Let's be turning to Psalm 23. Psalm 23, the Psalm beginning
in verse one says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
shepherd of his people. And what that means is that he
cares for us. He provides for us. He delivers
us. He ensures our safety and that
all our needs are met in him. He is the good shepherd of the
sheep of his flock. And our Lord is making His people
to know that Jesus Christ is our Good Shepherd. He makes you
to know that. He delights to reveal to you
and me what Christ has done for us and accomplished for us as
our Shepherd and what He is doing for us as our Good Shepherd. And so to begin, I'm gonna show
you a few scriptures that teach us and reveal to us that Jesus
Christ is indeed the good shepherd of his people. And then we're
gonna return to this psalm, and we're gonna pick up in those
words, that phrase that says, I shall not want, and show you
from the rest of this psalm, how that Christ's benefits, how
his salvation is worked and revealed in us. so that we come to know
and understand more and more continually that Christ is my
shepherd, that he's saved me to the uttermost. So to begin,
let's go to John chapter 10. We're first looking at Christ
the Good Shepherd. In John chapter 10, Here, the
apostle records a parable spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ to the
Jews that were there and his disciples. It's called the parable. And verse one says, verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold,
but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. Now, when Christ came in the
flesh and he served the Father in all that he did in leading
up to the cross, he came in the flesh and he serves the Father,
he ministers the word of God to the people, performing many
miracles and many wonderful works, leading up to the cross, Christ
established in that that he is indeed the promised seed of God. He is that promised seed spoken
of by God in the garden to deliver us from our fall in Adam. Now the devil, that old serpent
that deceived Eve and took that which was not his to take. He
stole that which was not his. The devil is a thief and a robber. His intentions of being there
in the garden were only evil, only there to work wickedness
and to do that which is evil and to work harm for the people
of God. Look down at verse 10. The thief,
this is speaking of the devil, cometh not but for to steal and
to kill and to destroy. I, on the other hand, Christ
says, I am come that they might have life. and that they might
have it more abundantly. You see, just like he said in
verse two, Christ entereth in by the door. Christ is the good
shepherd of the sheep. And what he's revealing to us
here is that he came by the will of the Father And He works all
that the Father wills and purposes for the salvation of His people. Christ did that. Christ did that. Galatians 4.4 says, When the
fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law. And so the Son of God took upon
Him flesh. And he came and endured all the
temptations that Adam died under and fell under. He endured those
things. He spoke all the words that he
heard the father speak. He did the works that the father
gave him to do. And Hebrews 5, 8 and 9 tells
us that though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the
things which he suffered. and it goes on saying, and being
made perfect. What that is saying is that Christ
was proved to be the perfect, fit sacrifice of His people. He's the Son of God, and God
is demonstrating by His glory and power, the Spirit being given
to Him without measure, demonstrating that He is indeed that fit sacrifice,
that promised seed spoken of by God in the Garden. And being
proved, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all
them that obey him. He proved it, that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ of God. He is the Messiah, the Savior
of his people. In other words, Christ entered
through the door. He came and did exactly what
the Messiah was sent to do. He did it exactly. He entered
through the door. He did it the right way. He didn't
circumvent. He didn't go around suffering.
He didn't bypass the cross and say, you're mine now. No, he
went through the door. He did exactly what he had to
do to save you that are sinners. Christ did it perfectly. Perfectly. He went through the door. He
has every right to be here now standing and declaring these
words to the Jews, which are recorded for us in the scriptures.
He has every right. to say what he says. He is the
Messiah. Look to him. He's the Savior.
He is the promised seed of God. And so he's saying these things
because he is the shepherd of his sheep. He is the Savior. And back in John 10, 3 and 4,
to him the porter openeth. That is the Holy Spirit. He openeth,
he openeth to Christ so that the Holy Spirit gives life. By
the power of God and the grace of God, we are born again, we
are made new, and we hear the voice of our Savior. We hear
Christ speak in the gospel. We hear, yes, Christ is the Savior. He is my salvation. He is my
righteousness. He's all unto me. He's the one
whom the Father sent to care for me, to save me, to deliver
me from death and darkness. We hear his voice, and he calleth
his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. What is he leading
us out of? Death and bondage and sin and
ruin? He's leading us out of that body
of sin in Adam, which we were born into in Adam. Christ leads
us out of that. He takes us out of that death. And when he put it forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice. This is a beautiful picture of
what Christ, our Messiah, our Good Shepherd, has done. He goes
before us. Before us where? Into the veil
of death. He went before us into death. He went to the cross, and we
Follow in Him. And so when Christ was crucified,
we were crucified with Him. We were put to death with Christ. When He was buried, we were buried. And when He rose again, we rose
again. We are raised again from the
dead in the Lord Jesus Christ. We follow Him. We're one with
Him. We are delivered from that body
of sin because now we are the body of Christ. It's a beautiful
picture. I keep going back to that picture,
but it's so glorious that to see that's what we've been saved
from and delivered from that death. And so we're made new
creatures by Christ. He's accomplished all our salvation,
all our redemption through his death and resurrection. And so
being made perfect, our Lord says in verse 11, I am the good
shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. That's
what he's teaching us in this passage, that he is fit to redeem
his people. When he says, I'm your salvation,
I'm your righteousness, look unto me, all ye ends of the earth,
look to him, believe him. He's honoring the will of his
father. He's accomplished our redemption and our salvation.
And so, as our faithful shepherd, He reveals this. You that believe, He testifies
that Christ is your salvation, your hope in your hearts by revealing
and manifesting faith in you. It's the grace and power of God
delivering you from that body of death, taking you out of that
darkness and drawing you into the light. to see and to know
and confess that all this, what he has done is wrought in you
of God. It's of his power, of his grace,
to the glory and praise of his name. Peter, just going on a
little more, Peter describes our Lord's right over his people
as their shepherd. In 1 Peter 2, verse 24 and 25, He says, who his own self bear
our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins. And what he's saying there in
relation to what I just said before, what he's saying there
is that sin has no more dominion over you. By nature, we're born
In Adam, in the depravity and death of sin, and as Paul said
in Ephesians 2, we were going the course of this world. We
were under the sway and the power of the prince of the power of
the air. We were that spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience. That's what we are by nature
in that body of sin, in that death of sin. We don't know the
true and living God by nature, by the works of this flesh. And
so he's teaching you in Christ that sin hath no more power over
you. We're not still laboring and
spending and striving because we're fearful because our sin.
We see it, we see the effects of sin in our members. We still
see the Philistines and the Canaanites in the land. They still trouble
us, they're still in our members, but that's not, they don't have
the power and the rule over you. Christ does. Christ does. So that your sin is not dictating
your inheritance, where you shall spend your lasting eternal habitations. Christ does. Christ is the judge,
and he is the Savior of his people, so that he determines your inheritance. And he said, you're mine, and
I've gone to prepare a place for you. And where I am, I'll
come back and bring you to be with me forever. I've provided
all things. He's the one who redeemed us. We're his purchased possession.
So sin is not your boss. Sin is not your Lord. Sin isn't
determining what you have in eternity. Christ does. Christ
has done that. He's your good shepherd. And
he's provided and does provide everything that we need. that
we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness. He gives
us His Spirit to hear His voice and to desire Him. and to be
turned by his grace and power, through the teaching and feeding
and nourishment of his gospel, to be turned from the lusts of
this flesh, which war against the soul, and to look to Christ,
and to keep looking to Christ, and to experience that peace
and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. So he does this for his brethren. And so that we should live unto
righteousness in Christ by whose stripes ye were healed, for ye
were a sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd
and bishop of your souls. Because He is our Shepherd and
He has purchased us with His own blood, now it pleases Him
to manifest all the blessings, all the gifts of His salvation
that He has accomplished. When He rose from the dead, He
led captivity. captive and gave gifts unto men. He now gives his people all these
blessings, all these spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. It's all, we're gonna experience
it. If you're his, you're going to
be brought into fellowship with God and experience this grace
and salvation of our Lord right now. Right now. through the down
payment of His Holy Spirit to say, you're mine and I'm bringing
you home to myself. All right, now, so that brings
us back to Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. I shall not want. Well, what
does the child of God want? Well, first think of it, well,
what do we stand in need of apart from Christ? Everything we need
is what Christ the Good Shepherd provides. Everything that we
need and stand in need of that we want Christ provides. We want to stand before God. We have a need to stand before
God. We're all going to stand before
God. I want to stand before Him in perfect righteousness. Before
the holy, true, and living God. How am I going to do that? Not
by my own works. You're not going to do it by
your own works of righteousness. and your works in religion, if
you're going to stand before God in perfect righteousness,
it's going to be in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's how we stand before God.
That's our need, to stand before holy God in perfect righteousness. This is what Christ, when you
read this Psalm 23, this is what Christ, our good shepherd, is
doing for us. So that we have no want and no
fear to stand before God in perfect righteousness, being accepted
of Him. Look at verse 2. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. Now there's a multitude of gospel
truths that are contained here in this verse. Let's begin with
he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He maketh me. God is
revealing to us that He is sovereign. He is in absolute, total control
over you, over all things, even those that are not His children. He's in control of absolutely
everything. Everything works according as
God has purposed it to work. It's all in His power, not a
speck of dust. Flies through the air and lands
in our eye, except God has put it there. God is in absolute
sovereign control over all things. He maketh me. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell
in thy courts. Lord, make me. I want to dwell
in thy courts. And he's the one who ensures
that you that are his you that were purchased by the blood of
Christ, that you shall endure, that you shall dwell in his courts.
And so he's providing everything. Otherwise, you and me, we ain't
gonna show up there. We're gonna fall short of it.
If it left to ourselves, we shall fall short of the glory of God
by our sin. And so our Lord is in perfect
control, ensuring that all those he chose in Christ before the
foundation of the world are brought under the blood. hear the voice
and are delivered from death and darkness and are made alive
in Christ. Our God did this for us in sending
his darling son even before we were born. Before you and I were
created, Christ came and laid down His life. And those that
were alive when Christ was crucified, it was even before them. This
was all determined by God in eternity. He hath chosen us in
Him before the foundation of the world. Christ is called the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It was already
determined. The works were finished in Him. He is the promised seed
of woman, promised by God and the guardian. We're told that,
you know, 1 John 3 tells us that he that commit a sin is of the
devil. We've got a problem. There's
no getting around that. That means that by nature, we
that are sinners are of the devil. We're of the devil. For this
cause the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works
of the devil. We don't destroy the works of
the devil. We're born into that, captive by nature. We're born
into that. We're sinners by nature. This
is why Christ came and destroyed the works of the devil, to smash
his work, to go into the house of the strong man and to take
out those precious things given to him by the Father before the
foundation of the world. And so it's not your sin or what
you've done to stop your sin that delivers you. Uh-uh, it's
Christ alone. Christ Jesus, our good shepherd,
did everything necessary to deliver us out of that house of bondage,
that body of sin, and to make us members of his body, of his
body. And so all that is given to Christ
is given to his body. You don't separate the head from
the body. All that is His is given to us in Him. In Him. And God was in perfect control
while we were yet in darkness and ignorant of these things.
God did it all. Moreover, when he says, you maketh
me to lie down in green pastures, you think about that. Green pastures,
that is good, tender shoots of grass. That's not hard to choke
down. That's not hard and difficult
to chew and swallow. That is the peace of God given
to you in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I was reflecting on
this week and thinking about this. Every time I look to my
flesh, every time I'm doing what I would do according to the lusts
of this flesh, there is anxiety, there is fear, there is worry
and doubt and trouble. Every time. And it's hard to
chew on that. It's hard to eat that. But every
time I look and may to look and see Christ in his word, and giving
that desire and that joy just to look to Him and to be in fellowship
with Him and read His word and by His grace being turned from
the lust of the flesh and just looking to Him, it's nothing
but peace. It's nothing but joy. It's easy. It's easy. I'm the one who troubles
myself and makes things difficult. I'm the one who stirs up trouble
for myself all the time, not the Lord. When I see Christ,
it's lovely, it's praiseworthy, it's thankworthy, it's all of
Him and it's so sweet. And that's what He's saying is
He brings us into green pastures. And sometimes He suffers us to
look to the flesh to remind us, to humble us again and show us,
why are you looking over there? Why are you lusting for that?
Why are you looking at that? Keep looking to Christ because
it's green, tender, luscious pastures given to us of Christ. It says there that we lie down.
You don't lie down when the wolf's all about and about to rip you
apart. You lie down because you're at rest in Christ. You don't
lie down when you're having to work for your salvation and you're
afraid and terrified and think, uh-oh, I've done it now. I better
fix this. That's not lying down. That's working. but Christ makes
us to lie down and rest in Him, so that in Christ our Good Shepherd
we have no want for pardon. We've been pardoned by Christ. I shall not want. Additionally,
He leadeth me beside the still waters. Because Christ is my
redemption, and because He is the redemption of His people,
He gives us His Holy Spirit to dwell within us, and to open
that door to Christ, to open our ear with the ear of faith
to hear the voice of Christ and to follow Him in that new man
of grace, not according to the old dead works of the law, not
according to the works of the flesh, but in newness of spirit,
by His grace and power we are led by Christ and led to Christ. The Spirit takes us to that fountain
where those cool, refreshing waters are provided for his people,
for his sheep abundantly, just flowing, flowing, bubbling up
and coming up over and over again in Christ. These are described
as still waters. Meaning these run deep. There's
no breaks or whitewater rapids babbling over rocks and stuff.
It's smooth. It's smooth still waters because
Christ's death has obtained peace for his children with holy eternal
God. And so I'm sure there's times
where we've all stood before a lake when we were young or
something, or maybe recently, and on a calm day when the wind's
not blowing and no birds are landing in it, it is still and
smooth like a perfect glass. A perfect glass, like it's just
a perfect reflection of everything that's above, there's no ripples
in it, there's nothing. That's the peace that we have
before God. John describes a sea that is
before the throne of God, and he calls it a sea of glass. because
it's still for you that are in Christ. He says, I saw, as it
were, this is Revelation 15, two, I saw, as it were, a sea
of glass mingled with fire. And then that had gotten the
victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark,
and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having
the harps of God. So this sea is there before the
throne of God. And when you see the throne of
God, that means holy God who is just, in sovereign control,
judging and doing all things." All things are working by Him.
This is holy God on His throne of judgment. And that fiery,
that mingling with fire and that sea there, that describes the
wrath of God which is toward His enemies under the sea of
God's wrath. They're under that sea being
overwhelmed and destroyed by the wrath and power of Almighty
God. But where are the people of God?
They're above that sea, standing upon, as it were, a sea of glass,
with no worry, no wrath upon them. They've been raised above
it. It's describing those who have
been redeemed by the blood of Christ. And as he died under
the wrath of God, and we died in him, and were buried and raised
again with him, by His resurrection power, we are lifted above that
wrath of God. So that the sea of God's wrath
is a sea of glass for us. There's peace. Peace. We stand complete in Christ. We had those harps there describing
the song of redemption that we sing. We're singing of what Christ
has done to redeem us with His own blood, that His righteousness
is our righteousness. And we stand before God's throne
faultless, faultless. We stand complete in Him. And
so it's him that has lifted us up. And when you see that God
in the victory over the beast and over his image, it's because
Christ has effaced. He's wiped out that image that
became ours, that marred, defiled, corrupt image in Adam in the
garden. That image of the beast is put away. His mark that was
on us by nature is gone. We have the mark of Christ on
us. We're marked with his blood. Our name, our new name, is Christ's
name given to us. We're new creatures in Christ,
raised above that wrath, and it's a sea of glass. They're
overwhelmed underneath. We stand in Christ, complete
and accepted of Him. So these green pastures and still
waters, they describe the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is given
to his people through his death and resurrection. Blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall
be filled. We've no part, no want for pardon. Now verse three, I'll pick it
up a little bit. Verse three, he restoreth my soul, he leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. All right, when we were born,
we were born dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually dead, we
didn't know God. We may have been religious, we
may have been worshippers of some idol god, but we did not
worship the true and living God in spirit and in truth. We're
like that woman at the well. We thought we knew the true and
living God, but we were deceived in darkness, dead in trespasses
and sins. But Christ changed all that.
Christ delivered us. And He does this for all His
people. He gives His Spirit to dwell
in His people to lead us to Christ. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for His name's sake. What the Lord is teaching
us is that all we do is come to Him in Christ, believing Him
that He is our righteousness. We don't come in our own works.
We don't try to come to God in Christ plus our works, trying
to improve or ensure that God will receive us by doing some
things ourselves. No, we come trusting in Christ
alone because the trust in anything outside of Christ is to despise
His Son. It's to say Christ isn't enough.
You say he's enough, but I don't believe you, so I'm going to
bring some more. I'm going to do a little of my own works to
justify myself and to sanctify myself. No, if you approach God
outside of Christ or anything hanging outside of Christ, you
will meet an angry God in fierce wrath that will destroy his enemies. So what he's teaching us is that
in Christ His sheep want for no perfection. We are perfect
in Christ. I shall not want. Verse 4, 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. Our Lord is teaching us here
that He, all our afflictions, all our trials, all our sorrows
and all our sufferings are given to us by the hand of God in perfect
wisdom. Because He's teaching us, He's
stripping us of a confidence in this flesh and bringing us
to the end of ourselves that we would know the Good Shepherd. More and more that we would see
Him and know what He has done for us. His rod and His staff
is what is guiding us, and keeping us, and providing for us, and
comforting us, and it's all done in grace, so that we grow in
the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior. When He saves
us, we don't know all things, we're not experienced, and we are as safe then as we're
ever gonna be, but as we live here on the earth in Christ,
He's growing us. to know him more and more. And
so his love is demonstrated, his care is demonstrated to his
people. When we come into difficult times
and we see how he delivers us, how he brings us to his feet,
and we look back and reflect on all the things that he's done.
And in providing for us, we bless his name. We thank him for what
he's done to turn us from the love of this world. We thank
him for how he's humbled us. We thank him for how he separated
us from the world and the love of this world. It's all been
for our good. It's all been for our good. Paul
said it this way in 2 Corinthians 1, 9, speaking of troubles they
came into in Asia. This is the apostle. He says,
we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead. That
was deep into the ministry of Paul. And he said God was still
bringing us into trouble, but it was for our good, because
we saw We experienced the grace and power of God that when we
thought we were as good as dead, his power delivered us. And we
saw the wonder working power of our God. And it showed us
again how that we have nothing to boast of in this flesh. God
does it all as our good shepherd, our good shepherd. And so he's
so faithful and his work is so all encompassing. We're still
learning that. Brother Gary's still learning
that after so many years, right? And we're still learning it,
brethren. He's still showing us this, and he shows it to us
more and more, and it's made more fuller. It flows and flows,
and it's made more and more full to us every day so that we're
seeing Christ is all. And when we think we know that
Christ is all, he shows us down the road, nope. Wow, I see how
Christ is even more all. And so it just keeps growing. keeps growing by his grace and
power. Verse 5, Thou prepares the table before me, in the presence
of mine enemies, Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth
over. We see over the years, just how
we've heard it many times, how near, how threatening the enemy
is and all about us. What the Lord is showing us is
don't worry about them or look to them. God is still able to
work his will perfectly. You think about when did Christ
redeem us? when he was surrounded by his
enemies. In weakness, in perfect weakness, that's when Christ
did the most triumphant, glorious work in shaming our enemies and
putting them to death and delivering his people in weakness. So God
isn't troubled, or his will can't be done because we're surrounded
by enemies. Christ said, strong bowls of bastion compass me about. And he redeemed us at that time.
And so, we rejoice in the redemption of Christ. That word of the strong
bowls of Bathshem, that's recorded in the Psalm just before this,
Psalm 22. It describes the redemption of Christ so that we who are
redeemed by Christ read this Psalm 23 and are blessed and
comforted by it. Because of his redemption, we
rejoice in our good shepherd, And so, in Christ, we want for
no provision, because He provides all that we need. And we're gonna
know that more and more. Wherefore, He is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever
liveth to make intercession for them. Now, verse six, surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and
I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You see, our
inheritance is secured by Christ, not by us and our works, but
by the Lord Jesus Christ, and nothing can seize them or take
them from you. Your inheritance is given to
you in Christ, and you're held in the hand of Christ. and were
held in the hand of his father. And nothing can take that away. It cannot be taken from us or
seized from us. He said, our Lord said, lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
Christ the Good Shepherd does that for his sheep. He's put
all your treasure there. It's in Him. It's laid up for
us in Christ. He is our inheritance, and He
says, you're mine, inheritance. And nothing's going to separate
us from the love of Christ. Nothing at all. And so, brethren,
our Lord makes us to know that we have everything for us at
the hand of our Good Shepherd, I shall not want. And that's when, when you read
this, when you look at this, Rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ
because that's what he's making you to know. He's done it all.
I pray the Lord bless that word to your heart's breath. Amen.