All right, take your Bibles and
turn back with me to Psalm 23. Psalm chapter 23, and this is
the second message. I didn't get to finish the message
last Sunday. Nine provisions of the Good Shepherd. I got to the Good Shepherd part,
but I didn't get to the provisions. So, tonight we're going to be
looking at these provisions that are mentioned here in Psalm chapter
23. The psalm begins with this statement, the Lord is my shepherd. Now, we went over this early
in the message last Sunday that this picture of a shepherd in
scripture was used to picture the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You saw that when Jacob was blessing
Joseph. He declared that out of Jacob
should come a shepherd. A shepherd. that Christ should
come from the seed of Jacob. And you remember our Lord Jesus
Christ, when He did come into this world, He made this statement,
I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Good Shepherd. And the
mission of the Shepherd, the purpose of His coming was to
give His life for the sheep. And that's what Christ came into
the world to do. He gave His life for the sheep. He paid their ransom price. And we who believe on Jesus Christ,
we who have been called by the Spirit of God to faith in Christ,
we may say this with confidence, the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Jesus
Christ is my shepherd. And notice this, that if Christ
Jesus is your shepherd, if he has come to lay down his life
for you, he says to his sheep, I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. The Lord Jesus Christ tells his
sheep this, you are my sheep, I am your shepherd, Therefore
the sheep declare this, I shall not want. I shall not want. Now, every believer in Christ
is not so foolish as to take this promise to be carnal. Do you have wants? Do you have
needs? Let's just put it that way. Do
you lack things? There are often times where we may lack health.
We may lack food. We may lack provisions. And so
when we come to this verse here and we look at it and say, well,
Lord, You promised that I should not lack anything. Well, that's
not what He was talking about. We're not so foolish as to think
that these are promises of earthly health and wealth and prosperity
as religious people do in our day. They take that and say,
Lord's my shepherd, I shall not want. That means I'm going to
get anything I have faith to get. If I just have enough faith,
then Lord's going to give it to me. That's not what He intends
here. This is not a promise that we
should somehow miss or avoid afflictions. that's how men take this and
they are very disappointed in this text if this is what you
think it's about now listen what Paul said in 2nd Timothy 3 12
he said those that will live godly in Jesus Christ shall suffer
persecution Our Lord Jesus Christ told us
in himself, did he not? Our shepherd said in this world,
you shall have what? Tribulation. This is not a promise
to avoid tribulation. Not a promise to avoid persecution. When the apostle was confirming
the souls in Acts chapter 14 of those saints, exhorting them
to continue in the faith, Acts 14.22, he says that we must,
through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of heaven. So when
this says, I shall not want, it is not saying we are going
to avoid or miss Persecution, suffering, affliction. No, these
are intended by our Savior for our good. So then if it's not stating this,
then what does it mean here? What kind of provisions does
He give us that we should not lack? Well, I believe there are
nine here. I believe there are nine provisions
in this text. That every believer may take
and know this you will not lack any one of them You will not
lack any one of them. Let's look at number one He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures He leadeth me beside the still
waters. The first thing is the sheep
shall never lack nourishment And this is spiritual, friends.
Again, what good is it about carnal things? If God were to
give you all the carnal health and prosperity, it's only temporal,
isn't it? It's only going to last a little
while. We're all going to get sick and we're all going to die.
You can get all the wealth and keep it all your life, but eventually
you're going to lose it. Those are temporal things. But
these things that we are speaking of are spiritual. This is spiritual
nourishment He is speaking of. Now when we were lost, believer,
we lived in a barren wilderness. We were lifeless. We could not
produce anything. This world could not provide
life. It could not quench the hunger
for righteousness. But God, having sent His Son
into this world, He has by His own hand obtained righteousness. Righteousness. He's done this
for us, for His sheep. Christ came into the world to
obtain righteousness for us. And when He gathers us, He gathers
us from this barren desert And what does he do? He makes us
to lie down in the green pastures of his righteousness. He causes
us to rest. He makes us to lay down upon
his righteousness. Now the vile nature that we have
still. Every believer identifies with
this. That old nature still longs for the husks. Doesn't it? Doesn't it still
clamor for the things of the world and nature that is still
in us? It longs for the husks of our sins, but God in grace
and power has caused us to bend the knee. He maketh us to lie
down. He maketh us to bow down before
Christ. And He creates in us this hunger.
Before we came to Christ, we really had no need of righteousness. We didn't know what we thought
we could do that. We thought we could merit righteousness. We thought righteous was nothing
but trying to obey the law. We thought nothing of righteousness.
But when God revealed our nature to us, we started to have a need
for it. We saw we lacked righteousness. And we hungered for righteousness. He gave us a new nature to feel
that hunger. And what did we do? We fed upon
Christ. We fed upon Him. We by faith
have tasted of Him. And we have laid down upon His
righteousness to rest by faith upon Him. I'll tell you this,
we as believers, We often do wonder from these rich fields. Like sheep, we wonder. We often find ourselves in barren
places. But I like this. He maketh. And this is a good word. When
you see that E-T-H, remember that's a constant thing. He constantly
makes me lie down upon his righteousness. To feed upon his righteousness. We wander from these fields of
plenty, we wander back to the deserts, become malnourished,
but consider the long-suffering of our Savior to constantly make
us lie down and rest upon Him. He often finds us and He brings
us back. He brings us back to what? His
righteousness. Isn't this comforting to know
that I Do not make my own righteousness. That Christ has made all my righteousness. Coming to me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? Rest. Rest. And so he makes us to rest
upon his righteousness and feed upon it. Remember in John 6, Jesus Christ
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. So this is what it
is, he makes us to eat of him. and his righteousness. Secondly,
he says this, maketh us to eliteth us beside the still waters. This speaks of peace. This speaks
of peace. You shall not lack righteousness.
That's great, isn't it? Isn't it good news? You're not
lacking any righteousness. You'll never lack righteousness.
Now just feed on it. Eat it. By faith, receive it. Secondly, you'll never lack peace.
You'll never lack peace. He leadeth me beside the still
water. Now from what I've read about sheep, they cannot drink
from running water. They're so fearful, they're so
fretful that if the stream and the current is too fast, they
won't drink from it. They're skittish. How often are
we so fearful, so prone to sin, so prone to forget? the love
of God that is in Christ Jesus. So prone to forget the offering
that our shepherd has made for our sins. We're so fearful that he'll leave
us. Have you felt that fear? I don't think there's a greater
fear to a believer's heart than him leaving me. I don't think
I have a greater fear than that. But see this, the shepherd leads
us. No matter where we are, no matter
the storms that we are facing, the Lord Jesus Christ will never
leave you. He will lead you. Did you know there's something
God can't do? God can't lie. He can't do it. It's impossible for God to lie.
God can't fail. When God says He's doing something,
it's impossible for God to fail. God cannot be deceived. But I like this one. God cannot
deny Himself. That should give you peace. This should give you comfort
that God cannot deny Himself listen what Paul says in 2nd
Timothy 2 13. He said this listen if we believe not Yet he abideth faithful Now,
how do we know that he's going to abide faithful when our faith
is gone when our faith is is pure gone Listen, Paul says he
is faithful. And what? How do you know he's
faithful, Paul? Listen, Paul said this. He cannot
deny himself. He cannot deny himself. How often
is our faith gone? You know, Mark, Chapter four,
when the The apostles were on the, the Lord said get in the
boat, we're going across the sea. And you remember the Lord
went down there and he went to sleep. And that storm come up
and they had tried everything in their power. And they knew
this, they were going to die. And they came to the Lord while
he was asleep and they said, Lord, carest thou not that we
perish? And he got up. In love in mercy
rebuke the wind and it was calm You suppose they were in any
more danger with the storm raging than the storm being calm If
the Lord was in the boat they were safe Yet there listen what
he said to them. He said how is it you had no
faith? I said many times he said you
have little faith, but this time was different. He said, How is
it that you had no faith at all? Sometimes the shepherd leads
us into fearful places. Storms beat against our vessel. We are tried the waters of Temptation
flood our souls. We are about to sink and we say
with them Lord cares thou not that I perish And the Lord comes in grace and
mercy and calms the storm and looks at us and says how is it
that you had no faith? Yet this is the hope. This is
the calm stream. Listen to this. He cannot deny
himself. Did he cast those disciples off
because they had no faith? Will he cast you off when you
have no faith? You see this calm water. He cannot
deny himself. Let's hear the voice of this
calm stream. God cannot change. He is perfect
in everything He does. He chose us. He decreed our salvation. Jesus Christ purchased it. The
Spirit of God applied it. The Spirit of God keeps it. God will never impute our sins
to us because Christ has put them away forever. Therefore
God will never forsake us even when our faith is gone Will not forsake us why he cannot
deny himself Do you see how much you are in union with Christ?
That to deny you he would have to deny Christ That's how much
we are in union with him So come now and drink from this
stream. See how peaceful it is? Christ
hath made peace for us by the blood of his cross. He's made
peace. So guess what? There's peace. Now, what in the world could
disrupt this peace? What earthly thing, what earthly being, what
heavenly being can disrupt this peace? He leadeth me beside the still
waters. There's peace between you and
God. Because all our salvation is
not dependent in any way upon us, but totally upon Christ. Thirdly, look at this. He restoreth
my soul. He restoreth my soul. When Jesus our Shepherd died,
He restored everything that Adam lost. Everything that Adam lost. He restored the glory of God.
He restored the righteousness of God. He made peace with God
by the blood of His cross. And at the appointed time, He
restored our soul. Listen to what He said in Psalm
69. This is Christ upon the cross
in prophecy. He said, Save me. Save me, O
God, for the waters are coming to my soul. I sink deep in the
mire where there is no standing. I have come to deep waters Where
the floods overflow me, I am weary of my crying. My throat
is dried. Mine eyes fail while I wait for
my God. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. You see him hanging upon the
tree? You see his enemies? You see the floods of God's wrath
and justice pouring over his soul constantly. Listen to what he said, then
I restored that which I took not away. He restored everything our father
lost Our Father brought death, Christ
brought life. Adam brought sin, Christ brought
righteousness. Adam brought condemnation, Christ
brought redemption, pardon, and peace. He restored everything
that our Father lost, and then in time, He restored our soul
from death to life. He restored our soul from death
to life. He imparted to us a holy, sinless
nature by which we seen our sins and confess Him and receive Him. He gave us a nature by which
we could believe. Do you see the miracle of faith? Do you see that faith is a miracle? I know that modern religion don't
see faith any more than it is a decision you make. But faith
is a miracle. Faith is a gift of God, not of
works. And so you that believe, consider
the miracle of this. He has restored your soul. He has made it holy, acceptable
unto God. This is His provision for you.
He's given you a holy nature. But we know this because of the
old man of sin, we are often wearied. Though we have this
new nature of holy nature given to us, yet we're wearied because
of the old man of sin. We desire to believe him, but
soon find that our faith is gone. Our faith, oftentimes we say,
we cry, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. The old man of sin weighs us
down and our inability to be as holy as we would, to love
him as we should, to believe on him like we want to, weighs
us down and we become weary. But what does he constantly do?
He constantly restores us, refreshes us in the inner man. This is what preaching is for.
This is what the Word of God is for. To restore our souls. To restore our confidence and
hope that's not in ourselves, but in Him. Micah said in Micah 7, verse
18, it says, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity,
that passeth by transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy.
Again, did you notice every ETH in that one? Listen. He pardoneth. He passeth by the transgression. He just continually passes it
by. Continually passes it by. Continually
pardoned it. He retaineth not his anger forever.
He's never going to retain his anger forever. He's just not
going to keep it. He delighteth in mercy. You see, don't that restore your
soul? He restoreth, again the ETH,
He restoreth my soul. He has restored it, didn't He?
He restored it when He converted me. I'll tell you this, He's
right now restoring my soul through hearing of His provisions. And
you know what I have hope? I have hope He'll continue to
do that. He'll continue to restore my soul. Listen to this, He leadeth
me in paths of righteousness. He leadeth me, oh blessed thought. Blessed thought. He leadeth me. I like this, He leadeth me in
paths of righteousness for His namesake. Do you realize your
salvation is for His namesake? In that covenant of grace, Ezekiel
36, what did he say first? Before he even gave the covenant,
what did he tell Israel? He said, I do this not for your
sakes. Now listen, I tell you what,
if God did it for my sake, I can see why he wouldn't undo it. If it's for my sake, because
I'm, I tell you what, I'm not worthy of it, are you? No, but he didn't do it for my
sake. He does it for his own namesake. He's doing this for
himself. You got that? He's saving you
for himself. I do this for my own namesake.
So our righteousness was decreed by the Father. Our righteousness
was obtained by the Son. Our righteousness was imputed
and imparted by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, all our days He will
lead us in paths of righteousness. Constant, perpetual faith in
the righteousness of Christ. And this is a firm path, friends.
This is a firm footing. He leads me in a firm foundation. The foundation by which I have
hope of standing before God is the righteousness of Christ.
That's my hope. That's my standing. He leads
me in that path every day. He points me to Christ. Look at number 5. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Here's the fifth one. His sheep
shall never lack his presence. His sheep shall never lack his
presence. How often do we feel that God
is not present? If I'd be honest, I'd tell you
right now. A lot of times you just don't
feel it. Like I told you before the service, sometimes you just
feel like a dried up twig. You don't have any sense that
he's near. We read, we pray, we hear the
word of God and our hearts are cold. Our minds are indifferent, our
ears are dull of hearing. So we wrongly assume, He's left
me. Let's just be honest, it's the
other way around. We've left Him. We've left Him. So when we feel distance between
us and our shepherd, listen to this promise. In the darkest
of circumstances, even on the brink of death, though
we are walking under the darkness of sickness and fear of death,
here is the confidence thou art with me. This is an emphatic statement.
Even though I'm in the darkest place I can possibly be, this
is why I will not fear. You are with me. You're with me. Thou art with me. In fact, to
the sheep, death then is only a shadow. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death. Death is a shadow. You know that?
It's a fearful shadow to us, isn't it? But it's a shadow nonetheless. You know why? The power of death
is removed. Sin. The sting of death was sin. And now sin has been removed. Don't you realize that death
is nothing more than a temporal separation between the spirit
and the body? We must put off this corruptible,
so that one day it would be raised incorruptible. So death to us,
to believers, should not be anything more than a shadow. And so long
as we are under this shadow, We should then fear no evil.
Why? Because He is with me. Isaiah
41 10 says, Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed,
for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yes,
I will help thee. Yes, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Yes. That's what God says. Are you afraid? God says, I'm with you. Yes,
I'll strengthen you. You need strength? Yes, I'll
strengthen you. Yes. I'm going to be with you. I'll uphold you with my right
hand. Number six, we're to give thanks
to our shepherd for the provision of his rod and his staff. Look
at that. It said, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Now,
you've seen these shepherds rods. There's one end that says, stick
in and there's one that's a crooked end. And that has a meaning.
This rod, this blunt end of the shepherd's staff has three purposes. It is used by the shepherd to
count the sheep. To count them. Secondly, it is
used to correct the sheep. And thirdly, it is used to destroy
their enemies. And so as we see this rod of
the shepherd, we understand this, this should comfort you because
God has brought you into his fold. He has counted you as one
of his own. I like this, he says, I know
my sheep. I know my sheep. Father gave
them me. I know my sheep. And listen, and am known of mine. You know him. If you've heard
his voice, you know him. You believe on him, and he has
counted you into his fold. He has smitten us in our hearts
and caused us to bow under his authority. And secondly, that
that rod is also used to correct his sheep. This was written,
you know, when a sheep was prone to wander from a shepherd that
used that rod and they break the leg of the sheep and break
that leg of the wandering sheep. And consider this. It was it
might have been painful for the sheep, but consider the work
that the shepherd had to do. He would then bind that leg and
carry the sheep. This is us in our chastisement.
Consider this. He wounds us. But really, who's
bearing the weight here? It's Christ. Because all the
while you're chastened, guess what? Who's carrying who? He
binds our wounds and he carries us on his shoulder. What a gentle,
loving, this should comfort you. He said, that's why Paul said,
you know, when you are chastened of him, don't Don't despise the
chastisement of God. Whom he loveth, he does what? Chasteneth and scourgeth every
son. And if you be without chastisement,
then are you not sons but bastards. So we are grateful for his chastening
rod. And consider that rod is the
third thing is that rod was meant to destroy his enemies. That's
exactly what Christ did with our enemies, didn't he? He destroys
our enemies. Sin, death, hell, Satan, the
world, Christ has by his death put away our sin, suffered hell
upon the cursed tree for us. He has overcome the world and
now rules over all things to give eternal life to as many
as the Father has given him. And lastly, that staff, that
crooked end of the sheep, that's always used to guide the sheep. It's always to move them in the
right way. Doesn't that comfort you that
you're not going to get out of the way? I'll tell you what,
I'm fearful I'd just get out of the way. I know this, that
comforts me when he puts me back in the way, doesn't it? When
he comes along and I'm telling you, you see something in this
world and you just say, man, I got to have that. And God says,
no. Come over here. Get away. Get away from that.
And he guides me over here. And then you look back and you
say, well, man, I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful he guides me.
He leads me away from the things that this flesh wants. Don't
let me have what I want. Every time I pass by that lottery
thing, you see that 170 million up there, you say, oh Lord, don't
let me win that. Keep me away from that. That's
why I don't even buy a ticket, because I might win it. It might
be the worst thing for you. Pastor, don't do that. Oh, but
he guides us. What a loving shepherd, what
a comfort that is. And seventh is he prepares a
table for us in the presence of our enemies. Now when sheep, as sheep of our Lord Jesus Christ,
I want you to know this, we are always among wolves. Always. This table, this is His word,
His gospel. It's Himself that we feed upon. Just as I told you, He lays down
in these green pastures and we feed upon His righteousness,
feed upon His blood. Listen, but where is this church?
This church, we feed on the gospel in the midst of our enemies.
Listen to what Christ prayed in John 17. He said, I pray not
that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. They are not of this world, as
I am not of this world. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might also be sanctified
through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.
That they may be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee. that they also may be one in us and that the world
may believe that thou has sent me. We are a sheep among wolves,
but know this. None of them. Can touch us without
his permission. Isn't this amazing? It's as though
he puts his church in the middle of this world and says, I dare
you to take one of them. How many will he lose? How many
sheep will this shepherd lose to wolves? My shepherd said this, I shall
lose nothing. Doesn't this comfort you? No
matter what's going on, friends, and there's a lot of trouble
going on around us, isn't there? A nation that we, I'm thankful
for it, but we're watching the collapse of it. Don't worry. None of this is
going to hurt you. None of this will remove you.
He prepares for you a feast in the midst of this. Your table
is prepared. When he says that table, you
know, I think about that, what the Lord Jesus Christ said in
that parable. He said, there was a man who made a feast. He
said, you go bid him to come and say this, all things are
ready. Is this what we feed on? Is this our hope? All things
are ready. I like that. What do you got
to bring? Nothing. Don't bring anything to this
table. All things are ready. And when I think of this table,
I also think about Mephibosheth sitting at the king's table. Oh, who could hurt Mephibosheth
sitting at the king's table? Who could hurt you sitting at
the king's table? He puts us in the midst of our
enemies and he says this, I give unto them eternal life and they
shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. And the eighth thing is this,
He continually anoints us with the Spirit. He said, Thou anointest
my head with oil, my cup runneth over. You know, these sheep,
they were in constant need of anointing with oil to keep the
bugs out of their ears and stuff. It was a constant annoyance to
the sheep, and so this oil would be like a repellent to these
bugs. It wouldn't get inside their
ears. What a picture this is of what the Spirit of God does.
He doesn't allow anything to get in here. He repels anything
that would annoy us. And what is the Spirit's job?
What does the Spirit do? He testifies of Christ. He's got one purpose in this. To point us continually to Christ. What removes all the annoyances?
Christ. What keeps these bugs out of
our brain? Christ. That's why we only have one message.
Christ. Every provision that I've mentioned
to you tonight, who provided it? Christ. It's all Him. He's the Shepherd.
He made these provisions. And He has given us the Spirit
of God. to continually anoint us, dwell
inside us, and the cup of blessings overflows. How much forgiveness
does the Spirit of God give us? How much? How much forgiveness
do you get? Well, that cup just keeps running over, doesn't it?
It never is empty. Forgiveness of sin, faith, continuance in faith, love, hope, joy, peace, meekness,
all of the fruit of the spirit constantly running over, constantly
running over. And the last thing is this, goodness
and mercy. He said this, surely, goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Goodness and mercy. How is it you're going to reach
glory? How is it you're going to dwell
in the house of the Lord forever? Goodness and mercy. The goodness
of God. It's the goodness of God that
leadeth men to repentance, isn't it? Where do you see the goodness
of God? You see it in Christ, in the
offering of Jesus Christ, his son. You see the goodness of
God, the love of God, the mercy of God. And I like this, surely
goodness and mercy shall follow us. I tell you what, usually in the
present circumstances, I don't see goodness and mercy. Just blind to it. It's usually
only after we get out of these troubles, we look back and what
do we see? Oh look, surely goodness and mercy just followed me. It
just follows me. Everywhere I go, it follows me.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me. How long? All the
days of my life. When will God stop being good
to you? When will God stop having mercy
on you? Never. All the days of your life. All the days of your life. And
because of his provisions, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. It's hard to read this and look
in the mirror. It is your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. There is no way, no way he can
do that by looking at me, only by looking at his son. Can he
have any pleasure in giving me anything? Surely goodness and mercy shall So we see these provisions. He
nourishes us and makes us to lie down upon His righteousness
and feed upon His blood. He gives us peace. He leads us
beside the still waters because God cannot deny Himself. He'll
never deny you. He restored my soul. He restored
all that Adam lost. He restored my soul and gave
me life, and he leads me in paths of righteousness, constantly
leading me to look to his righteousness. Even in the darkest of our circumstances,
we have this promise, he shall always be with us. He prepared us a table, even
in the presence of our enemies, so that none of them is able
to pluck us out of his hand. He anoints us with the Spirit
of God so that all the blessings of Christ overflow to us and
surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our
life. These are the provisions of the shepherd and they are
constant and they are eternal. They're not changed by circumstance
or time. They're yours. Forever. Forever. Is He not the Good Shepherd? There is no one better. No one
better. The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall
not want any of these provisions. Not one. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Our gracious Father, thank you
for the Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray you take these
things and cause us to feed upon them and rejoice over them and
give thanks for them. I'm so thankful that you've called
me to faith in Christ. Thankful for these that you've
called to yourself. Comfort them, strengthen us, We pray you'd do it in Christ's
name.