ
is our worth. He's our worth. He's our everything. There's a little girl one time
sitting by her mother listening to the preacher. And
the preacher, every now and then, would look at his watch. He'd preach and he'd look at
his watch. And the little girl said, Mama, what does it mean
when the preacher looks at his watch? She said, absolutely nothing. So when you see me looking at
my watch, it doesn't mean anything. I want to bring a message this
morning, and I hope the Lord enables me to do so. I want to
bring a message of comfort. Comfort. Last night, last night's
message was a comfort, too. That's where comfort starts.
It starts at the cross. Comfort starts at the cross.
We saw Christ our substitute, and now we have Christ our shepherd. And I find great comfort in this
as I grow older, more than I did when I was young. It really speaks
to me now. It's interesting how that as
we grow older in Christ, and not just growing older, because
some people grow older and they don't grow any wiser at all. But those who grow older in Christ,
they find these familiar scriptures Comforting than ever. And I find this psalm so comforting. You know, the Lord said this
in Isaiah 40, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. And in the margin it says, speak
to the heart. Speak to the heart. And I have
prayed all morning that the Lord would enable me to speak to your
heart, that he would speak to my heart and to your heart. And we would find real comfort
in the Lord being our shepherd. We have a shepherd, one to guide
us, lead us, all the way home, all the way home. Speaking comfortably
to Jerusalem, cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned, For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Grace upon grace is what
we have received, haven't we? His compassions fail not. They
are new every morning. Great is our faithfulness. Great
is God's faithfulness. Now, as I said last night, we
looked at Christ, our substitute, And now we have Christ our shepherd,
and I preached from this not too long ago at home, and I titled
it, I Shall Not Want and Here is Why. And we are given why
we'll not want in this psalm. But I know this, and this is
why I preached from Psalm 22 last night. Before we can find
comfort in Christ being our shepherd, we have to find comfort in Christ
being our substitute first. Because if he's not my substitute,
he's my judge. He'll be my judge. But if I find
real comfort and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ being my substitute,
now I can turn to Psalm 23, and I can find the comfort that's
in this Psalm, because it belongs to me. It belongs to every one
of his sheep, every one of them. Now this psalm is more than a
funeral psalm. You see this written on the pamphlets,
you know, when you're at the obituary, when you go into the
funeral home, somebody passed away. Most people have this psalm
written on that. This psalm is for the living.
It's not for the dead. It's for the living. And the
sheep live by the truth in this psalm. And the older I get, as I've
already said, the older I get, I find this so comforting to
me. You know, we have a tendency
sometimes to shy away from parts of the word of God that's just
so familiar. But we shouldn't, because those are the ones that
are the most comforting, as in this psalm. You know, age brings
a whole different set of problems with it. I've learned this. You know, I've learned long enough
to have a couple experiences. And I've learned that there's
some problems that come along with age that you don't have
when you're young. The psalmist said this, cast
me not off in the time of old age, forsake me not when my strength
faileth. You know, as you grow older,
that's one of the things you really start to lose is your strength,
your ability to work, your ability to take care of yourself. My
father said this to me just a few years before he died. He was
91 and a half when he passed away. He said, I have outlived
my education. I've outlived my education. And
then he outlived his health. The last year of his life, he
was in a lot of just sickness and physical trouble. My mother was afraid she was
going to outlive her mind. She said, I don't want to ever
forget my children. She said, I don't want to live
so long that I can't remember. She had seven of us. She said,
I don't want to forget my children. And she began to get dementia,
and she started to forget a lot of things, but she didn't forget
her children, and the Lord took her home. She still remembered
all of us, but her mind was going. He said, I don't want to lose
my mind and forget my children. Are you afraid that you're going
to outlive your health, your wealth, your mind? Are you afraid
of that? Does it ever cross your mind?
There are things that cross my mind now that never crossed my
mind when I was young. I preached in Rocky Mountain. a couple weeks ago, I think it
was, and went out to dinner with a couple, two couples, and we
sat there and we were talking about our aches and our pains
and our surgeries, and then one of them just got tickled and
he said, can you believe our conversation? I said, it's a
good thing no young people sitting here, they'd be so depressed.
I said, the things we talk about. But these are the things that
we face as we grow older. And this psalm is especially
comforting to the older sheep here. Now you younger ones, listen
in. This is coming down the road.
It's coming down the road. And someday, by God's grace,
you'll find more comfort in this psalm than you find right now. Here's a promise. Here's our
confidence. Here's the confidence of the
old believers. When my mother, when my father and my mother
forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. He's my provider. Growing up, you know, growing
up, I never one time, I had a very good home. Never one time did
I ever worry about what we were gonna eat, what we were gonna
wear. I just, I had no worries growing up. But they're gone now, and I'm
grown up, and I'm grown up. But by God's grace, the Lord
has taken me up. He's carried me. Actually, he's
carried me all my life. He's carried me all my life.
When that shepherd went out from the 99 to find that lost sheep
in the wilderness, he did not put a rope around his neck and
drag it back to the fold. You know what he did? He put
it on his shoulders and carried it all the way home. We don't
realize it as much as we ought to realize it, but the Lord is
carrying us. And he's carrying us all the
way home. He's gonna carry us all the way home. And I thank
God, as I think of my dad saying he outlived his education, my
mother afraid that she outlived her mind, and we think about
these things as we grow older, we cannot outlive our salvation
in Christ. We cannot outlive his care. My four sisters took care of
my mother like she was a queen, but they were wore out. They
were wore out. Our Lord never gets tired. He
never gets tired. He never gets wore out. Look,
well, I'll turn here in a minute. I don't wanna get ahead of myself. First verse. The Lord, capital L-O-R-D, Jehovah,
the self-existing one, the God of creation, the Lord Jesus Christ
is, this is union, he is my shepherd
and because of that I shall not want. And the first thing I thought
of What I thought of I shall not want was this, I shall not
want for a shepherd. This great shepherd, the good
shepherd, the chief shepherd is my shepherd. He truly is my
shepherd. I would to God that we would
take and absorb the word of God, digest the word of God. This
is not, don't read this book like any other book. This book
is God's book. This is God's word. This book
changes lives. This book, this book is the written
word of God and cannot be separated from the living word of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ. They're one. And when I read
the word of God, I read it and I listen to it as God speaking
to me. I don't just read through the
Bible. I read and look and listen to the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
speak to me, I open this up, speak to me, open your word to
me because this book is a closed book unless the Lord, unless
my shepherd opens it up to me and gives me understanding and
lets me feed, and lets me feed in his word. Now this, the Lord
being my shepherd has some meaning to it. One of the meanings is
this, he's my caretaker. He's my caretaker. I told my
mother I'd go in and stay with her from time to time. I said,
Mom, I said, your daughters, my sisters, they take care of
you like a queen. Do you realize you're taken care
of like a queen? And she'd say, I know that, I
know it. I know it. The Lord is my caretaker. He has provided all things for
me, and when I say me, you too, I'm speaking of you also who
believe, and all His sheep. I'm speaking of all His sheep.
But He's our caretaker. We saw in Psalm 22, He took care
of the weightier matter. That's our salvation from the
curse of the law. That's the weightier matter.
Will He not take care of the rest? Will he not provide everything
else I need if he took care of the weightier matter? He's my
surety. I said he's my caretaker, he's
my surety. Let me give you a comforting
thought, especially as you get older. That means he's responsible
for me. He's responsible to bring me
home. I'm not responsible for myself. Seriously, when it comes to bringing
me to glory and presenting me before God spotless, blameless,
without fault, that's on his shoulders. The Lord Jesus Christ,
and there's no more comforting thought to me than this, that
the Lord Jehovah Jesus, King Jesus, as we'll see tomorrow,
is responsible for this center. to bring me home. Isn't that
comforting? Because you and I would mess
it up before we even get out of bed. I baptized my grandson here a
few weeks ago, and he told my son, when Jeremy was talking
to him, he said, I want to be baptized, but I'm afraid I'll
mess it up. Afraid I'll mess up. I said, you tell him he will
mess up. And I told Tom Harding about
it. I told him, I said, you will mess up. But remember this, Christ
died for sinners. He didn't die for good people.
He died for sinners. He died for the ungodly. He didn't
die for anybody that's good. And the reason he didn't die
for anybody that's good, because there's not any. And if you're really good, by
God's standards, you don't need a savior. But everybody he saves
is a sinner. And yes, you will mess up. But
Tom Harding gave me this. You know, Tom, he's just sharp,
well-studied. And Tom gave me this. He said,
you tell him he'll mess it up, but we can't mess it up. We cannot
mess it up because it's not on us, it's on him. That covenant
between the father and the son is between the father and the
son. We are the beneficiaries of it,
but it rests on his shoulders. The government of his kingdom
and the government of this world is on his shoulders. It's on
his shoulders. We can't mess it up, and I thank
God for that. He's my caretaker, and he's not
only provided, listen, he's not only provided for me wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, he is this to
me. He doesn't just give it to me.
This is what he is to me. He is my wisdom. He is my righteousness. He is my sanctification. He is
my redemption before God. He is these things to me. That's
more than just giving them to me. He is these things to me. And then he's my preserver, my
keeper. He's the keeper. A shepherd is
the keeper of the sheep, isn't he? That's what a shepherd does.
He keeps the sheep. And he's my preserver. It says
in Jude, we are preserved in Jesus Christ and called. But this psalm came to me, this
portion of scripture came to me over in Psalm 121. Let me read it to you. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy, Jehovah is thy
keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. Then down in verse seven, the
Lord shall preserve thee. He preserved thee. I tell you
what, if he didn't, I'd been gone a long time ago. I would. The Lord shall preserve
thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. You know what? I don't have a
soul. I am one. I am a soul. Adam became, when God breathed
into him the breath of life, he became a living soul. So when it says he preserveth
thy soul, he talking about preserving me as a person. The Lord shall
preserve thy going out and thy coming in. From this time forth and forevermore.
He's our preserver. He's our keeper. Our shepherd
is, and he's my counselor. He instructs me in the things
of God. Do you know what's going on right now? You are being counseled. Every time the gospel preached,
somebody asked me if I counseled young people. Well, if you're
sitting here listening to the gospel, I'm in. Every time I preach, and I've
told this to a person who's asked me this, I said, every time I
preach, Everybody there is being counseled. If you're listening, if you're
listening, you're not asleep, you're being counseled. And every
time I open his word and I read his word, I'm being counseled. He's my counselor. That's one
of his names, counselor. He said this, take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. He didn't say learn the doctrine,
did he? Because if you learn Christ,
you'll learn the doctrine. And you'll actually learn it
properly. If you learn the doctrine of election, if you learn it
properly, you're gonna learn it in reference to Christ. God
said in Isaiah 42, behold what? Mine elect. He's talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the elect and we were
chosen in him. Election doesn't start with me.
It does not start with me and you. It starts with Jesus Christ.
He's the elect of God, and we were chosen in him. That's the
proper way of understanding election. We were chosen in Christ, but
Christ is the elect. We were elected in him. So if
we learn Christ, then we'll learn the doctrine. I've learned, and
when I was younger, I would argue doctrine. I would. I would argue
doctrine. I don't do that no more. In fact,
I don't argue with anybody over the Bible anymore, over scriptures
anymore. If God doesn't open the heart, I'm not going to cast
my pearls before swine. I'm just not going to do it.
But I've learned this. The problem has never been with
the doctrine. The problem is with God. They
don't know God. If they know God, if a person
comes to know God, they'll get the doctrine right. And they'll
bow to the doctrines of grace. The problem's not with the doctrine,
it's their problem with God. That's the problem. It's the
problem with God being sovereign. They don't care about God choosing
the elect angels, but they don't want God putting his hand into
their house. I told a man one time, speaking
to him, my uncle, and I was talking about the sovereignty of God,
and the sovereignty of God in salvation. He said, you mean
that my kids may or may not have a chance? Salvation's not by
chance, never has been. I said to a young man once, we
were talking about the sovereignty of God. And I said, you mean
to tell me because he believed that Jesus Christ died on the
cross for sinners. But it was up to them, the final
decision's up to them to accept him or reject him. I said, you
mean to tell me God in his infinite wisdom, God who is the God of
knowledge, is gonna put his son on a cross, he's gonna suffer
hell, and he's gonna leave the end result to a bunch of God-hating
rebels. Is that the kind of God you think He is? Is God that
foolish? That's not infinite wisdom. That
would be infinite stupidity for God to do that. He didn't do
that. He did not do that. God is a God of order. David
said, He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. Ordered in all things and sure.
I mean, God set the home up. He
set it up in order, didn't he? There's an order to the home.
There's an order to the church. There's an order to everything
God has done. But when Adam fell, he went against
God's order. He went against the order of
God. He wanted to be God. Solomon said, I've seen an evil
under the sun. He said, I saw servants riding the horses and
princes walking. That's the reversal of order.
That's not the way God set it up. But natural man wants to
change the order. The husband, the head of the
house. Wife's being subjected to the husband because it's the
picture of what? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what it is, it's a picture of Christ. But natural men and natural
women want to switch the order. Well, we see that in our day,
don't we? We see a real mess going on in our day of the switching
of the order of God. He's our counselor. He's our
preserver. He's our caretaker. He's our
surety. The Word of God says in Psalm 103, Know ye that the
Lord, He is God, It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. I did not make myself a believer. I did not make myself a believer.
God did. A believer is the workmanship
of God. In Ephesians chapter two, we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus under good works. Faith is what? The gift of God. It's not something you and I
muster up. It's the gift of God. God reveals himself to you, listen,
and you cannot help but believe. I believe because I can't help
it. I'd be a liar if I said I don't believe. When God makes the gospel known
to you, you say, I see, I see, I understand. First time I heard
Henry, when I heard him, I heard the gospel came to me in power.
First thing I says, I see. What he's saying matches what
I'm reading. I see, I understand. It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Listen, if I'm his sheep, I've
always been his sheep. Is that right? I've always been
his sheep. He's not turning goats into sheep.
They've always been his sheep. He's always called them sheep,
always. I'm his and he is mine. And being
sheep, we're weak, we're helpless and defenseless. Christ said,
without me, you can do nothing. Have you learned that? Without
me, you can't even believe. Without me, you can't even breathe.
Without me, you don't exist. I have learned now, I've learned
over the years, I only exist for one reason, and there's only
one reason for everything else to exist, and that's for Jesus
Christ. I breathe for Jesus Christ. I
eat, breathe, and live for Jesus Christ. I have no other reason,
and you have no other reason to exist on this earth except
for him. The word of God says all things
were made by him and for him. All things. We'll see more of this in the
Psalm 24 tomorrow. Now look, he maketh me to lie
down in green pastures. I'm glad he does, because if
he didn't, we wouldn't. Oh, our shepherd is so gracious
to us. He maketh me to lie down in the
green pastures of his word. He's the one who gives me a desire
to read his word. He gives me a desire to open
this book and seek him. He does this. And his word, the
believer finds, the sheep find it to be green pastures. And he leadeth me. I've been
singing this all morning. He leadeth me. Oh, precious thought. What a song that is. I've been
singing that all morning long. He leadeth me. He leadeth me. beside the still waters. The
rest of this Psalm tells us what we will not lack or want. And
it tells us here in the second verse that he leads us. He leads us into rest. He doesn't
drive us. You know, it's, he leads us.
He goes before us. He's not behind, you drive goats.
He leads the sheep. The sheep follow the shepherd.
They do. They hear the shepherd's voice. And I've heard this, that
they would take their sheep and put them in a sheep cot. Each
shepherd would bring his sheep and put them in that sheep cot. And then the next morning, the
shepherd would come out and he would holler for his sheep and
those sheep recognized the shepherd's voice and they would follow him.
They would follow him. And when the gospel's preached,
his sheep recognize his voice. That's the voice of my shepherd.
That's the voice of my shepherd. And you believe everything he
has to say. You believe it. Our shepherd gives rest. He gives
real spiritual rest. There is real spiritual rest.
to his sheep, he said this, come unto me, all you that labor and
heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Are you laboring? Is anybody laboring under sin,
under the guilt of sin? He said, come to me, I'll give
you rest. Someone said, and I read this years ago, but this person
wrote, in order to claim a promise, you have to fit the character
described at the promise. This promise is not to everyone.
It's to those who are laboring and heavy laden that promises
to you. He said, come to me and I'll
give you rest. You'll find rest to your souls.
He gives me rest in his word. He gives me rest in his promises.
He gives me rest from worry. Although it comes back because
of sin, that's our problem. That's our problem. I have no
reason to ever be with unrest. I have no reason. Christ is my
rest. And he leadeth me beside the
still waters. I don't know what all that means. I've read different commentary.
Some said it's the trials of life. I don't know. It could
be. I do know this. He does feed and water the sheep.
and he's the bread and water. He's it. But the key to me is this, he
leadeth. Wherever the path that I'm on,
wherever I find myself, the Lord is leading me. I have gone and
taken paths that I never would have thought of in my life. When
I look back now over the years, But I can say this, and as I
look back, here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I've come.
The Lord has led me all the way, even when I wasn't able to perceive
it, which is most of the time, but he's doing the leading. He
is. He's doing the leading and he's
doing the carrying all the way home. And he carries, listen, I said
he carried the sheep to the good pasture, the green pastures of
his word. And I've realized this over the
years in my readings through the word of God. I've read and
I've read and I've read and then a situation will come along.
The Lord will lead me into a trial and I'll remember the scripture
that I had found in the green pastures of his word and it'll
give me comfort in an hour that I need it. I've learned that. He leads me through his word,
and sooner or later, sooner or later, I'm gonna go through something,
and his word's gonna come to my mind, and it's gonna give
me comfort. It's gonna give me counsel. It's gonna give me counsel. I believe those, John Newton
said this, those who are in the word of God constantly reading
his word, seeking the Lord, will generally have knowledge and
understanding of which direction to go. Now, at times you think,
I don't really know what to do. But if we stay in his word, by
his word, by his spirit, he'll direct the sheep. He'll direct
them. And he restoreth my soul. He restoreth my soul. As I said,
I am a soul. He's restored me back to favor
with God. He's restored my soul from sin. In Christ, I have God's favor.
In Christ, I have God's love. Outside of Christ, I can't say
that to anybody. I cannot say to anyone, listen
to me, I cannot say to any particular person that does not believe
the gospel, that does not believe on Christ. I'm not gonna say
to that person, God loves you and God wants to save you if
you'll let him. I tell you what I am gonna say. The wrath of
God abides on you. God's love was in the ark. All
those people that drowned in the flood did not drown in the
love of God. They drowned in the wrath of
God. Someone said there was no bumper sticker on the back of
that ark saying, smile, God loves you. There wasn't. God's love is in Christ. That's
where God's love is experienced. That's where it's made known,
is in his son. Those who do not love his son
or believe on his son, I'm not gonna say to them, I'm not going
to say to him, God loves you. I'm going to say to him, the
wrath of God abides on you. You're about to meet a God who's
a consuming fire. You better listen. You better
listen. There is a city of refuge provided.
You better flee to Christ. He's the city of refuge. You
better flee to him. He delights to show mercy. He
saves sinners. Paul said, knowing the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. He restores my soul. He leads
me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. He does it
for His namesake. You know why God's forgiven me
of my sins. I've learned this now. I know
exactly why God's forgiven me of my sins. For Christ's sake. That's why God has forgiven me.
For Christ's sake. In Adam I died, in Christ I'm
made alive. When I sin, he restores the joy
of salvation, lost my sin. You see, he restores my soul.
We saw that in Psalm 22, in my substitute. When I sin, I lose that joy. David said, restoring to me the
joy of thy salvation. He didn't say restoring to me
thy salvation, he never lost that. but you can lose the joy
of it. You can lose a real sense of
God's love. You can lose a real sense of
it, but you can never lose it. God's love never flickers. You
know, you can wear, you can wear, we can wear each other's love
out. I've seen children that was just
so, so much trouble to their parents that it just, I know
one situation where the, The son committed suicide. And the
father's heart was broken, but he said, at least that trouble's
over. He was such a drug addict, such
a trouble. We can never, never wear out
the love of God in Christ. It never flickers. It never diminishes. It never diminishes. You and
I sin against love and light all the time. That's what makes
it so And that's what makes it so much more difficult as we
get older when we realize we're sinning against love and light.
We sin against love and light. And yet that love never diminishes
in any way, shape, or form. I think of it as white hot love. You ever seen white hot metal?
You ever been on a foundry and you've seen the metal so hot
it glows, it's just white. I think of his love like that
and it never, It never cools off in any way, shape, or form.
Never does. He restores my soul. He restores
the joy of my salvation. He restores my interest when
it grows cold. He restores my love when the
flame is low. He restores, He restores, He
restores. The Lord does. And He leads me
in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. And yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and notice
he says, though I walk, not running. Let me say something here. Fear, now I'm not talking about
a fear of God. There's a right fear of God,
a right fear in awe and respect of God. Any other fear is wrong. We have no reason to fear. No
reason to fear. It doesn't matter if we are sitting
here or if we are on a battlefield with bullets flying over our
head. We're safe. Now, because of our flesh, we
don't feel it, do we? But I've learned this, in the
spiritual realm, feeling real are not the same. What I feel
so much of is flesh. What's real is the word of God.
standing on the promises. We sang it, standing on the promises. That's what's real. As I've grown
older, I've learned to not rely on my feelings, but this is what
God's Word says. This is what God's Word said.
The best prayer you can ever pray is to take God's own words
to the throne of grace and use them there. Lord, you said, You
said if I call on you in a day of trouble, you would deliver
me and I would glorify you. And I assure you that God's gonna
deliver you. I thought of this the other day.
I thought, you know, God's gonna heal his sheep of every disease. You may have to die, but you're
gonna be healed. You're gonna be healed. We prayed
for a man several years ago that had cancer, that the Lord would
heal him, and he did. The Lord healed him. He took
him home. He took him all. Now God's gonna heal every disease
I got. Eventually, you know, it's either gonna be here or
when he takes me out of this life. Because all my sicknesses
and all my sorrows end at the grave. They end at the grave. 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. I will fear no evil, not because
I'm a tough nut. That's one thing you realize
you get older. You're not tough at all. You know, I wrestled
in school. I learned this lesson. There's
always somebody better. Always somebody stronger. Always. No, no, no. It's not because
of that. It's because thou art with me.
You know that the Spirit of Christ, Christ is in you. Your body's
the temple of the Holy Spirit, Christ is in you. He's not off
some far off distance looking, watching. He's in you. That's
why he said, when you go through the water, I'll go with you.
I'll go with you. I'm not gonna stand on the other
side and say, come on, you can make it. I'll be right there
with you. In the fire, I'll be right there
with you. Hardest trial, I'll be right there with you. That's
why we have a high priest who can be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. The believer's life on this earth
is a journey. It's a pilgrimage. Don't drive
your tent pegs too deep. You're not staying here. This
is not home. This is not home. Home is where Christ is. Home
is where God is. This is not home. It's a journey
of faith, and in faith we walk with God like any did in all
our experiences. Now listen, everything you will
ever experience in your life is part of the journey home,
ordained of God for you, divinely ordered of God for you, and it's
part of the journey home. Thank God, I think I've learned
something about this. Going down the road, I'm going
down the road and I have a flat tire, and the first thing I want
to do is get angry. But then I realized, this is
just part of the journey home. It's just part of the journey
home. You get sick, you have a stroke. I had a stroke, but
they couldn't pinpoint it, it was a xylon stroke. That's part of the journey home.
And it was given to me when I needed it. Everything that comes my
way, every trial that comes my way, every heartache that comes
my way is a need be. Peter said if need be, I retrials. You're going through a difficult
time right now, apparently it's a need be. You need it or God
wouldn't give it to you. The great physician knows exactly
what to order, doesn't he? He knows exactly what to order.
Now, walking here demonstrates confidence in the shepherd. Confidence
in the shepherd. He calls this a valley, though
I walk through the shadow of death. You know, this whole world,
when I was a young teenager, this world was a playground.
I mean, I saw it as a playground. You know what I see it as now?
One huge cemetery. Something has died on every inch
of this earth. This is a cemetery. This is where
death is. And God's gonna put an end to
death right here. There'll be no death, no more
sorrow in heaven. It's a valley of the shadow of
death, and it's just a shadow for us, and a shadow can't hurt
anybody. I've never heard of a shadow
hurting anyone. Scare them maybe, but it's never hurt them. And
you know that those who believe on Christ, you know this, I want
you to understand this. You are never going to die. Christ is his taste of death
for every man. Every man he represented, every
man and woman he represented, he tasted their death. We saw
it last night in Psalm 22. Martha said, I know my brother's
gonna rise in the resurrection. The Lord said, he that believes
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Do you believe
this? My body's gonna die, they're
gonna bury this old corrupt body, this mass of corruption standing
here, this body. But I'm not gonna die, I'm not
gonna taste of death. Just gonna close my eyes and
then enter into his presence. It's gonna be like going to sleep
and waking up. That's all it's gonna be. Christ tasted my death. He's the death of death. And notice faith's confidence.
I will fear no evil. I'm gonna try to hurry up and
get this done now. I will fear no evil, no evil tidings, no
evil person. And here's why. Thou art with
me. Now, brethren, you know you and
I fear too many things. We have no right to fear anything
but God. We have the right, we have the right to walk through
this world and not fear one thing, except God. The scripture, Solomon
said, the fear of man brings a snare. You will compromise
the gospel if you start to fear man. You'll compromise. but we have no need to fear anything.
Those disciples in the boat, they thought they were going
to perish and they woke the Lord up. There he is asleep on the back of the
boat. That's perfect faith. That's exactly how we ought to
live. In the worst storm, we ought to be able to go to sleep.
We should be able to. It's his storm. He has his way
in the whirlwind and in the wind. It's his. And thy rod and thy
staff, they comfort me. The chastening rod of God, it
comforts me because it's the rod of love. God doesn't punish
his children. He punished Christ in their stead
at Calvary. He chastens them. God's not punishing
me, he chastens me out of love, is what he does. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Thy rod and staff, they comfort
me. His rule, his sovereign rule comforts me. He said, I'll send you the comforter.
You'll not be without a comforter. He said in John 14, 27, peace
I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not
as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled. You have every right this morning,
you who believe, you have every right this morning, then I have
your heart troubled. Because all things are of God.
He's ordered exactly what you're going through. He's ordered it.
Before creation, He ordered it. He took care of it. And Christ
is gonna get the glory out of it, and you're gonna grow in
grace and the knowledge of Christ. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemy. Well, here's the table this morning.
Christ. Christ, the gospel. Right here
in the world, we are on enemy turf. The world hates God and
hates you. And Satan would love to kill
every believer in this room if he could, but he can't do anything. Someone said he's nothing more
than a pit bull on a chain. He can't do a thing unless God
gives him permission. And happy is the man who lives
in the reality of Christ and him crucified. Christ, him being
the shepherd, And we'll see tomorrow Christ being our King, our King. And surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. What companions to have through
life? What companions? Goodness and mercy. One on the
right side, one on the left side. Follow me. Always with me. How can our cup
not run over with such companions? And last of all, now, people look at the world the
way it's going right now. You know, someone said the devil's
greatest tool was the 24-hour news. I believe that. People tore up. But we have a good end. I told
my granddaughter this the other day. I was talking to her. I
said, I have a good end. She's talking about retirement,
you know, me retiring. I told her death, when I die,
that's my retirement. We have a good end. I have a
good future. I have nothing to be gloomy about.
I'm not gloomy about whatever is going on right now. The Lord's
in control. The Lord's in control. I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. This is not home. Christ, if I go and prepare
a place for you, I'll come again and receive you to myself to
where I am. There you may be also. You may be in a nursing home
waiting on the Lord. I told my wife, I said, you know,
if we live to be old, and if I'm too old for you to stay at
home, don't worry about putting me in a nursing home. I can wait
for the Lord there. I can wait for him in a shack. I can wait
for him anywhere. He's coming to get me. He's coming
to get it. I believe that. I believe the
Lord's coming. He's coming. We have a good end. Turn over to Revelation 21. Let
me read this. I've preached long enough. I've looked at that watch, but
it doesn't mean anything. I keep looking at it. What'd I say? Revelation 20,
21. I thought I marked, yeah I did.
Listen, listen, this is our end. This is our end, right here.
And we need to live in reality of this. And I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away, there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy
city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
And he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There shall be no
more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be
any more pain, for the former things are passed away. He that
sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he
said unto me, write, for these words are true and faithful.
Rather, we have a good end. We have a good hope. We have a good God. All right.