We do have a great shepherd. The Lord God is our shepherd. As the psalmist said, the Lord
is my shepherd. He is my shepherd right now. I shall not want. He feeds his
flock. like a shepherd, he shall gather
the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently
lead those that are with young. He is the great shepherd of his
sheep, isn't he? What a great description of he
who is the shepherd and what a great description of us who
are the sheep. Sheep do two things. They flock,
and they follow. Sheep are flocking animals and
they follow and they are notoriously helpless in all sorts of ways.
But as much as that is a description of our weakness, our shepherd
is described in his great strength, isn't he? Jacob when he lay dying,
Israel when he lay dying, he spoke of Joseph, his son, and
he said, his bow abode in strength. Joseph who was a type of the
Lord Jesus going down to that world to rescue and to preserve
his people in the midst of that land. The arms of his hands were
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. from this, from the mighty God
of Jacob, is the shepherd, the stone of Israel." Moses, on seeing
the promised land, talked about the shepherd. He talks about
he who will go out before them and which may go in before them
and lead them out and bring them in, and the congregation of the
Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd. He leads his people
like a flock. I don't know about you, but if
you look back upon your life, there are just so many, many
instances that I can think of where I was so evidently shepherded
by the Lord. In fact, the reality is that
you have been shepherded by the Lord from old eternity. Shepherded as you were formed
in your mother's womb, shepherded as you came forth, shepherded
by Him, our great God. He keeps them. He does scatter
them and He does keep them. He watches over them and He knows
them all intimately and perfectly and purposefully. I wanted to
look tonight, as we have at other times, at such an amazing passage
of scripture. I'd like us to look at Ezekiel
34. And it's the passage that the
Lord Jesus used to describe Himself in John chapter 10. He says,
I'm the good shepherd. and the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. He talks about the hirelings
who aren't shepherds. He says, I am the good shepherd.
He says, I know my sheep and I am known of mine. He knows
them and he makes himself to be known of them and this is
eternal life, said our Lord on that last night with his disciples. This is eternal life that you
know the Father and you know Jesus Christ. One of the things
that's extraordinary about Ezekiel is the times of Ezekiel were
times that are so much like our times, so much like the times
of the Lord's people throughout time. The people, if you read the early
chapters or read right through Ezekiel, you'll just be amazed
as the Lord gives you insight into the parallels of our time. There was, of course, a professing
Christian community in Israel in those days, wasn't there?
With all its sects and its denominations. And it was a professing Christian
church, in inverted commas, that was seemingly small in the world's
eyes, but under siege. And there was much religion in
Israel and in Jerusalem at that time, and there was great confidence. They actually proclaimed peace
to each other. They claimed that they were under
God's protection. They claimed that they were the
ones that were safe, these people. in Jerusalem. But what you find
is that there was extraordinary idolatry in the temple of God
and there was extraordinary boldness in the face of God's messengers
who had promised and promised and promised. Jeremiah was there. The other prophets had promised
these things to come. Moses had told them a thousand
years prior to that that these plagues would come upon them.
Jeremiah said, put up the white flag and go to Nebuchadnezzar
and you will be safe. And they kept saying, we are
right, and telling each other, we are right. In fact, they described
themselves as the choice meat in the pot. It's not a way we
would describe ourselves. But they were the chosen bits.
And the bones and the offal and the scraps and the dead prunings
were cast off. They thought, they thought that
all of the people that God had sent out to Babylon were not
the meat in the pot. They was. extraordinary boldness,
extraordinary arrogance, extraordinary pride, and they had desecrated
the temple of God. And God in Ezekiel takes Ezekiel
back there and He shows him what's going on there. He shows him
why the judgment of God has fallen upon them. But I love how He
describes how he describes the way he shepherds his flock and
describes himself as a shepherd to them. It's remarkable. I looked
up the words, they shall know and you shall know, and you would
think that through the Bible that would be a common expression,
it seems. I thought this was just going
to be everywhere. I look it up today and it's mentioned in the
scriptures about 80 times, you shall know or they shall know.
70 of them are in Ezekiel. It's remarkable, 70. And what
God is saying is that by Him revealing Himself as Jehovah-Raha,
by Him taking His people out and being a shepherd to His people,
He was actually going to ensure that they shall know. He was
going to ensure that his people shall know. He was going to ensure
that the world should know. It was a time of great, extraordinary
wickedness. Extraordinary wickedness and
extraordinary arrogance and extraordinary pride. I think it's encapsulated
by Jehoiachin, the king of Israel. He actually had Jeremiah's word
from God to him. But enough, you know the story,
but it's remarkable, the pride of men. These are religious men.
This is a king of a religious organisation. In his wintertime,
he's sitting beside his fire pot and they read the scroll
of God and he gets a scribe's knife, it's described as, he
gets a scribe's knife and he throws it into the fire. And
then he's reading another passage and he throws it into the fire
and he burns the word of God. sitting in the palace of the
King of God with the temple right beside him. Ezekiel, like the
other exiles, had been cast away and the Lord describes himself
in remarkable ways as a shepherd to them, as a shepherd to them. He says, therefore say, thus
saith the Lord God, although I have cast them far off among
the heathen, Ezekiel 11, 16, and although I have scattered
them among the nation, yet I will be to them, and I love this expression,
I will be to them as a little sanctuary. in the countries where
they shall come. He will be a little sanctuary.
He will be a shepherd to his sheep. He will shepherd them in such
a way that they will know, they shall know who he is and they
shall know whose they are. People have so many questions
about where the true church is. It's a very simple place, simple
way of finding the true church. You find the true shepherd. You
find the shepherd as he's defined and described even in this passage
we're about to look at briefly this evening. You find that shepherd
and you will find his flock. His flock is always described
in extraordinary terms, isn't it? He says it's a little flock.
Jesus called a little flock, Jeremiah called it a beautiful
flock. They are sheep that were wandered
and sheep that were scattered and a flock that became prey,
but they were always His flock. He calls them His flock. He calls
them again and again. As we read through Ezekiel 34
and just make some notes about the character of the shepherd
and the way he shepherds us, we'll see that he has He describes
them in personal pronoun terms always. And just in this brief
passage of scripture, he makes 30 promises, 30 promises declaring
who he is, 30 promises declaring what he'll do. He calls them
his congregation, a congregation that he has purchased of old,
says Psalm 74 too, the sheep of his pasture. the rod of his
inheritance, his redeemed, and the flock. The flock love to
own the shepherd in his character, don't they? They say in Psalm
79, 13, we are thy people. We are thy people. The sheep
of thy pasture will give thanks forever. We will show forth thy
praise. to all generations. We read the
desires of the sheep in Psalm 80, that he would make his face
to shine, that he would reveal himself, that he would cause
his people to say, as he says right throughout Ezekiel, they
shall know, you shall know, you shall know. OK, let's turn to
Ezekiel 34, and we'll be brief. We've looked at it in the past,
and I trust the Lord will take you to it again. But it has the
most extraordinary descriptions of our God. In verse 1, He's
a God who speaks. He's a God who speaks through
His prophet, and He's a God who speaks to His people. We're going
to know anything about God. This book is going to be where
we find out about Him, and we won't, as God's sheep, be led
to look at anything other than that book. And we will judge
everything in light of the book, not in light of what we see,
but we will judge it. by what is written in the book,
because that world had no idea. If you'd asked the pagan world,
where are the Christians, they would have said, oh, they're
all in Jerusalem and Israel. If you'd asked the religious
world where the true church was, they would have said, we are
here in Jerusalem, we are here at the temple. But the true church
of God is gathered by a shepherd, Jehovah-ra-ah. Son of man, he
speaks against the prophets of Israel, prophesy against the
prophets of Israel, prophesy and say unto them, thus saith
the Lord God unto the shepherds. Woe be to the shepherds of Israel
that do feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed
the flock? The flocks. You eat the fat and
you clothe with the wool, and you kill them that are fed, but
you feed not the flock. the disease you have not strengthened,
neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have
you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again
that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was
lost, but with force and cruelty have you ruled over them." Ruled
over them in covetousness. And if you look at all of those
things, the answer to all of those problems is in the Gospel,
isn't it? If the Lord Jesus is declared
as He is in the Gospel, then the diseased and the sick and
the broken and the driven away will find that there's a shepherd
that loves them and cares for them and gathers them to himself. They were scattered because there
is no shepherd and they became meat for all the beasts of the
field and they were scattered." Look how he describes them, these
scattered ones, you see. Scattered remnants, scattered
offcasts. My sheep wandered through all
the mountains on every hill, yea, my flock My flock was scattered
upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after
them. Therefore, you shepherds, hear
the word of the Lord. As I live, says the Lord God,
surely because my flock became prey and my flock became meat
to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd,
neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds
fed themselves and fed not my flock." They didn't feed them
with the manna from heaven. They didn't feed them with the
gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Therefore, you shepherds,
there is a just judgment, isn't it? Hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God. Behold,
I am against the shepherds. I will require my flock at their
hand and cause them to cease from feeding the flock. Neither
shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore, for I will deliver my
flock from their mouth that they may not be meat for them. For
thus, and here we have these remarkable promises of the Lord
God speaking to His people. For thus saith the Lord God,
Behold, even I, even I, He will do the searching, isn't it? I
will both search my sheep and seek them out. As the shepherd
seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep
that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep and will deliver
them out of all the places where they have been scattered in the
cloudy and dark day. There are in this world cloudy
and dark days where the children of God, either prior to their
conversion or in times after, they don't see the sun shining. But He will deliver them, as
we read in Psalm 80, that shepherd, that shepherd will cause His
face to shine upon them. what was dark and cloudy will
become bright in the light of his providence and his grace.
And I will bring them out." So he's always gathering his people
out. You've got to remember he's gathering
them out of a religious organisation. I will gather them out. I will
bring them out from the people and gather them from the countries.
I will bring them to their own land and feed them upon the mountains
of Israel by the rivers and in all the inhabited places of the
country. He makes them to lie down in
green pastures by still waters, doesn't he, in Psalm 23. I will feed them in a good pasture."
He'll feed them upon His Word. He'll reveal Himself as He's
described in His Word to them. That's the good pasture. That's
the green pasture of Psalm 23. I will feed them in a good pasture,
and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be. There shall they lie in a good
fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains
of Israel. I will feed my flock. I love
this next phrase. I will cause them to lie down. I will cause them, in those pastures
where they are fed, upon my word, as I am revealed to them by my
grace and by the Spirit's work, I will cause them to lie down,
I will cause them to rest. You've got to remember again
the context of Ezekiel speaking in. This is a time of the most
extraordinary apostasy when the nation of Israel has been reduced
by sin and rebellion against God down to a tiny remnant. living in mud huts by the canals
of Babylon. What remarkable promises for
those of us who are wandering in this wilderness world. I will
cause them to lie down. I love the promises of God. I trust you find comfort in them. I will seek that which was lost
and bring again that which was driven away, and I will bind
that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was sick.
He's referring back to verse 4, doesn't he, with the diseased
and the broken. But I will destroy the fat and
the strong, and I will feed them with judgment. And as for you,
O my flock, must sayeth the Lord God, Behold, I judge between
cattle and cattle, between rams and he-goats. He's in absolute
sovereign control. It is not for us to do the judging. We leave all the judging in his
hands. Seemeth he the small thing unto you that you've eaten up
the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the
residue of your pastures. and to have drunk deep waters
that must foul the residue with your feet." It's interesting,
isn't it, when the Lord Jesus washed the disciples' feet. He
says you are clean. The only bit of us that's unclean
is that bit that touches the world, isn't it? And so where
the world, the world's thinking and the world's ways and the
world's methods are mixed, even in our lives, we end up fouling
things, don't we? May the Lord keep us feeding
and feeding each other upon the good pasture. And as for my flock,
They eat which you have trodden with your feet, and drink which
you have fouled with your feet. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God unto them, Behold, I even I will judge between fat cattle
and lean cattle. Because you have thrust with
the side and with the shoulder, and pushed all disease with your
horns, till you have scattered them abroad. Woe to those shepherds
who do that. Therefore I will save my flock. And they shall no more be prey. I will judge between cattle and
cattle. And then he speaks of the shepherd.
And I will set up one shepherd over them. And he shall feed
them. What a remarkable promise. That
God himself, our shepherd, is going to feed us. even my servant
David." David had died 600 years prior to this. He's talking about,
of course, David's great son. He shall feed them and he shall
be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their
God. So the shepherd is God. The Shepherd
is Jehovah-Ra-Ah, the Lord our Shepherd, and I will be their
God, and my servant David a prince among them. I, the Lord, have
spoken it." Our God is a sovereign God. Our God is a promise-keeping
God. Our God is a God who speaks. Our God, in verse 25, is a God
of covenant, isn't He? And I will make with them a covenant
of peace. He'll make a covenant. The Prince
of Peace will make a covenant of peace. He makes a covenant
of peace with us. We are brothers and sisters because
of the shepherd's work at peace with God. We can be at perfect peace with
God because our sins have been perfectly taken away and we are
made by the shepherd, the very righteousness of God. The shepherd's
job is to present his flock wholly spotless and blameless. Peace,
peace is knowing the shepherd. Peace is having the shepherd
come. and reveal himself as he is. Peace is being with the shepherd
and with his flock. And I will cause the evil beasts
to cease out of the land and they shall dwell safely in the
wilderness. You've got to remember the wilderness
in those days was a wilderness with lions and all sorts of bears
and wild beasts. David had to slay them. Imagine
what it is to sleep in the wilderness, to sleep in the woods. The woods
are the very haunts of all of those beasts. They had to, for the protection
of the sheep, they had to build corrals for them, didn't they?
And fence them in with thorns and have a guard sleeping at
the gate because of the wild animals that came out of the
woods. But this flock will sleep in the woods and they shall dwell
safely in the wilderness because He makes them so. He makes them,
and I will make them and the places about my hill, that mighty
hill of Moriah, that mighty hill of Calvary. I will make the places
round about my hill a blessing, and I will cause the shower to
come down in this season, and there shall be showers of blessing. and the tree of the field shall
yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and
they shall be safe in their land, and shall know, because of Jehovah's
work, that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their
yoke. what yokes the children of God
wear because of sin, what yokes they wear under the bondage of
Satan, what yokes they wear under all the bonds that we have when
we feel as if we have to do something to earn our righteousness with
God. what peace there is when we are
shepherded, when you know Him. You see what it says there? They
shall know that I am the Lord and they shall know when He's
broken the bands of their yoke. Think of what we've been looking
at in Galatians. And delivered them out of the
hand of those that serve themselves of them. They're given to covetousness,
says Jeremiah 6, isn't it? The false shepherds are covetous. They do not preach the whole
counsel of God, and they do not know that I am the Lord, and
they do not trust Him. And they shall no more, His people,
this flock, they shall no more be prey to heathen, neither shall
the beast of the land devour them, but they shall dwell safely. and none shall make them afraid. The righteous shall be bold as
a lion, says Proverbs 28. none shall make them afraid.
And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall
be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the
shame of the heathen any more. Thus, as a result of all this,
they shall know that I, the Lord their God, and with them." What a remarkable
promise. You cannot ever, ever be outside
of the presence of Jehovah-Raha, our shepherd. No matter what
it feels like, no matter what your conscience says, no matter
what the world says, He's there. He says, I am with them and they. this particular group, they,
even the House of Israel, are my people. He claims a people,
a rebellious, sinful people. He claims a people as my people. No wonder the psalmist can say
the Lord is my shepherd. How can he say that? Because
the Lord has come to him and revealed him as owning him, as him being one
of his sheep, leading and guiding and caring and protecting. And
you are my flock, the flock of my pasture are men, and I am
your God, saith the Lord God. It's a remarkable passage of
scripture, isn't it? There are 30 odd promises there
from God. 30 promises perfectly fulfilled
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Promises fulfilled in time. Promises fulfilled in the experience
of God's people. They shall know, he says, 70
times, he says, you'll know. You'll know. You'll know. You'll
know that you've been shepherded when this shepherd has released
and broken the bonds of your yokes. You'll know this shepherd
when he's delivered you. And how does he deliver them?
It's remarkable how the next chapters go on in Ezekiel. Just quickly in Ezekiel 34, 35
I mean, there's the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, son of
man, set thy face against Mount Seir. Seir is Esau's heritage. Set your face against them and
you prophesy against it. Then over in chapter 36, that
chapter that we read from so often about God coming, he says,
He says prophesy to the mountains of Israel. You prophesy against
Esau, you prophesy to the mountains of Israel. And at the end of
chapter 36 there are these remarkable words. as a holy flock. What a great description of God's
children, as a holy flock. Right now they're holy, not that
they might be holy in the future. I remember talking to someone
a few years ago about the possibility and the probability in the not
too distant future of meeting God and she'd been in religion
for 40 or 50 years and she says, I'm nowhere in the world, I'm
not ready yet, I haven't cleaned up my act. You see, God says
they're holy. He made them holy. They're holy because of Him.
They're not ever holy because of their work. As a holy flock,
the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feast, so shall the waste
cities be filled with the flocks of men, and they shall know that
I am the Lord. And how is this flock gathered?
Chapter 37 is that remarkable chapter, isn't it? Can these
dry bones live? Can those who are dead and lifeless
live? At the end of Chapter 37 we find
this, not only do they live, the Spirit of God comes on them.
And David my servant shall be king over them, and they shall
all have one shepherd, this great army that's raised through the
preaching of the gospel. And so they shall also walk in
my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land
I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt.
And they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children
and their children's children, forever. My servant David, Ezekiel
37.25, shall be their prince forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant
of peace with them, it shall be an everlasting covenant with
them, and I will place them and multiply them and will set my
sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. He is a sanctuary. He is Himself
a sanctuary. He is our refuge. He is our place
where we meet with God. My tabernacle, my dwelling place,
shall be with them, yea, I will be their God, and they shall
be my people. And the heathen shall know that
I, the Lord, do sanctify Israel. I, the Lord, make Israel the
Israel of my flock. I make them holy, when my sanctuary
shall be in the midst of them." How long has he shepherded his
people? Let's pray. Our Father, we thank
you. We thank you for the promises
that you make and we thank you for the promises fulfilled in
our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, our Father, we, like wandering
sheep, are straying all the time. And we thank you, Heavenly Father,
that there is a great Shepherd of our souls. And we pray, Heavenly
Father, that we find ourselves at peace and at rest in Him,
and that He might make us to lie down in green pastures. And we might find in Him and
His Word all of the comforts in this world that like your
dear servant Ezekiel and that chosen remnant Heavenly Father
feel so often scattered and outcast. We thank you our Father that
in the midst of all of this wilderness you come and you are a sanctuary
to your people and you by your Spirit's work cause your people
to know you. to know you as you are revealed
in your precious word, Heavenly Father, to know you as you are
revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me pray, Heavenly Father,
that we find your character and your presence and Your purposes,
the delight of our souls, and we might rest, Heavenly Father,
in the green pastures of Your promises, all fulfilled, perfectly
and completely. What a remarkable thing, Heavenly
Father, that our Shepherd lives forevermore, and that flock,
that flock that He purchased of old, that flock for whom He
is the surety, That flock will be with Him forever. Help us Heavenly Father to find
our rest and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ, now and forevermore. Amen.