Here in this psalm, Psalm chapter
23, we have this psalm of David. Some believe this psalm was written
at a time of great struggle, great affliction as when he ran
from Saul. But most believe that it was
a time where David was set up on his throne. And as he looked
out upon the people that God had given him to lead, he knew
this, that there was a greater shepherd than himself. He was
set up to lead the nation of Israel, but there was one greater
than himself, and he recognized that he himself was a sheep in
need of a shepherd. And David here, with this burst
of unction from the Spirit, he said, the Lord is my shepherd. My shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd,
the omnipotent Son of God, which is Jesus Christ. He is the shepherd
of God's sheep. He is infinite, omnipotent, merciful,
just, gracious, holy, omniscient, all-wise, and all-knowing, and
He is my shepherd. He's mine. He's my shepherd. This great God who created all
the universe, who measured out the waters in the palm of His
hand, who measured the mountains as but dust, and the islands
and all the people are dust in the balance to Him, and He is
my Shepherd and none other. And to us who believe on Christ
as all our salvation, this same Jesus is my Shepherd and your
Shepherd. Your shepherd." This was the promise of God,
so that we could be comforted. All throughout the Old Testament
Scriptures, I started looking up the Old Testament prophecies
about a shepherd, and they're numerous in the Old Testament.
The first one is found in Genesis 49, where Jacob was blessing
his son, Joseph. And at the end of his blessing,
he said, the shepherd shall come from Jacob and a stone from Israel. The shepherd shall come from
Jacob. You see, why was Joseph saved? Why was Joseph lifted
up to the throne of Pharaoh? Was it not to save Jacob? It
was. He saved everybody else, but
it was particularly for Jacob because out of him the shepherd
would come. The shepherd. It was an eternal
covenant of grace that Jesus Christ was appointed the Great
Shepherd of God's sheep. He was appointed this position,
this office, so that He might save, protect, redeem, and encourage
His sheep, the elect of God. He was appointed to be their
king, but not a tyrant king. He was appointed to be a shepherd
king. That's why David is such a beautiful
type. He was taken from the sheepfold.
You see, David knew what it was like for the sheep, and he knew
what it was like for the shepherd. He knew what the responsibility
of the shepherd was. And he knew how dumb sheep were. He knew that personally. He knew
it personally. But Jesus is the great anti-type. He's much more so being David's
son and David's Lord. But He is a shepherd by election.
God elected Him to be the shepherd of His elect people. And Jesus,
God's shepherd, was not to come and drive the sheep, but rather
to lead them. to lead them, He was called to
feed, to protect and redeem His own sheep by His blood. Go to
Zechariah chapter 13. Look at this. Zechariah chapter
13. Zechariah 13 verse 7. The Scripture says, this is God
speaking, "...awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and against
the man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the
shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn
My hand upon the little ones." Here God reveals the person and
the purpose of His grace. By the work of the shepherd,
the sword of God's justice is here spoken of. It says, Awake!
Think of the time since Adam's sin and this prophecy being fulfilled. It was a great span of time,
and yet God's justice was restrained until the shepherd came. And
God says, I would pour out My sword of wrath on My shepherd. God's purpose of grace was to
strike the shepherd, a man that was His fellow. Notice that,
a man. He already prophesied that He would be a man and His
fellow. God and man. The shepherd would
be the God-man, equal with the Father and Spirit. Yet He was
to become a man. And only Jesus fills this. There
is no other that fills this prophecy but Him. He is the shepherd that
is God's fellow and God's man. And he being found in fashion
as a man, humbled himself under the sword of God's justice in
the stead of his sheep. This is what God had purposed
and this is what Christ had done. He had done what God purposed. Isaiah said, we like sheep have
gone astray. And everyone had turned to his
own way, but the Lord hath laid on him..." Who? The shepherd.
"...the iniquity of us all." And when our shepherds suffered
under the justice of God, His sheep were scattered, weren't
they? Isn't that what happened to the disciples? That prophecy
was fulfilled when the disciples fled Christ, and He suffered
alone. Well, even so, we were scattered.
We were scattered among the nations, among all types of people. You
know, I didn't know you when I was small, and you didn't know
me, and yet, look, here we are. He's brought us together, hasn't
He? The shepherd gathers his sheep. Why? Because we're scattered.
We're scattered in the wilderness of sin. But God says this, The
sheep will be scattered, but My hand will be upon the little
ones." Isn't that something? Even though they're scattered,
God's hand is upon the sheep. It's upon the sheep of the shepherd. Believer, let us see that God's
hand was upon us even all the days of our life. Even in the
midst of our sin. Even in the midst when we were
lost and without Christ, God's hand was upon us. His hand of
providence. His hand to keep us from dying. His hand to hold us until we
come to grace and knowledge of Christ. See that God always had
His hand on you. There's not one time He didn't
have His hand on you. Not once. Why? We're His sheep and we have a
shepherd. We have a shepherd. He said, mine eyes have never
ceased to look upon my sheep with love. He has never ceased
to look upon you with love. Never. Not once. He has never failed to bring
one of His sheep to the appointed time of grace, not one. He's
never failed, ever. And He shall keep us safe until
He brings us to Himself. Isn't that His purpose? Did He
not say that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him,
in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children?
Shall He not accomplish His will? Of course He will. Has He not
done it thus far by bringing you to Christ? Yes, He'll bring
you home. He'll bring you all the way. It was God that smote the shepherd.
to satisfy His justice. And God has never nor never will
demand payment from one of His sheep." Do you realize that?
That God will never demand payment from you? Never once. Why? He's already smote the shepherd.
The shepherd has already been slain in the stead of His people. Behold, God's shepherd! Our shepherd! My shepherd! Jesus said, I am
the good shepherd. that I laid down my life for
the sheep." The shepherd knows his sheep.
He said, I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep and I'm known
of mine. Are you known of Christ? Do you know Him as your shepherd? Do you know Him as your Savior?
It's by faith we see His great offering for sin. And it's by
Him alone that we may be accepted and know God. There is no other
way to know God but by Him. You can sit and look at creation
all day and it's beautiful. And I'll tell you, you can be
thankful for it. Many of the Psalms reflect the beauty of
God's creation. But I'll tell you this, no man
will ever know God but by the shepherd. Nobody. Nobody will ever know it by creation.
just by looking at Christ. To us that believe on Him, He
is truly a good Shepherd. And all who are in His fold have
great cause to rejoice. We have cause to receive great
comfort tonight, great rejoicing, great mercy, and great grace,
because Jesus is my Shepherd. He is my Shepherd. What's the purpose of a shepherd?
What do they do? Well, sheep by nature are extremely
stupid animals. If sheep were to be left to themselves,
they would eat the parcel of ground until it got down to the
bare dirt, and they would stay there and die of starvation without
being led out. Other sheep are wandering sheep. They would just go and put their
head down until they look up and find out they're lost. Sheep are defenseless animals.
If a wolf were to attack a sheep, there's nothing he could do.
There's nothing. Matter of fact, if he gets attacked,
the sheep doesn't necessarily run, usually lays down. He doesn't
try to defend Himself. This is why sheep need a shepherd.
David recognized this. Believer, let us see that because
of Jesus, our Shepherd, we will never have any want of anything. Isn't that what David said? Look
back in your text. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall
not want. What that means is, I shall want
for nothing. I shall lack nothing that is
good for me. Now, I'll tell you, I want a
lot of things. But I'll tell you, what I want isn't necessarily
what's good for me. But you see, what the shepherd
desires for me is really all I need because I'm just a dumb
animal and I don't know what's best. I don't know what's best
for me. He does. And so by faith I see
my shepherd and I see that all that I have is all that I need. I was talking to Todd the other
day and he said something, he said, I don't know what that
means. And I said, well, it means whatever God means it to mean.
I don't know what it means either. And most of the time we don't.
But I know this I shall not want. I shall not want for anything.
I shall not want, not because of my own ability, but because
of the ability of my shepherd. Now, I've got seven things, so
be patient and I hope these will be enjoyable for you. These things
follow right down the text. And so, the first thing we shall
never lack or want for is rest. He maketh me to lie down in green
pasture. Imagine, if you will, a field
of green and the sheep lying down in the midst of there. Have
you ever had your dinner brought to you in bed? That's wonderful,
isn't it? It's nice. Because you just rest. You lay there and you eat to
your heart's content. That's what the sheep are made
to do. They're made to rest in a big green field full of food. And the more they eat, the more
it grows, and it never gets empty. The sheep may find rest in green
pastures which speak of the gospel of God's grace. You remember
that water that came out of the temple? And I believe Ezekiel,
the water came out of the temple, and there it was. It was to the
ankles and then to the knees, and then it flowed up over his
head so that he had to swim. That's the gospel. Sometimes
when grace is low, we just kind of step out in it a little bit.
And sometimes it overwhelms our soul with peace and rest. That's a gospel that never stops.
It never ends. It doesn't get any... It continually
gets better and better and better. Christ said, rest. Sit down. Stop trying. I've done it. I've
accomplished this. And I noticed that he had to
make us lie down. Sometimes we're just so stubborn.
Lie down and rest. Find comfort and rest in Christ. Why do sinners feed on the husks
when Christ has promised us a green field of His gospel to rest our
souls in? Why do men strive instead of
rest. I thought about this on the way
here. God says, why will you die? Why strive when Christ will give
you all that will satisfy your conscience? And not only your
conscience, but that satisfied God's law. Why would we not rest
in that? Rest. His blood and righteousness
are enough, aren't they? They're enough. They're enough
to cover the multitude of our sins. Rest. Lay down and rest. We shall never
lack rest. Christ is our rest. Number two,
we shall never lack His gentle leading love. Look at this in
the next part, He said, He leadeth me beside the still waters. This still waters is His love
and His mercy. And He constantly leads us to
His love and His mercy. You know that sheep won't drink
from running water. It's scary to them and they will
not drink from it. They would rather die of thirst
than to drink from a running brook, a noisy brook. But isn't the love of Christ
just so still? It's peaceful. And you know what? He leads us to it all the time. He's constantly reminding us
of His love. Do you realize that if God stopped
loving you, He would stop being God? Because God doesn't change. If He always loved you, He'll
always love you. There's no changing that. Nothing
can change that. He leadeth us beside the still
waters. And notice, He gently leads us. He gently leads us. His hand
is not stern, but gentle. Believer, our Shepherd knows
how to lead us. He's omniscient. And He knows
where to lead us. He is all wise and full of knowledge. He knows at all times where you
are. He knows at all times what you
are doing. He knows at all times what you
need. And He is constantly leading
you to the still waters of His mercy and His love. Drink. Drink freely of His love
because there's never-ending supply. It's like taking a thimble
out of the ocean. You could drink all you can and
it still never depletes His love. Just drink. It's free. It's free. His sheep, He loves
His sheep. You remember when Jesus' disciples
were in the midst of that storm? Where was He? He was on the mountain. But the Scripture says this,
"...He seeth them toiling in rowing." He sees you toiling.
He sees your struggles. He knows your circumstances because
He brought your circumstances. Why? Why did He bring us such
trouble and such pain? Because it's good for you, whatever
it is. Our brother Bob's in the hospital.
Why? It's good for him. I don't understand
that. But I'm not the shepherd. Christ
is. And He leads His sheep. Go to
Isaiah 40 and verse 10. Isaiah 40 and verse 10 says,
Behold, the Lord your God will come with
strong hand, and His arms shall rule for Him. Who is that? That's His shepherd. Behold,
His reward is with Him, eternal life. And His work is before
Him, His righteousness and His blood. And what shall he do? He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead
those with young." Is that not a peaceful scene? Is that not
a wonderful scene that God sets before us? The shepherd had his
work, he accomplished it. The shepherd has his sheep, he
gathers them, he feeds them, and he gently picks them up in
his arms and he carries them. Those of us who are like the
bruised reed, by the sin of our flesh, and those of us whose
faith and grace are low like the smoking flax." He says, "...a
bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax he will not
quench." Oh, how many times have we had little faith, and yet
God has not stamped out our faith, but He's constantly kindling
it again. Constantly, gently taking care
of us. Always leading us to His love. He'll take His lambs in His arms
and He'll draw them to Himself. If you're in trouble, know this,
the Shepherd will gather you. He will draw you in His arms
and He will hold you all the way through. Number three, His
sheep shall never want for refreshment. Look at that. Go back to your
text in Psalm 23. He restoreth my soul. Many times the sheep wander from
the fold, and the shepherd goes after them. Even so, God's sheep
are prone to wander. Remember that song, prone to
wander, Lord, I feel it. Don't you feel prone to wander
at times? Believers are saved from the
penalty of sin, the dominion of sin, but we're not saved totally
from the presence of sin yet. We all still have this old nature,
and I'll tell you, we need to be refreshed, don't we? Sometimes we may be led through
a rough path, and we need refreshment. We need some strength. We need
to be restored in our soul. Well, this is what the Shepherd
does. He restores our soul. Believers, we are all capable
of sin, all sin but blasphemy of the Holy Ghost, which is left
for reprobates. And I'll tell you, some will
come into the fold, and some will stay for a while, and they'll
look like sheep, they'll act like sheep, and then pretty soon,
they're gone away, and they never return again. That's a reprobate. You know, Milton Howard said
that there's some goats in Mexico that look exactly like sheep,
and you can't tell them apart. by looking at them. You know
the only way you can tell apart? The sheep are led and the goats
have to be driven. That's the only way you can tell.
That's the only way you can tell. You see, the sheep are drawn
in by the refreshment of God's grace and God's mercy and God's
goodness, while the goats are driven by law. They're constantly
needing a wall, someone to demand of them, someone to constantly
be there and to whip them back into church. Beat them all the
way in, running and screaming. No, that's goats. Sheep are led. They're led by the shepherd. And friends, the goats will never
find refreshment. Why? They're always looking at
something they did. They're always trying to do something.
They're not going to be restored by the law. The law never restores
anyone. The law only condemns everyone. But grace restores, doesn't it?
You see, we're saved by grace, not by law. We're here because
we want to be here. I want to be here. You don't
have to make me come and preach to you. I want to. I want to. You don't have to drive me. Cheryl,
she may drive the car, but I'm willing to go all the way. She's
like, nobody's making me come. I have to make my children, but
nobody has to make me. Why? I rejoice, and He restores
my soul. Sometimes God breaks our bones,
doesn't He? But I'll tell you, everyone He
breaks, He breaks with grace. I'll tell you, I don't love my
sin because I love Him. Not because of law. And I'll
tell you, when we sin and rebel against God, it breaks my heart
because of His love. Number four, sheep shall never
want for righteousness. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness
for His name's sake. His sheep shall never want of
righteousness because they were always in Christ." I was always in Christ. Was there
ever sin in Christ? No. In eternity He was holy and
perfect. He was God the Son and I was
in Him. I never lacked righteousness
from eternity. I never lacked righteousness
because I was always His sheep. I was always His sheep. Believers
in Christ, we were His sheep by gift. God gave us to Christ. God gave us a special gift to
His Son. We were always His sheep. We were always His from eternity,
we were His sheep according to the purpose of God, and we were
in Christ before the world began as His elect, His fold. Go to
John chapter 10. This is the great text of Jesus
proclaiming Him being the Good Shepherd. John chapter 10 and
verse 26. Jesus tells His self-righteous
men, He said, "...you believe not, because you are not of My
sheep. As I said unto you, My sheep
hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them
Me." The Father gave us to Him in eternity. We were His by gift. And so in Him, from all eternity,
we never lack righteousness. Second of all, we were His by
purchase. His by purchase. Jesus said,
I lay down my life. I am the good shepherd and I
lay down my life for the sheep. You see, He bought us. He not only was given us, but
He bought us. He bought our righteousness with
His own blood, with His own righteous deeds. He took that righteousness,
He obtained it Himself, and He gave it to us. I give unto them
eternal life. How can you have eternal life
without righteousness? You can't. And yet, He obtained
it for us. He didn't need it. I did. I needed it. And He obtained
it for me because He's my shepherd. He purchased us and accomplished
our righteousness. And we are His sheep by the power
of grace. Every sheep that had been scattered
from all over the face of this earth, Jesus Christ will gather
His sheep by His gospel. He will. And He brings them under
the fold of His church. He loves them and He teaches
them by His Spirit. He gives us a new nature and
that imparted righteousness that is in each and every one of us.
So that John proclaimed this in 1 John 4, 17, as He is. How is He? How is He? Is He righteous? You bet. As He is right now, so are we
in this present world. Now, if God didn't say it in
His Word, I wouldn't say it. But that's true. That's true. And this was not for our sakes
that He saved us, but for His own namesake. He leadeth me in
the paths of righteousness for His namesake. Praise God it's
not for mine. Praise God, it's for His own
glory that He saves us. Otherwise, it would be dependent
upon what we do. And it's not. It's not. We're
bought and paid for. We're a gift of Christ. He's
purchased us and He's given us an inheritance by the Holy Spirit.
Number five, His sheep shall never want of His protecting
presence. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? For
Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort
me." Believer, our shepherd is the omnipotent, almighty God. And He is ever present with His
sheep. That's one thing about a shepherd,
that he lives with the sheep. He doesn't have a nine-to-five
job. He doesn't just clock out and
go home to be with His family and leave the sheep to themselves.
He is constantly, steady watching them, protecting them, and keeping
them. We shall never want for His protection
because He's always with us. And he said, thy rod and thy
staff shall comfort me. Why is this comforting? Because
the rod is his weapon for protection. It is that rod that he beats
off the wolves with, that he kills and slays the bear with.
It's his rod. The rod of thy strength shall
come out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. Oh, man, are we not surrounded
by enemies? Friends, you can lay down tonight
and go to sleep. If you know Christ, you can lay down and
rest. There is not one enemy that will
ever overtake you. For the Shepherd is always with
you, and He will defend you with His mighty rod. And nothing will
stand against Him. Nothing. And His staff comforts
us. You know that crooked end of
the staff? That's for a reason. That's to keep us from danger.
Sheep starts wandering off, reaches over, grabs the sheep by the
neck, pulls him back in. Ah, that's not good for you.
How many times has that staff wretched out and saved us from
danger? Sure does. And I'll tell you,
sometimes that staff comes in and when a sheep wanders, if
he's prone to wander, the shepherd will break the leg. He'll bind
it and He'll carry him in His arms. Is that not how He chastens us?
Is that not how He corrects us? He doesn't break our leg and
leave us to the wolves, but He breaks our leg and He binds it
up with His own grace and He picks us up and He carries us
when we have no strength to carry ourselves. His rod and staff and His presence,
they comfort us. And six, his sheep will never
want for the Holy Spirit. Oh, let me point this out in
verse 5, one more thing. He said, Thou preparest a table
before me in the presence of mine enemies. Friend, like I
said, we are in the midst of a world that hates us. You are
in the midst of people that hate your shepherd and hate you and
would love nothing more than to devour your soul and to ruin
your testimony. What does that say in Proverbs?
The foolish men say, come, let us shed blood together. Isn't
that what the world says? Come with us. We're having so
much fun. Oh yeah, you're having a lot
of fun. I know that's not fun. I know it's not. That's death. And I'll stay right here by the
shepherd. I want to stay right here by the shepherd. But we're
all surrounded. And you know what? That prepares
the table. I read this. It's not like a warrior ready
for battle. But it's like someone preparing
a dinner feast in the midst of war. There's a war going all
around us and Christ, He prepares a table. In the middle of His
enemies. What are they going to do? Nothing. They can do nothing. We can sit
in the middle of a war and have a feast. Why? He prepares a table. Wolves all around us. Bears and
lions wanting to eat us. Satan always hastening to try
to devour us. And what does Christ do? He sets
a tablecloth right in the middle of it and He says, try your best.
You won't get to them. You won't get to them. Thou anointest
My head with oil, they shall never want of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said this, He said, if your son asks for bread, would
you give him a stone? If He asks for a fish, will you
give Him a serpent? How much more will the Father
give unto them the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? Is that not a simple thing to
ask? It's such a simple thing. And Christ promised that we would
have His comforter. You know what you do. Times I
know you don't feel it, sometimes I don't either. That doesn't
mean it's not so. Indwelling in you is His Holy
Spirit without measure. And you know, He gives us the
Spirit in a measure. We don't have it as Christ had
it. If we had it like that, we wouldn't know what to do with
it. Imagine a baby trying to eat
a piece of meat. He wouldn't know what to do with
it. So Christ gives it in a measure that we can handle. I'll tell you what, if God revealed
too much to us too fast, we would go insane. We wouldn't be able
to handle such great knowledge. We just wouldn't be able to handle
it. What do you know right now? That's all you need to know.
And when you need to know more, He'll tell you more. He'll teach
you. Rejoice in what you know. Don't
begrudge what you don't know. Rejoice in what you know. And number seven, His sheep shall
never lack for goodness and mercy. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Surely, goodness and mercy. Friends,
our God delighteth in mercy. That doesn't sound much like
the God of the legalist, does it? Our God delights in mercy. And you know what? He'll have
goodness and mercy on you, following you all the days of your life. Goodness to supply all your needs,
and mercy to forgive all your sins. And you know what? They're right here all the time,
following right behind me. God hath promised this, and the
shepherd delivers goodness and mercy to us that shall follow
us all the days of our life, and we shall dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. Friends, I pray God would, by
His grace, deliver sinners by this gospel. It shows the depravity
of man to not desire a shepherd like this. He is the good shepherd. He is the great shepherd and
bishop of our souls. And for men to turn their back
on Him for the husks of sin shows utter depravity. But friends, I would that sinners
would come to know the gospel of Jesus Christ, come to know
the person of Christ, my Shepherd. And so, when I say, the Lord
is my Shepherd, I'm pointing men to my Shepherd. I want you
to see my Shepherd. And those of His sheep, shall
not want rest, they shall not want His gentle leading, they
shall not want for refreshment, they shall not want for righteousness,
they shall not lack His protection, they shall not lack of His Spirit,
and they shall not lack of His goodness and mercy to them." And so when you read this, I
hope that you would read it like that. Don't skim this. Read it again. and read it in
light that God meant it for His sheep, for their comfort. Someone
said that the Psalm 23 was the nightingale of psalms. It says
its feathers are not as pretty as the others, but its song has
gone out through all the world. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Behold, my shepherd." Let's be
dismissed in prayer. Everybody stand, please.