Alright, brethren, Psalm 23. This world is so full of trouble. We face a lot of trouble in this
world. And all of the trouble is caused
by sin. Our tears, our trials, our personal
coming short of God's glory, death, everything's caused by
sin. All the trouble we face in this
world is caused by sin. And we have to go through much
tribulation. And so the Lord tells his preacher,
he says, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord.
Speak comfortably to Jerusalem. That's to the church. Speak comfortably
to her. Tell her that her warfare is
accomplished. Remind her what she knows. Her
warfare is accomplished. She received at the Lord's hand
double for all her sins. And I like trying to find a message
of comfort when I am studying because I need comfort. When you study and pray for a
message and then you get up and preach, God comforts my heart. And I want to try to bring a
message of comfort for you. I want you to be comforted. Because
I know, I realize, we need to be comforted of the Lord. We
need that. Why is it that we come into these troubles and
in our own selves we're brought low and some trouble in this
world brings us low. Why is that? God is just not
going to let his child be full of pride. He's going to keep
you weak. He's going to keep you low. That's
love. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. If you endure chastening, God's
dealing with you as with a son. What's he teaching me? My grace
is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you.
My strength is made perfect in weakness. So read verse one here,
Psalm 23, one, and think about this statement. The Lord is my
shepherd. I shall not want. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Our subject is our all-providing
shepherd. And that's who he is. He's our
all-providing shepherd. The Lord is our shepherd. the
Lord. He's the shepherd who provides
all for his sheep. Think of this, sovereign God. That's Lord, Jehovah, the almighty
God, the sovereign God. The God who made all things,
who upholds all things, who directs and brings all things to pass.
The God who's working everything together for the good of his
people. He's your shepherd, believer. He's your shepherd. Just like
a shepherd out there in the field and he's got all his flock of
sheep. They don't trade places. The sheep don't start telling
the shepherd what to do and taking care of the shepherd. The shepherd
is constantly taking care of those sheep. He's providing for
those sheep. And that's what our Lord is.
Our God, our sovereign Savior is our shepherd. He's our shepherd. You know, we become overwhelmed
at times. We get these anxious thoughts
and we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. And we start
worrying about it. We start thinking about it. And
we go through a thousand different scenarios of what could happen
and what might happen. And we just get ourselves just
weighted down in this anxiousness and just trouble. He says, our shepherd said, take
no thought. saying, what shall we eat? What
shall we drink? Where will shall we be clothed?
What's going to happen tomorrow? He said, don't take a thought
about that. We qualify that. We say, well,
he meant don't take any anxious thought for it. No, he said,
don't take any thought for it. Why? These are the things that
the Gentiles seek. The world seeks those things.
That's all that's on their mind. He says, your heavenly Father
knoweth. He knows what you need. He knows
what you have need of. He knows what you need better
than you know what you need. He says, but seek ye first the
kingdom of God. He's saying instead of having
our mind on all these things that could happen and might happen
and what if and all that, think on Christ. Have him preeminent
in all our thoughts, all the time, constantly. And his righteousness. Think
on his righteousness, how he's made you righteous, how he is
your righteousness, and how all that he's doing for you in this
world is righteous. It's right, it's what you need.
Have that preeminent in our minds and our thoughts all the time,
Christ. And he's righteous. He said, Lord, our shepherd.
And he said, and he'll give you these other things that you need.
He'll provide those other things you need. They'll take care of
themselves. He'll take care of those things. And he tells us
right here, the Lord is my shepherd. He's my sovereign God, my sovereign
Father, my sovereign Savior. He's my shepherd. I shall not
want You shall not want. You're not going to do without
anything. He's the one shepherd we have. You know, we only have one. Listen
to Ezekiel 34, 23. You know, David's a type of the
Lord our shepherd. And God said, I'll set up one
shepherd over them which shall feed them, even my servant David. David was a picture of Christ
in it. Christ is the one shepherd. David died. But our one shepherd's
still living, forever. I'll set up one shepherd, he
shall feed them, he shall be their shepherd, and my servants
shall be king over them, they shall all have one shepherd,
and they'll walk in my judgments and observe my statutes and do
them. He set up in eternity one shepherd
over his church, over his people, Christ his son. And he's our
king. He's our sovereign ruler. He's
the one providing for us. He's the one that's making us
continue to walk by faith in love, doing as he commands. He's the one. He does this and
all. You know, you just imagine if
you see a field full of sheep, there's a flock of sheep there.
And you got one sheep over here that's wandering off and not
doing like he's supposed to. He's off away from the other
sheep, whatever. Have you ever seen other sheep
go out and try to corral another sheep and bring that sheep back,
make him get back in the fold? That ain't their business, and
they too dumb to do it. So are we. But we got one shepherd,
and that shepherd will bring that sheep back. You believe
Christ can work that effectually in your heart. You know He can. If you're a believer, you know
He can because you know what He saved you from. But why can't
we believe He can do that in our brother? How did He do it
in you? He did it through the message
that declares He does it. He did it through the message
that glorified Him and His works. And that's what he tells you
and me to use, and he'll use that to bring your brother back. And we don't do that, do we?
We claim we don't believe law. We claim we don't think we're
saved by law. But you let a brother slip, and
we start going to him with the law. What's that mean? That means judging him for doing
wrong. That means telling him you should have done this, you
should have done the other. How about declaring how Christ
did that, how Christ perfected his people by doing it, how he's
all our righteousness in doing it, and then gently talking to
the brethren saying, doesn't that make you want to do right? Doesn't that make you want to
follow Christ? You see, that's where he's going. You know, when
I preach, I have, I guess it's a formula, I don't know, but
it's just how I preach. If I'm looking at something practical
in the Scripture, I'm going to first tell you how you can't
do it. You can't be righteous by it, because you can't do it
in perfection. Then I'm going to tell you how Christ did it
in perfection, and He's all your righteousness in it. And then
I'm going to tell you how you do it. Not that you're going
to do it right and do it perfect. But when you hear how Christ
did it for you, that constrains you in your heart to want to
do it. Well, why don't we use that with
our brethren when they slip and fall? We become free will works
religionists like that, don't we? You can't do that! Oh, when did you become Christ
and start being the judge? You see, when we do that, you
know what we've done? We've gone way past whatever our brother
has done into the slop and the mire and filth. Because we've tried to knock
Christ off His throne. We've tried to become the shepherd.
We're just a dumb sheep. That's all we are. But we got
one shepherd, and he's a faithful shepherd. And you know this,
brethren? God set him up from everlasting,
and that means before you ever knew you had this shepherd, you
had him. When you were walking in sin and didn't know God, didn't
want to know God, and couldn't know God, who would have ever
thought you'd be brought to sit right where you're sitting now,
believe in Christ? Who did that? Your shepherd did it. 2,000 years
ago, he said, he was looking at that fold in Israel, and he
said, and I have other sheep that aren't in this fold. They're
in a Gentile fold, and I must bring them. You know what that
means, believer? That means 2,000 years ago, when your shepherd
said that, he was talking about you. I have other sheep that aren't
Jews. I have some sheep that are Gentiles, and I'm going to
bring them. I must bring them. He was talking about you and
me. He's been our shepherd a long time before we knew him. when
we hated him and didn't want to know him. My point is, if
he was able to bring you into the fold, he'll be able to give
you everything you need so that you won't lack anything and keep
you in the fold, won't he? Old Belshazzar, he didn't have
this shepherd. And the Lord wrote on the wall
and he said, you've been measured in the balances and you've come
up wanting. But our Shepherd here is telling
us, you're not ever going to be found wanting. Never. Never. He's our full provision
of everything we need. In Him are all things, and you're
complete in Him. He's the Good Shepherd. Look
over at John 10. He's the everlasting Shepherd.
He's the Good Shepherd. John 10 and 11. Listen to what
He said. He talked about the thief there
in verse 11, I mean verse 10. He says, the thief comes not
but for to steal and to kill and destroy. I am come that they
might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Don't that sound good? Now listen
to what he said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. The hireling That false Jesus,
that Jesus can't do anything, and his false under-shepherds,
they're not the shepherd who's on the sheep or not. When they
see the wolf coming, they leave the sheep and they flee. And
the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep. The hireling fleeth
because he's a hireling. He gets paid doing what he does
for money. He cares not for the sheep. I'm
the good shepherd. We couldn't give him anything.
He didn't do what he did for gain. We couldn't give him anything.
I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep. I'm known of
mine. I know my sheep like the father
knows me, and I know the father. That's how I know my sheep. And
I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which
are not of this Jewish fold, them also I must bring. And they
shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
He made you hear His voice and brought you into this little
part of His fold right here, and He keeps you here. He's the
good shepherd, isn't He? He's God's shepherd. God said,
Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, against the man that's My fellow.
He's God's shepherd, the one God provided. a Waco sword smite
the shepherd and a sheep will be scattered. But then I'll turn
my hand upon the little sheep and I'll bring the sheep back.
That's what happened at Calvary's Cross. Our Lord Jesus took the
place of all his sheep. Our shepherd laid down his life
for the sheep. He was made sin for the sheep,
made a curse for the sheep, bore the wrath of God for the sheep,
was separated from God for the sheep. Read Psalm 22 first and
hear him cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And
when you get to the end and you see that work finished, that's
why the next Psalm says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He did it. He made his people righteous,
and so he's the good shepherd. He satisfied justice, and you'll
never be found wanting in those balances like Belshazzar was.
He's provided you a full supply of righteousness. He's the great
shepherd. He said in Hebrews 13, 20, Our Lord Jesus Christ is that
great shepherd of the sheep. You've been brought again from
the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant, and
he'll make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight. God will do this
through Jesus Christ, and he'll get all the glory. The great
shepherd is a man touched with a feeling of our infirmities.
He knows what his sheep need. A good shepherd's gonna know
what his sheep need. Our shepherd is one with us. He's touched
with the feeling of our firm. He was when he walked this earth,
he was on the cross, and he is now from glory. He knows when
you're hurting, he knows it. He knows what it's like. And he knows what you need, and
he's sovereign to give it. That's a great shepherd, brethren.
And if you're going to walk and you're going to be protected
and defended and you're going to do whatever good work He's
ordained from the beginning of the world for you to do, He's
the one that's going to work that in you. He's going to make
you do it. He's the chief shepherd. 1 Peter 5 verse 4 says, When
a chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of
glory that fadeth not away. Peter said, You were sheep going
astray. You were sheep out here wandering around without a shepherd.
But now you're returned unto the shepherd, the bishop of your
soul. That word shepherd means pastor.
That's what the word means, pastor. He's the pastor who is God. He's
the shepherd who is God. And he's the bishop, same word.
You've been returned to the elder. You've been returned to the bishop.
You've been returned to the pastor, to the shepherd. And he did it. And he's ruling. He's ruling. He's ruling His under-shepherds. He's ruling the hearts of His
preachers. He's ruling. He's correcting them. He's leading
them, just like He's leading and teaching you through them,
through their preaching. Isn't that amazing? So you see,
brethren, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Now look at
this next verse. He's going to make us rest in
green pastures and lead us by still waters. He says, verse
two, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me
beside the still water. Kelsey, you're from the country
like I am. You ever gone out and just laid
down in a field? That's so nice. I love to go out. I would go
out and there would be these tall fields with tall grass,
and I love to go out there and just lay down in the middle of
it. Nobody can see you. You're just
laying there looking at a clear blue sky out in the middle of
a field. Peaceful, quiet. Just lay there
and go to sleep. No noise, just peace. He said, He's going to make you
lay down in green pastures just like that. That's the fullness
of grace. That's all provision. That's
Christ. He said, By me you shall find
pasture. What he just read in John 10,
by me you'll find pasture. He's our rest from the law. Brethren,
if there's something I could tell you, listen, if you're convicted
of your sin and you're troubled and you know you've fallen and
stumbled and you've broken God's law and you see it like it's
just ever before you, the first thing I'd say to you is, Rest
in this, you're not under the law. God's not going to charge
you. So as to separate you from Him,
you're righteous in Him. That's the beginning of healing.
That's the beginning of rest. When we're troubled by our sin
is to be reminded, He's brought you to this green pasture, you're
righteous in Him. That's the love that's going
to break that hard heart. That's the love that's going
to break and subdue and mortify the sinful flesh. That's what's
going to make you want to obey Him. He laid down His life and
He led you to this green pasture. You're righteous in Him. No sin
will ever be laid against you. That's rest. That's a green field
you can lay down in right there. rest from sin condemning you
or ruling over you. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. It's not going to condemn you
and the sin of your flesh is not going to reign over you.
I wish I could remember this. If one of these sheep in this
pasture gets out of line and gets off where it's not supposed
to be, I just need to remember the shepherd's not going to let
that sheep leave. He's not going to do it. He's going to bring
him back into the fold. I need to remember that about my brother.
Why then does it look like my sin is reigning over me? Just
so he can subdue your flesh and turn you back into the fold and
show you, you ain't the one that's subduing your flesh. You're not
the one that's making yourself walk. You're not the one who's
doing anything. He's doing it. But by grace,
he won't let your sin rule over you. You get that? rest from anxious care. He said
in Ezekiel 34, 14, I'll feed them in a good pasture. Upon
high mountains of Israel shall their fold be and they'll lie
in a good fold in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains.
He said, I'll search my sheep, I'll seek them out. As a shepherd
seeks 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 places where they've been scattered in the
cloudy and dark day. I'll seek them out. He gave that
parable of the shepherd going out, finding the lost sheep,
putting it on his shoulder, bringing it back to the fold. That's what
he's going to do. He's going to keep you lying
down in green pasture, folded together in his church, knit
together with your heart, with your brethren, with Christ. And
he's going to keep you there, rest, ease, safety. And he leads
you beside still waters. Sheep don't like to drink by
loud running rapids. Sheep are a scary animal. And
believers are more like sheep than sheep. We don't like loud,
scary, thundering rapids. But you know what running loud
water is? It's shallow water. It's not
deep. A lot of rocks in it. That's a false gospel. It's loud, full of rocks to bruise
you. It's shallow. And God's sheep,
they're scared of it. They don't want to have anything
to do with it. The gospel is still waters. The
gospel is deep water. Deep water. Think about God's
sovereign elect in grace. Think about God before he made
anything. Determine the end from the beginning.
That's some deep water. predestinated us into the adoption
of children. He predestinated when you're
going to be conceived in the womb, when you're going to come
out of the womb, when you're going to be crossed with the
gospel, when you're going to hear that gospel, all the way
through your life to when you're going to die and meet God. It's
all predestinated. That's deep water. Righteousness and peace kissing
in Christ. Justice being satisfied and at
the same time you being spared from the death penalty. How can
that happen? That's deep water. That's Christ
our shepherd. Preservation. Glorification. All the doctrine of God is deep
water and that's where he leads you. He's going to make you here
and rejoice in the deep water. The deep water. He'll feed his
flock like a shepherd, he'll gather the lambs with his arm,
he'll carry them in his bosom, and he'll gently lead those that
are with young. You know what you do with goats?
You herd them. You drive them. You know what
you do with sheep? You lead them. You lead them.
He's gently leading his sheep. He's not whipping them. He's
leading them. Look here, this is, this is,
He says He'll feed them and He'll lead them to live in fountains
of waters and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. Now
listen to this. He does this right now. He wipes away the
tears from our eyes by restoring our soul. The things we're talking
about Him providing He makes light of the things in this world. These are the things we make
and speak of like, oh, if we don't have these, it's just going
to end tomorrow. He speaks of those things as
being secondary and not necessary. What he's talking about is spiritual
things. And when he wipes away the tears
from your eyes, he does it by restoring and renewing you inwardly
in spirit. teaching you spiritual things.
Listen to this, verse 3. He restoreth my soul, he leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. When he first
came in that first hour and he found you ruined and undone and
dead in sin and he sent forth the gospel into your heart and
quickened a new man, a new baby within you and filled you with
his spirit, he restored your soul. He gave you faith and life
and godliness and everything you need. He restored your soul. You were a dead man. You didn't
have any life in you. You were spiritually dead and
He restored your soul. Well, that's what He does throughout
this life of faith. We become, we get strong outwardly
in our sinful nature. We're going to handle it. We're
going to take care of this. Oh, I know exactly what I'm going
to do." And we start working and conniving, and all we're
doing is our outward man is getting stronger and stronger and stronger,
and the inward man of grace that he's made is getting weaker and
weaker and weaker. And there's nothing we can do
about it. How's that new man going to be restored? He restores
my soul. He comes and He works this in
your heart and He restores your soul from sorrow by reviving
and renewing your spirit inwardly. He leads you. He takes you out
of the path of sin. And when you think of the path
of sin, it's not always just some immoral thing that we think
of as sin. It is that sometimes, but it's
also The sin of self-righteousness, of thinking we're right and others
are wrong, and he's the only one who can take you out of that
path of sin. And what he does is he's going to take, if you're,
you know, he says one day we're going to go to glory, and he
says, and we're going to be judged according to our works whether
good or bad, or the good or evil. You know what that means? You
picture a scale. He's going to take all your good
works and he's going to put them on one side of the scale. And
he's going to take all your evil works and he's going to put them
on the same side of the scale. Because good or evil, they're
all the same sin. Whether it's immorality or it's
self-righteousness, it's still the same sin. He's going to take
his child out of that path and lead you in the path of righteousness.
He's the path of righteousness. He's the way. He's the narrow
way. And He's going to lead you to
Him and make you rest in Him and make you follow Him and make
you proclaim Him and make you make Him be the motive of your
heart and the glory for what you're doing, what you're doing.
And that's when you're in the path of righteousness. He's the
only one that can do that. And when He does it, He wipes
tears away from your eyes. Oh, the grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter
bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love, aren't we? Take my heart and
seal it for thy courts above." And he does it for his name's
sake. You see that? He does it all for his name's
sake. Now, you listen to this, believer. He's given us his name. We're Christ. We have his name.
Israel was Christ's name. When he called Israel, Israel,
it means as a prince thou hast power with God and hast prevailed.
He gave Jacob the name Israel. And when Jacob goes, well, what's
your name? He said, why are you asking my name? I just gave you
my name. Look in scripture. Israel is
Christ's name. And he's given us his name. We're
the Israel of God. He's given us his name. And for
his name's sake, He's going to turn you out of the path of sin
into the path of righteousness. You know what that means? When
He says He's doing it for His namesake, He's doing it for His
glory. That is the strongest guarantee a sinner can have that
Christ will never let you go. Because He's doing it for His
glory, for His namesake. He's not going to let His name
be polluted. He's not going to say, I'm determined
to save you. Oops, I couldn't do it. And everybody
corrupt his name, and pollute his name, and slander his name.
Nope. He said, those I'm going to save, I'm going to save them
for my namesake. He's going to do it for his namesake.
And he'll never let us be separated from him. Never. Look here at
verse four. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Thou rod and thy staff, they
comfort me. This whole world is the valley
of the shadow of death. I know when we have loved ones
at near death and we think of that valley of the shadow of
death as that right there being at death's door, so to speak,
it is. But we've been right there since
the day we was born. We've been in that valley since
the day we was born. This is a veil of tears. We're
walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Death is there. But here's the thing about it
for a believer. It's just a shadow. It's just a shadow. Brother Greg
just read it. He has given us the victory. He's taken away sin. That's the
sting of death. That's the poison of death that
makes you die. He took away the stinger. He
took away our sin. And he gave us life. And we're
not going to die. He said, if you believe on Christ,
you shall never die. So that means nothing's going
to be able to separate me from him. I'm not talking about just
physical death. I'm talking about I'll never
be cast out into outer darkness and die that second death. That's
what I'm worried about. And we'll never be separated
from him. Because now you have eternal life. And he's going
to, he said, and I'm with you. I'm always with you. And I know it's hard for us to
be able to get this, but he's with his people all the time.
He told those disciples, he told them he was going to the cross
and they began to be troubled. He said, let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God, believe in
me also. He said, I'm going to prepare
a place for you. That's where he was going, to
the cross, to prepare a place for you. who are his. He said, and if I go and prepare
that place for you, I'm coming again for you. I'm not going
to leave you. I'm not going to let you be separated
from me. I went to the cross and laid
down my life and prepared a place for you, and I did it so that
where I am, there may you be also. I'm not going to leave
you. I'm not going to let anything separate you from me. He's with us at all time. Thou
art with me, thou rod and thou staff, they comfort me. You know
a shepherd, you picture a shepherd, he got his sheep and they go
out and the rod, the staff, it's the same thing. It's a shepherd's
crook. And they use that rod to count
their sheep. That's how they count their sheep.
The rod of Christ is this gospel we're praying. This is how he
counts his sheep. They use the rod to separate
the sheep from the goats. That's what this gospel does.
It separates, he uses this gospel to separate the sheep from the
goats. And if a sheep gets out too far, he takes the rod and
he takes it around the neck with that crook and he brings it back
into the fold. That's what he's doing with this
gospel. He's gonna use you, brethren. If somebody, you ever heard the
story about the, fellow who wasn't coming to service and Spurgeon
went to see him and sat down. The guy had a fire burning and
Spurgeon sat down there beside him and he just reached down
there and took a coal out of that fire and pulled it out here
by itself and just set it there. And they sat there and talked
a little while and that red hot coal just went darker and darker
and darker and smoked until it just went out. That man looked at that coal
over there by itself, not with those other red hot coals. And
he got what Mr. Burgin was saying. You go off
by yourself, you're going to get colder and darker and darker
till you burn out. Sheep have to be together, just
like red hot coals have to be together. Sheep have to be together.
And he's going to use you to take this gospel and not go scold
a brother for being away from the gospel, but to remind him
of these good things Christ has done for us. Remind him of, oh,
we're hearing some good messages. We're hearing Christ exalted.
It's so good. And you know, I used to have
this, I used to be so, it was a terrible thing to do. And I
think young preachers would do this, but people would come and
then they would leave and you wouldn't see them for a long
time. And then they show back up. And when they're there, you
have a tendency to want to preach about the importance of being
there and not missing the service. Really, truly, that's just law.
That's just turning to law to try to make something happen.
While they're there, you know what's the best thing you could
do? Preach Christ to them. Because that's how they're going to be
made to stay there if they're hit. And what I'm saying is when
a brother leaves, you don't go to him and scold him and make
him feel guilty. Remind him of what you're hearing
and how good it is. What's going to make you want
to go sit down at a good restaurant and eat? Somebody comes and tells
you about how good it is and what's being served, and you
say, man, that makes me hungry. I'm going to make reservations
there. That's what we're talking about. He does this, and he uses
the gospel to do it. Art and I were talking about
this Friday night. You could be in a pleasant state,
nothing's going on around you, everything's positive, and the
Lord can give you a spirit of just trouble, and you'd just
be twisted and turned every which way. And you could be in a terrible
situation, and things being terrible, and whatever that ache is, Martha's
experiencing it right now. Charlotte. Iana, Greg, that ache
of losing a loved one, that's a real thing. It's real. Somebody you love dearly, there's
an ache, it's a hollow feeling. You know what I'm talking about.
And you can't do anything about that. You can't make that stop. It's just with you. But he can turn you to him. and heal that, just like that,
and make you know you're protected and defended and just fill you
with comfort. He's with me and his rod and
his staff comfort me. He's going to do this through
his word. Go to the word and stay in the word. I was talking
to a pastor this week. He was telling me he was when
he had gone through a real tough trial and he said he just couldn't
sleep at night. He was laying there and he could
not sleep at night. And one of the brethren in the congregation
said, well, you know what you ought to do? Just roll over and don't
think about it. You just can't do that. And he
said, the only thing I could do was, he said, I had a verse
of Scripture that I would keep talking about, just saying to
myself when I'd be laying there at night and I'd think about
that verse of Scripture and really think about what it meant. And
he said, in a little while the Lord would comfort me enough
that I could finally get some rest. That's what we're talking
about. His rod is staff, they comfort
us. And he does this for us continually.
He says there in verse 5, He prepares a table for us in the
presence of our enemies. He anoints our head with oil
and our cup runs over. Doesn't He do that, brethren?
He's the bread, He's the wine, He's the manna, He's the lamb. He's this feast of fat things
and He's prepared it for us right here in the midst of our enemies
and He keeps giving you this feast. So what do we say to these
things? Look at verse 6. Surely, goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I'll
dwell in the house of the Lord forever." He said there at the
beginning, he's leading me, he's in front of me leading me. And
now he ends up and he says, and surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. And I'll dwell in the house
of the Lord forever, nothing's going to separate me from Him.
I prepared this message, and I changed directions. I completely
heard about Martha and Charlotte's mom and dad. I just wanted something
to comfort the Lord's people. And I worked on this yesterday. And last night, about 8.30, 9
o'clock, I got finished. And I walked outside, and I was
thinking about it. And I was thinking, I wish I had an illustration
to illustrate this. And the Lord gave me one. I mean,
he gave me a good one. I looked up out there in that
library parking lot, and at night, you can just see the lights right
down the middle of that parking lot. And I looked up, and here
comes a big old, old doe deer. And she walks out, and here comes
a little one behind her, here comes a little one behind that
one, a little one behind, and single file, nine deer walked
from those woods, right out in the middle of that parking lot,
right in the middle of the light, and walked right up the parking lot
into that neighborhood up there. And there was an old doe in the
front, and there was a bunch of new yearlings, and there was
an old doe in the back. And they were walking tail to
toe. I'm talking single file, tail to toe, with an old doe
in the front and an old doe in the back. It looked like an exodus.
They were leaving those woods and going up into that community
up in there. They had wisdom leading them and wisdom coming
up behind them. And that's what we got. We got
Christ leading us, and we got Christ coming up the rear. And
He's not gonna let anything happen to His little sheep. Nothing.
And He's gonna do that all our days, and we'll dwell in His
house forever. Forever. We're in His house now.
We're gonna dwell in this house forever. Amen.