Alright brethren, let's open
our Bibles to Psalm 23. Psalm 23. This is a very familiar
Psalm to everyone here, I'm sure. Let's read it together and then
we'll go back and look at it together. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou
art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Is the Lord your shepherd? The word begins here with this
word, the Lord. The Lord. Now there is another
Lord that Paul spoke about. He said there is another Jesus.
Who is this Lord? He is the Lord. Who is the Lord?
Who is He speaking about here? If I am going to be able to know
if the Lord is my shepherd, I have to know who the Lord is. Who
is the Lord? Well, this is the Sovereign God. Did you notice there? He maketh,
He leadeth, He doeth, He doeth, He doeth. This is the sovereign
Lord. This is the sovereign God. When
we say sovereign, we mean He has all power over all things
in heaven and in earth all the time. Power over all things in
all places all the time. He can work His eternal will. That's who this Lord is. Is that
your Lord? I wouldn't have one that wasn't
sovereign. I wouldn't have a God that depended
on me to do something. You don't need a God that depends
on you to do anything. You need the sovereign Lord.
This is the Lord who we read about in the Scriptures who said
He determined the end from the beginning. This is the Lord we
read about who said He chose His Son to be the Savior of His
people. And He sent forth His Son. And
His Son is the Lord. He's the God-man. This is the
Lord who put a people in His Son, chose a people whom He would,
and passed by whom He would. Do you remember when Moses asked
to see the glory of the Lord? The Lord put him in a rock, the
cleft of a rock. I was telling John and Melinda
the other night about a story. This professor I had was a marine
biologist. And all his class was mainly
of photos he had taken. And he would talk about those
photos. We'd learn about different kind of marine animals by the
things he had studied. And he had a very rare photo. It was a photo of a tiger eel. It was a very, very rare eel. Most people never got a photo
of it, because if it got close enough for you to get a photo
of it, you were eaten. I happened to look around and
see this tiger eel coming on him. And there was a cleft in
a rock. It was a little crack in a rock. And he went into that crack in
that rock and raised up and snapped a shot. And the shot is of this
thing's mouth wide open right there. And the flash scared it
so it turned and went the other way. But if he hadn't had the
cleft of that rock, he would have died. That beast would have
eaten him. And that's what we see when God
put Moses in the cleft of that rock, He put him in that rock
so that the curse of the law wouldn't devour him. Because
there's where you're going to see the glory of God in Christ,
the rock. And what was that glory? What
was the first thing that God declared when He said, I'm going
to make my glory pass before you, my goodness pass before
you? He said this, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. It's God's right. It's God's
choice. See, we're just a bunch of polluted,
dead, hell-deserving sinners. It's God's choice to have mercy
on whom He will. He doesn't have to have mercy
on anybody. You see these lawyers who go in and they fight for
some person that's on death row? They don't have to fight for
anybody on death row if they don't want to. But they see somebody,
and they do it just because they think they're worthy to fight
for. There was nothing worthy in us, and God sent forth His
Son to save whom He would. Now that's the Lord we're talking
about here. This is the God of the Bible. Is this Lord your
shepherd? I can't say the Lord is my shepherd
unless I've got the right Lord. Right? I've got to be the right
Lord. This is the Lord who is able
to bring His gospel to His child and His child to His gospel and
by His Spirit create a new life in His child and give you faith
and repentance and draw you to the feet of Christ and make you
believe on Him. Is that Lord your Lord? That's who the Lord
is. Is He your Shepherd? This Lord
is the Lord who is able to keep His people all our days, keeping
us in Christ, keeping us believing, keeping us trusting Him so that
we don't fall away. This is the Lord that will never
lose one of His sheep. Can you say, the Lord is my shepherd? Let's look over John chapter
10. John chapter 10. We'll see who
this shepherd is. Christ said here in John 10,
11, I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good
Shepherd giveth His life for everybody. No, He gives His life
for the sheep. Well, preacher, that might include
everybody. Maybe He's calling us all sheep.
Well, let's see. Look over there at verse 25. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not, the works that I do in my Father's name
they bear witness of me, but you believe not, because you
are not of my sheep." Do you get what he said there? He said,
the reason you don't believe me, you're not my sheep. Go back
there to verse 11, I'm the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. Just for the sheep. But to he
that's a hireling and not the shepherd, who's on the sheep
or not, he sees the wolf coming and he leaves the sheep and he
flees and the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep. The hireling
fleeth because he's a hireling and careth not for the sheep.
That's the Jesus most people preach. The hireling Jesus. The
Jesus who wants to save you but he can't. If he sees the wolf
coming, he'll flee. He can't do anything but what
a sinner permits him to do. That's another Jesus. He's a
hireling. He's a hireling. But look at
now verse 14, I'm the good shepherd and I know my sheep. He knows
where they are at all times. And I'm known of my sheep. He's
going to make his sheep know Him. Know Him personally. As the Father knoweth me, how
much do you think the Father knows Christ? Oh, He knows Him. He knows Him. Even so know I
the Father. How well do you think Christ
knows the Father? They know each other Like you can't imagine. Now look at this. He said, I
know my sheep just like the Father knows me and like I know the
Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep
I have which are not of this foal. See that word foal? They weren't in that pasture.
What pasture was he in then? He was in Israel. And he was
saying, I've got some sheep in Israel. Not all those that are
of Israel are Israel. But he had some sheep in Israel,
real true spiritual sheep in Israel, true spiritual Israel.
He said, I must call them. But he said, now I've got some
other sheep too that are not in this particular pasture. They
were amongst the Gentiles. Look at this. Them also I must
bring. I must bring them. God's given
them a charge. I must bring them. And they shall
hear my voice. He is going to see to it that
they hear His gospel. What you are hearing this morning
is the voice of Christ. Now everybody here is hearing
it in the general call. The general call goes forth to
everybody. Everybody this morning is hearing
Christ's voice. Some of you though are hearing it effectually in
your hearts particularly. That is the effectual call, the
irresistible call, the invincible call. He says, but all my sheep
They're going to hear that voice. They're going to hear that irresistible
voice of Christ speaking. And there shall be one fold.
He don't have a Jewish fold and a Gentile fold. He don't have
a male fold and a female fold. He don't have a black fold and
a white fold, a rich fold and a poor fold. He just got one
fold. They're just one people. And there's just one shepherd
over them. Just one shepherd. There's some under-shepherds
he uses, but he's the shepherd. There's just one shepherd. Just
one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man takes it from me, but I lay it down on myself. I have power
to lay it down, I have power to take it again. This commandment
I received of my Father. Now, let me ask you, the first
line of this psalm says, The Lord is my shepherd. I've told you something about
the Lord. He's the God-man, Christ the Lord, who went to the cross
and laid down His life for His people and redeemed every one
of them from the curse of the law, justified them. And now
He's bringing this gospel to them and teaching them, you have
no sin that can be laid to your chore. You're righteous in Christ,
complete in Christ, and God's going to bring you home. Christ's
going to bring you home to God. Now, I'm asking you, is this
Lord your shepherd? This is the only shepherd of
the sheep, and this is the only true shepherd that can save.
The Lord. The Lord. Can you say, the Lord is my shepherd?
Isn't that amazing? That's what the Lord brings His
child to be able to say. The Lord is my shepherd. He's Eric Lutter's shepherd.
It's personally and looking after him just like he was the only
sheep he had. Same for Art D'Armiento and Don
Williams and Kevin DeRidder. Same for every believer here.
He's looking out for you as his single sheep, like you're the
only one he's got. If there's a sheep that goes
astray and he's got 99 sheep, he'll leave the 99 and he'll
go after that one sheep like it's the only sheep he's got
until he finds it and brings it back home on his shoulders.
And He can carry... It's a big shoulder. He can carry
all His sheep on His shoulder. Well, while He leaves that 99,
what about them? Well, with our Lord, when He
leaves the 99, He's still with the 99. He's still caring for
them just like He's caring for that one sheep. He's just showing
you He won't even let that one sheep get away. He's going to
go get Him. What if you've got some straggling
sheep? Look at Isaiah 40. What if you've got some little
sheep, and you've got a sheep, he's a father, and he's got a
son who's just learned the gospel, and he's just such a straggler,
and so that father's trying to help him along, and they're lagging
behind, and they're falling behind the rest of the flock of the
sheep. What's going to happen to them? What's going to happen
to them? Look at verse 11, Isaiah 40,
verse 11. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd, He shall gather the lambs with his arm. That's those
little ones that just can't, hey, you ever seen the little
fawn that's, he's just been born, his legs are wobbly and he can't
hardly stand up, you know? That's the little lambs. He's
gonna gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom. You see the picture? He's gonna
pick them up right here and hold them right here, right here close
and carry them. You know what the fact of the
matter is? Every one of His sheep are little wobbly-legged lambs.
Ain't none of us running like big full-grown sheep. We're just
little wobbly-legged lambs. And He's carrying every one of
His people in His breast, up near His breast. Look at this.
He shall gather the lambs with His arm, carry them in His bosom,
and shall gently lead those that are with young. That's who He
is. And look back here at our text.
Look at this next word. I shall not want. I shall not
want. That is about as broad and deep
and wide and long and tall a statement as you can make. I shall not
want. You know what want means? It
means I'm not going to do without. I'm not going to be lacking anything.
I'm not going to be Without anything that's necessary, anything I
need, I'm not going to be without it. I shall not want. Do you believe this? Do you believe
this? God says you won't. Do you believe
it? I shall not want. What did you
need? What were you lacking in when
God found you? Everything. Everything. I wanted everything. I did not
have life. I didn't have spiritual life.
I had this thing I thought was life and it was just death. I
was running around, my chest poked out, talking bad all to
my parents and to everybody in authority and thinking I knew
everything and I had the world by the tail on a downhill drag.
And God made me see He was a fool. Just a fool. A dead fool. And He gave me life. Christ entered
in. The life. And I had life. And
I had wanted for life since. He said it's eternal life. You
won't want for life. It's eternal. And then He made
me see this. I needed repentance from everything
I thought was righteousness. That was what was keeping me
from God. I thought I had righteousness. And I needed repentance from
everything I thought was righteousness. My chief sin was my self-righteousness. And I needed repentance from
it. And He gave me a radical change of heart and mind. That's what repentance is. He
showed me in me that is in my flesh was nothing good. The greatest
deed I ever did that I thought was something that would commit
me to God was nothing but a product of hell. That's all it was. And
it wouldn't do anything but commit me to the devil. And I needed
faith. I needed to cast my whole self,
everything I am and everything I ever will be into the hands
of Christ and depend on Him to provide all and make me what
I'm not before God. You know what? Ever since He
gave me repentance and faith, I haven't wanted for repentance
and faith. He sustained it. He's kept it.
It's from beholding Him who is righteousness. And you know what
else I needed? I needed righteousness. I needed
to be made the righteousness of God. I don't mean I needed
to be made as good as old Joe over here. I don't mean I needed
to be made as good as the neighbor on the right or the left. I mean
I need to be made the righteousness of God. God is not going to receive
you and me unless we've been made righteous. That means I
can have never sinned. That means everything God says
is holy and right, I must fulfill it. I must obey God and never
have ever had a sinful thought against Him. I must have never
turned from God at all. I must have never, ever done
anything but been the faithful, holy Son of God. That's who I
have to be before God will receive me. That's what righteousness
is. Holiness and righteousness really,
brethren, are just two facets of the same thing. It's righteousness.
Holiness has to do with the heart that you have, the motive toward
God, and righteousness has to do with the actual legal performance
of it. But I have to be righteous and
holy. And Christ was made unto me righteousness and holiness.
He's sent before by God to be the righteousness and holiness
of His people. He's the righteousness of God,
Paul said in Romans 10, and He's that holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord, spoken of in Hebrews 12. That's who
Christ is. 1 Corinthians 1.30 said, Of God
is Christ made unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. He's all. He's all. And ever
since He made Him my righteousness, I've not wanted. for a perfect,
complete righteousness before God. I've got it! You know what
a thrill it is to look at the law and read the law now and
read of all that the law requires. I can read the Ten Commandments
and read what the Ten Commandments require and rejoice in the law
of God and say, in all truth, I have done it all in perfect
righteousness. Yet not I. but my Redeemer, my
substitute, my representative has done it in my stead. I have a perfect righteousness
with God, and it's a person, the Lord Jesus, and I have not
wanted sins. I have holiness. I have not wanted
for holiness. Christ is my... He's the one
who... He's the light that keeps me
from the darkness. He's the truth that keeps me
from the lie. He's the life that keeps me from
the death. I'm sanctified into Him. And
He's like a wall, brethren. When you've been taken out of
this part and put into Him, you've got a wall around you now. You've
got somebody protecting you now. You've got somebody that's sustaining
you now. You've got salvation and praise that's holding you
together. That's Christ. And I haven't wanted since. I
haven't wanted since. Now look, can you say that? What
now? Wait, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Now let's get
to what we really have trouble with. And I don't know why this
is so, but what we really have trouble is with is, is he going
to put a little piece of bread on my plate? Is he going to keep
a roof over my head? Is he going to keep clothes on
my back? There's where we have real problems. I don't know why. I'm talking about true believers.
We can be brought to the point where we really believe Christ
is our righteousness, our holiness, and then we think we got to somehow,
by our wisdom and our doing and our conniving, keep our money
in place and keep all this stuff in place and in check, or else
we can't make it if we don't do that. I pray God will make
you bankrupt if that's what you think. I pray He'll make you
poor like a Job's turkey. So you can see that you ain't
providing for yourself. You ain't providing for yourself.
You ain't never provided for yourself. You know the Scripture. Romans chapter 8. If God provided
His own Son, He will, with His own Son, provide
all things. Well, isn't it such a shame and
a dishonor to God for us to say, well, God, I trust that You gave
Your Son for me, but now I don't know if You can give me a piece
of bread. Alright, let's go on. Now, what's
He doing? How is He going to make me not
to want? Verse 2, He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. Now, I don't do this. He says
he does it. And he makes me do it. Oh, I
believe man has a free will. Man has a will that's free to
do what it will in connection with his nature, whatever his
nature is. You can't do anything beyond your nature. You can't
make yourself do something that's not your nature to do. But when
He gives you a new nature, He maketh you willing to believe
Him and trust Him and rest in Him. He makes you. And then look
what He does. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures. Now, when we read that text a
while ago, when we were talking about the fold, there is going
to be one fold. Do you know where these green
pastures are? These green pastures is His church. These green pastures is where
He has assembled His people. First and foremost, this is His
church where He's assembled His people. It's a green pasture
there. It's a green pasture there. You've
walked into places before, traveling or something, you got to the
Yellow Pages, looked up, tried to find a church, you go worship
God, you went in hoping it was a green pasture. And you got
in there and the preacher opened his mouth, started talking about
what man's doing and man can let God this and let God that.
You realize this is just dry desert. This is just a dry desert. And then you find a place where
God's sovereign and where God's preached in all His glory and
Christ is magnified for having accomplished the redemption of
His people and for effectually calling His people. And you will
say, oh, I found a green pasture now. And what does He do when
He leads you to this green pasture? He makes you lie down. Lie down. You see, the green pasture, where
does a pasture get its greenness from? The sun. It gets its greenness from the
sun. And Christ is the Son of Righteousness that makes His
pasture green. Where does it get from? It gets
from the water, from heaven. Christ is the water that comes
down from heaven that waters His pasture, makes it a green
pasture. And when you found a church where
Christ is preached in spirit and in truth, you can lie down
right there, and it's comfortable. Just like those sheep out there
you see on those pictures, you know, sheep laying out in a green,
beautiful field, and a blue, pretty blue sky above them. They
just lay down. They're not worried. They're
not worried about any danger. They just lay down out there.
And we're just like them. We're dumb sheep. Sheep are dumb. That's about the dumbest thing
there is. Old, stinking, dumb sheep. That's what we are. Christ
leads us and makes us lie down in His green pasture. And then
look what He does. It says here, and He leads me
beside the still waters. I need food. I need green pasture.
I got to eat. And I need rest. But that's not
all I need. I need water. I got to have water. Christ is my food. in that green
pasture. Christ is my rest in that green
pasture. He's fulfilled all the law and
all the works that God requires. He's done God's side of it and
He's done man's side of it. And so the covenant of God's
grace comes and He says, it's done. And there you have rest. But He's my water too. And water's
life. If you don't have water, you
don't have life, brethren. You've got to have water. You'll
die if you don't have water. Christ is my water. He's my water. And He leads me. He makes me
lie down in this green pasture, and wherever His green pasture
is, He's leading you to the deep water, too. Now, look here. He says He leads me to still
water. Still water is deep water. You know, shallow water is making
a bunch of racket. It's noisy. It's shallow. It's running over
all the rocks and shoals and things. It's got all the rapids.
That's shallow water. It's noisy water. It's not still
water. Still water, still, because it's
deep water. Now you look at these churches
you see and you find a church where it's got every kind of
program and every kind of enticement and every kind of thing going
on, that's shallow water. It's making a bunch of racket,
a bunch of noise, trying to get everybody's attention and get
you there. where you find a place where God's gospel is preached
in truth, and that's all the draw card there is, is Christ
and Him crucified, the preaching of Christ and Him crucified,
you found some deep waters now. And they're still. Not a lot
of hoopla going on, not a lot of craziness going on. You found
deep water. And that's where He's going to
bring His child. He's going to bring his child to the still
water. You know, a sheep, you picture
a sheep trying to bring a flock of sheep up to some noisy water
and try to make them drink. They're not going to drink from
that water. Sheep are scared animals. And they'll come up
to that water and that just looks like danger to them. They can't
drink from that water. Well, it's the same with a believing
sheep, too. You try to lead him and make
him to drink from that noisy, frolicsome bunch of mess they
call religion. He can't drink from that. It
frightens him to try to get near that stream. But you bring him
to the gospel. You bring him to where that water's
deep and it's still. Oh, you know how he has to drink
it? He's got to kneel down. He's
got to kneel. A sheep can't just stand up straight
and drink. He's not like a giraffe. Even the big giraffe's got to
kneel down. A sheep's got to kneel down and drink. And that's
where he comes. But he comes to that still water
and he'll kneel down and drink. How does he do that? He leads
me. He leads me. Alright, look at the next thing.
And He restores my soul. You see, this is all part of
it. Christ is going to have to bring
you to His gospel. reveal Christ in you, reveal
that Christ is the righteousness of His people, that He is the
gospel, He is the life, He is the word, He is all, He is what
God has been declaring from the foundation of the world, that
He's the end, He's completion, He's everything. And when He
brings you there, He's going to make you lie down there where
that gospel is preached. He's going to make you drink
of those waters that run deep, deep, deep, never run out, never
end in water that's running deep. And when He does that, He restores
your soul. That's where everything comes.
It's from Christ our food, and Christ our rest, and Christ our
sun, and Christ our water. This is where your soul is restored. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Your soul was lost in Adam. When he fell and plunged you
into death, you became absolutely ruined. Your soul became ruined.
Your spirit became ruined. Your desires became ruined. Everything
became ruined. You could not come to God. Couldn't
make yourself want to come to God. Couldn't do anything but
hate God. The call of mine is enmity against
God. Cannot, cannot bow down to God
and do His work. But now when Christ does this
work for you, He restores your soul. You see, Christ is everything. He's the life of the soul. He's the life that enters into
the heart and gives you life where you didn't have it. And
He restores. You know what restoration is?
Remember whenever He called Zacchaeus down out of the tree? And Zacchaeus
was a robber. He was like Levi. He was a thief. And He said, everything I've
taken, I'm going to restore it fourfold. You didn't steal Zacchaeus, but
I'm going to restore it fourfold. I'm going to restore above and
beyond what I took. Well, Christ comes and He says, I restored
that which I took not away. I give you more than you lost.
And that's what He does. What He restores His soul with
is eternal righteousness. We lost righteousness in Adam.
He restores it with righteousness that can never be lost. We lost
holiness in Adam. He restores it with a holiness
that can never be lost. We became under the curse of
the law. He redeemed us with an eternal redemption. He makes
restoration of that which He took not away in a manner above
and beyond what we lost in Adam. Look at this. And He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. You know, there's
a lot of people that think that You get to the restoring of your
soul and then it just stops. That's all He does for you. He
stops there. And so they go on in outward
acts of sin and rebellion against God. Oh, they believe the five
points and they come and they wouldn't dare walk in an Armenian
church. They just stay in a Calvinistic church and all that kind of garbage.
But then they live like hell. The church life and everyday
life is a separate thing. You know, they leave the church
house, they take off their garment of righteousness, and they hang
it up, and they put the Bible up, put it somewhere, and they
go out in the world then, and then they just live like hell
all week. And then when it comes church time again, they get real
pious again, they walk back in, now they're holy again. That's
not what it's like with God's people. He don't only restore
your inward part, He leads you now in the path that's right. That's what a path of righteousness
is. He leads His people every day. He is going to make a change. You see, whenever you just sin,
Romans 6 tells you that whenever you just sin, sin is the Master. You are the servant of sin. And
you are going to do what that Master tells you to do. He is
going to lead you in paths of unrighteousness and you are going
to walk in those paths. You are the servant of sin. But when
Christ the Master enters into the heart, He's the master of
righteousness and He makes His child the servant of righteousness.
You're going to be a servant. I'm going to be a servant. God
made us. We're not going to be free to
be gods. I hate to tell you that. But
I don't apologize for it because it's so. You're going to either
be the servant of sin or you're going to be the servant of God. When you
become the servant of God and Christ is the master, He leads
you then and now He's leading you. Like we read this morning,
if you're enticed and led away from the path of righteousness,
that's your fault and my fault. We did that. Our sins did that. But now, if we're led in the
path of righteousness and we do anything that's right in this
world, that's to God's glory. He leadeth me in the path of
righteousness. And why does He do that? Look
at the text. He leads me in the path of righteousness
for His name's sake. You see, when He puts His name
on you, You're His. He owns you lock, stock and barrel.
He owns you body and spirit. And so when His name's on you,
it's going to get out into the world that His name's on you.
People are going to find out now that you believe in the true
and living God. You worship in the true and living God. But
He's not going to allow His child to worship the true and living
God and go on in rebelling against the true and living God and sully
that name. He's going to, for His namesake,
lead you in the path of righteousness. Remember what we saw in Isaiah,
when that word comes, He's going to turn the light on. And you're
going to cast away your mistress' cloth and say, get thee hence.
And from that day forward, you're going to hear a still small voice
when you return to the right or to the left that says, this
is the way, walk you in it. And that's what Christ is going
to do. He leads me. He leads me. Now look. He does it for His name's sake,
so His name won't be polluted. Now look at verse 3. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil. Now, we're going to come to the
death's door one day, and that truly will be the valley of the
shadow of death. But we're walking in that valley
of shadow of death now. And you find that out when God's
given you life and a new heart. That's when you discover this
is the valley of death. We're in it. We're walking through
it. And sometimes you see that death
come a little closer to you than at other times. God sends you
through a bitter trial. And then eventually, after all
the trials, you're going to come to the trial, and that's going
to be true physical death, where you're going to lay this body
down. And you're going to be as helpless in that day as you
are right now. Or you're as helpless right now
as you will be in that day. You're just that helpless to
walk through this valley. But now look at what it says
here. What is it? It's a valley of the shadow of
death. Anybody here afraid of shadows? Anybody here scared of shadows? Have you ever been hurt by a
shadow? Shadows can't do a thing. But this is death's shadow. Yeah,
but it's just a shadow. Don't you know what the Scriptures
say? He that's dead is freed from sin. The man that's died
is freed from sin. The preacher hasn't died yet.
If you're Christ, you have. Because when Christ was crucified,
all His people died. Death got its payment. And so
now, death, where is thy sting? Where is the sting of death now?
It's gone. Why? Because the sin's gone. That's why. And so there won't
be any death for Christ's people. Those born of Christ won't die,
so death's just a shadow to you and me. When we're walking through
this valley, You know sometimes when the light's just right,
a little ant can cast a big shadow. It may be a big shadow. But it's
just a shadow. It's just a shadow. God says,
nothing is going to separate My people from Me. Not life,
not death, not anything. Nothing. Read Romans 8. Look
now, here. I will fear no evil, for thou
art with Me. You see that? They aren't with
me. Who's controlling everything that comes to pass? The One that's
with me. Who's my hope and my righteousness
for being in God's pleasure all the time? The One that is with
me. So I'm not going to fear. He's with me. He controls everything
that's going on and He's my acceptance with God. What else do I have
to fear? Isn't that the only two things
you have to fear? What's going to happen to me tomorrow, or
this afternoon, or the next hour in this life? And how am I going
to be accepted with God? Those are the only two things
you really got to fear. And if I got Christ with me, I don't
have to fear either one of them. Because He's controlling what's
happening in the next minute, and He's my acceptance with God.
Now look here. He says, For thou art with me,
thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. You picture that. Now you
get just as simple as it can be. I love the simplicity of
the Scripture. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. What does a shepherd use his rod and his staff for? If
that sheep turns one way or the other, puts them back. Now, if that sheep's turned in
a hard, violent way and that shepherd has to use a lot of
extra force and put him back, it may hurt the sheep while he's
putting him back. And the Scripture says to you
and me, when we're turning away from God, from Christ, who is
our holiness, and God chastens you so that you might continue
to be a partaker of His holiness, He says, no chastening for the
moment's pleasant. It's not pleasant. It's painful.
It's like getting a spanking when you was a kid. Satan would
have that done away with so that we can't make that comparison.
And there's some children already in this world that can't make
that comparison. They never had a belt on their butt one day.
They don't know what that's about. You better learn about that so
you can learn about what God's doing when He's chasing you in
the Spirit. But because He won't let me turn away with that rod
and that staff, what they are to me is comfort. Comfort. He'll never let me turn away.
He'll never lose me. He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He said, This is the Father's
will. Of all that He's given me, I should raise Him up again
at the last day. He said, My Father is too great,
and I'm too great, and won't anybody pluck one of them out
of my hand. Now, that might involve some
pain when he makes it so that none can pluck you out of his
hand, but when he's done it, what did he say? The end of that
chastening brings forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness. You realize,
he's not going to let me go. He's not going to let me go.
That's comfort. That's comfort. Now look, alright,
not only that, verse 5, Thou preparest a table before me in
the presence of mine enemies. Oh, you're eating at that table
right now. First and foremost, here's the table. We're eating
at it right now. When the gospel's going forth,
you know, every so often we literally eat the bread and drink the wine.
But every time the gospel's going forth, the body and blood of
Christ, we're partaking of it through the gospel that's preached.
We're eating that precious body and that precious blood through
this gospel's preaching. He set this table. He provides
the preacher. He provides the place. He provides
the people. He provides the message. He makes
the message effectual. He does everything to spread
this table before you. And you're sitting here partaking
of it. And sometimes you hear the rumbling come and here comes
a parking lot full of Harleys. They ain't eating this bread.
Here you got these people out here running up and down the
road, enjoying their Sunday, doing everything they can. We
got a leg up. We got one extra day to do business
on the religious man so we can get further ahead than they can.
You can get further caught up in the world than we can. We're
sitting here eating the bread. We're sitting here eating the
table God's prepared before us. And then when you go out in the
world, that lesser bread you need, He says, I'm going to prepare
that table before you too. Every time you sit down with
your family at the table and eat, you're sitting down at a
table that God has provided for you Himself. He's provided that
table. What do you have that you didn't
receive from God? Nothing. Nothing. Alright, look
here now. And thou anointest my head with
oil, and my cup runs over. He gives you the spirit to enjoy
and know that it's God that's doing it. He gives you the spirit
to enter into Him and rejoice in Him. And then that oil, you
know, when the Scriptures talk about when you're sick and they
put that oil on you. You know how you did your babies. You rubbed them all over in oil
and everything and took care of them and swallowed them. You
know, you provided for him. You took care of him like that.
Well, this is what he does. You know what's in the head?
All kind of craziness. All kind of weird, crazy thoughts
and sinful thoughts and fears and alarms and worrying about
stuff that you don't even have to worry about. You just make
up stuff to worry about. But he says, I'm going to anoint
that head with oil. So I'm going to take all that
away from you and I'm going to bring you down to my Word and
show you here Read what I said I'm going to do for you, boy.
And stop thinking what you're thinking. Look here and see what's
true and quit looking at all that vanity. That's what He does
with your head. And when He does that, you know
what happens? You see, the cup He's put in my hand, in providence,
in salvation, is running over. It's running over. I have not
only what I need, it in abundance. In Christ my Lord, I've got everything
in abundance. Do you see that? Do you know
that? In abundance. Sometimes, I told Melinda the
other day, I said, I see how people, you, thankfully by God's
grace and what He's provided for you and used you to provide
for me, I get to study the gospel every day. I get to be in the
Word of God every day. Here lately, I've been dealing
with these banks, and I've been trying to, in between both, and
when you do that, something's going to suffer. And I've had the most awful,
sinful, fearful thoughts just take me over. It's just all going
to hell in a handbasket. And I come back to God's Word,
and all that disappears. And I see my cup's running over.
That's what I'm talking about. Stay in God's Word. He says,
I'm going to anoint your head and your cup is going to run
over. Now look here. One last thing. He says, Surely, surely, no doubt
about this, brethren. There's no doubt. Surely, goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Now everything
we've talked about up to this point, we've talked about what's
been leading us. We're talking about Christ going
before us and leading us. Now we're talking about what's
going to follow us from behind. All this we've been talking about
has been goodness and mercy. Now He says, and you take everything
that you read right there up to this point about how He's
leading you, and you know that's what He's following you with
too. Every bit of this. He said, I'll be your shepherd,
I'll lead you, and I'll be your rear ward, I'll be your rear
guard. There won't be any Amalekites coming up from behind and attacking
you from behind like they did Moses. That's not going to happen.
He said, I'm going to be surrounding you, protecting you. Now look
here, they'll follow me all the days of my life. When did your
life start? When Christ became your life.
And He says, from then on, all the days of your life, and you
were protected before then, you just didn't know it, but you're
going to be protected all the days of your life, and I'll dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. Where's that? The house of the
Lord is God's people and God. God united with His people and
His people united with God. That's the house of the Lord.
And He said, I'm going to dwell there forever. There is no possibility. No possibility. Christ poured
out His blood. He bought His people. He justified
His people. And God's just. There's no way
He will let one perish and charge them with sin again. It will
not happen. Everybody Christ died for shall
be saved. Our God's the successful God.
This is not a maybe God. This is the successful God. Aren't
you glad? Now, can you say, The Lord, There's
just one. This is the only one there is.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Amen. Praise God if you can. Amen. All right, Eric.