Good morning. I have something this morning
that's for the children of God. It's old and fresh. When you
speak of the word of God and the praise of God and thank the
Lord for his blood, you never get tired of hearing it. You
know, there's times that I can hear sermons over and over and
over, and every time I hear them, they bless my heart. There's
times that I can read scripture, and I can read certain chapters,
and no matter how many times I read them, they bless my heart.
I'm gonna read a chapter this morning that we all know very,
very well, but it's always fresh. And it's a chapter that it always
blesses the heart of his sheep. And I thank God that I have a
shepherd this morning. I thank God that I have a good
shepherd, a great shepherd. And as some of you may know already,
it's Psalms 23. Psalms 23. I want to thank my Lord for giving
me the privilege of being here. I've titled this lesson, It's
The Shepherd That Provides All. For the children of God, for
his elect, they lack nothing when they're in Christ Jesus.
We're gonna go ahead and read the whole text, but the text
is gonna be chapter one, but we'll read a whole chapter. Beginning
in verse one, Psalms 23. And maybe the Lord didn't cause
us to enter into this. 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 namesake. Although 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 my enemies. Thou anoint 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. You know, as we know, God the
Father, he chose a people before the foundation of the world,
and he placed him in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's word says
in Ephesians, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. You know, God's people are called
sheep here because we're in deep need of all things that only
the Lord can provide for us. He's the only one that can take
care of us. I remember in Psalms 5.1, David
said, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me. God's Word says in Adam, all
died spiritually. So we needed a substitute. But
before the Lord could be our shepherd, he must purchase his
sheep. God's Word says in Ephesians
2, 1, and you have be quickened and were dead in trespasses and
sins. So it is by His grace and mercy
that we come to know something about the powerful work, the
powerful redemption work of our blessed Savior, of Lord Jesus
Christ, of His blood that was shed at Calvary. If you look
over one page, we see Psalm 22. This Psalm is known as the Psalm
of the Cross. If you look at verse one, I can't
imagine the suffering and the pain that our Savior went through
for sinners like us or sinners like I am. It says, my God, my
God, in chapter 22, the first verse, why hast thou forsaken
me? What art thou so far from helping
me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the
daytime, but thou hear'st not, and in the night season, and
I am not silent. In the beginning of verse 16
of that chapter, it says, for dogs have come past me, the assembly
of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my
feet. Psalms 22 shows us the full raft
of God, that was placed against his son for the sins of his people. That was imputed unto him. If
you will hold your place here and turn to John 10. We're gonna look at chapter 10, verse
14 through 18. Speaking of her Lord. And he's
speaking to his children. He says, I am the good shepherd,
and I know my sheep, and am knowing of mine. As the father knoweth
me, even so know I the father, and I lay down my life for the
sheep. And every sheep I have which are not of this foe, them
also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and they shall
be one foe and one shepherd. Therefore doeth my father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my father. We'll go back to chapter 23,
Psalm 23, verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd. You know, sometimes,
you know, we are acquainted with people in this world, and I have
people in my own family that questions the Word of God. But
we know that people do believe that God's Word is absolute sovereign
in everything that it says, you know, and we believe that. Grace
alone, no works at all. in receiving it. I've had people
tell me, they say, well, I have faith. I have faith to believe
that. I have faith. Well, where do we get that faith?
It ain't something that we work up within ourselves. Faith is
a gift from God. You know, it says in Ephesians,
and we're used to this. I mean, we know this verse very
well. It says in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For by grace, sir, you
say through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of
God, not of worth, lest any man should boast. Well, when I was
in religion 60 years of my life, I always thought it was talking
about grace, sir. But we know grace is a gift from
God. We're just talking about faith.
You know, so God's Word says that every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above. So where do we get this safe
that we have? Well, for one thing, it's a gift from God. Where does
it come from? Let's listen to what Galatians
2, 16 in God's Word says. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, In other words, anything that we can produce
within ourselves, it's all of God, but by the faith of Jesus
Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might
be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of
the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Hebrews 12.2 says, looking unto
Jesus, the offer and the finisher of our faith. And listen to this,
this is hard to believe, but who for the joy, speaking of
our Lord, who for the joy that was set before him endeared the
cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand
as the throne of God. First Timothy 2.5 says, For there
is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. The Lord is my shepherd. And,
you know, we talk about Jesus Christ. There's so many different
Jesuses in this world. I've heard some preachers say,
call him a peanut Jesus, you know. But who is this Christ
that we're talking about? Who is this shepherd that we're
talking about? Does he have the authority to be our shepherd?
Well, the Bible says here that he is absolute sovereign in all
things. In other words, he has absolute
control of all things. It says here he's sovereign in
providence. You know, in the book of Daniel,
God's word says that he doeth according to his will an army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand. And if you will, if you don't
care, turn to Galatians 1, when he talks about his providence
and creation. And we must always remember that
the word of God is his inspired word and it's absolute truth.
And we're talking about a shepherd here. It says in the first chapter
of Galatians, verse 16, it says, for by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth. It's all things, physical
and visible and invisible. are created, whether they be
thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created
by who? Our shepherd, our Lord, by him
and for him. And he is before all things.
And by him, all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church. In other words, which is his
bride, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. He says he might have the preeminence.
What does that mean? That means that our Lord Jesus
Christ is first in everything. In honor, exaltation, superiority,
He is over and above all things. In one verse, we left a quote
in the book of Revelation. It says, Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory, honor, and power, for Thou hast created
all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. What does that tell us? It's
all about Him. It's not about us. Then it says that our shepherd
is sovereign. In other words, he's sovereign
in everything. He's sovereign in salvation. I've heard people
in religion say, well, you know, God does his part, then I've
got to do my part. That's mixing works with grace.
That's like mixing oil with water. It just won't work. But one of
my favorite verses that I like when he talks about, it's a very
simple verse. But I like it when it talks about
salvation, because it can't get no plainer than this right here.
And we all know it, Acts 4.12. It brings God's people comfort
to believe, and that itself is a gift, which is a gift from
our Lord, that nothing happens in this life to His elect unless it is either by his permissive
or his directive will. In his saving grace, in his eternal
love, in his everlasting mercy, the Lord is my shepherd. In our
text, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. There may be
things that I wish for in this life, but there's nothing that
I will want. Why should we not want for anything? because we are in Him. In Christ,
we have, if we could only enter into this, when we get down and
out, we get discouraged, we face things that we don't have no
question for, it don't seem like there's any good way out, but
we got to remember, all things, that first Romans 28, is such
a blessing. All things work together to the
good, to them that love God. All things, for His purpose. Let's read verse 1 and 2 of Psalms
23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. It says that he maketh me to
lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. What are the green pastures?
I don't know if any of us have been around sheep very much,
but they love to eat. They love to eat grass. They
love to eat it all day long until they get full, and they'll lay
down. Next day, they'll get up, and guess what? They start eating
again. The Green Pastures is the word
of God. The children of God, they never get tired of reading
the word of God. meditating upon the word of God,
hearing the word of God preached by a grace preacher. They never
get tired of it because it is food and drink and bread for
the soul, for the hungry soul. Don't we love to read scripture?
Don't we love to meditate upon scripture? I love to read scripture. You know, one day where I hear
a good sermon one day, you know, the preacher will preach a good
sermon. He always does, by the way. But I've been going here
nine years, and I've never heard a man of God get up here and
preach a sermon that I didn't bless my heart. And you know
why I didn't bless my heart? Because God got all the glory
for it. And I thank Him for that. But to be able to meditate, think
about it, to meditate, be going down the road or riding, and
by the way, about the only time you can meditate is when you're
by yourself. But, you know, instead of cutting the radio on or thinking
about what you're going to do tomorrow or the next day, meditate
upon the Word of God, what He's done for us. And I guarantee
you, whatever you're feeling, you're going to feel better.
You're going to rejoice in the Lord because you know it's absolute
truth. and to meditate and to think
about all of his promises. He has promised us so much, and
he keeps his promises. In verse two here, it says, he
leadeth us beside the still waters. You know, the still waters, God's
people, they will have peace as long as we keep our eyes fixed
on who? Our Lord Jesus Christ. There's
times I've been down and out. There's times I've been sick.
But I'll be laying there and instead of watching TV or thinking
about how bad I feel, I get to meditate and get to thinking
about the Lord and get thinking about what He's done for us and
what He's doing for us and what He's going to do for us. You
know, he's with us each and every day. Joshua said, be not afraid
and be without dismay for the Lord our God is with you wherever
you go. He's right here with us. And
I thank God for that. You know, we need to keep our
eyes fixed upon him, upon our Lord. You know, Matthew said,
come unto me all ye that labor a heavy lady and I'll give you
rest. What soul don't rest? Take me, O Caponia, and learn
of me, for I am meek. Our Lord is meek and lowly in
heart. And he says, you shall find rest
for your souls. That's a lesson. You know, sometimes
in this life, we go through troubled waters and storms of life. And
these troubles that we experienced, it helps us so much to know that
God is in control. And looking to Christ will result.
and still waters. Look at Psalms 23, verse three.
He restored my soul. Only God can do that. He restored
my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. You know, in verse three here, he restored
our soul. In Adam, we all died spiritually,
and we were separated from God, but it was by the blood of our
Lamb. It was by the blood of Jesus Christ. You know, in Egypt,
he said, all that has blood applied, I'll pass over you. But it's
all about the blood. It's all about Christ. It says here in 2 Corinthians,
for he hath made him to be sin for us. Who's that? Christ. Who
knew no sin? But we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. It's all in Christ. He leads
me in a path of righteousness for his name's sake. We follow
the shepherd. You notice that? We follow him. He don't follow us. We follow
him. We follow the shepherd. He leads
us. It's not our nature to know or
to follow or to walk in the path of righteousness. It's his righteousness. It's only in Christ. And then
in verse four here, it says, though we walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with
me. Thou rod and thou staff, they comfort me. I take this
here to mean, when it says, though we walk, a lot of people think
this is when you get down to lay in bed and you get down and
you're facing, you know that death is certain and that it's
coming close, you get to thinking about it. But it says we walk
through this life. To me, it's a journey through
this life. And we walk here, it's a shadow
of death. It's a journey of this life.
And this world is not our home. We must remember that. He says,
I will fear no evil. Why? For he is with us. He don't
say that we won't see no evil or be around no evil, but we
will fear no evil. for we know that our Lord takes
care of us. He says he's robbed me of staff,
they comfort me. Why? Because it is for our correction
and for our protection. He defends the sheep. He directs
the sheep. He rules over the sheep. You
know, sheep ain't very smart. I don't know if anybody's been
around them or not, but they ain't very smart. They need people
to take care of them. They need somebody to watch over
them. They need someone to take care of their needs. And what
better than to have the Lord Jesus, you know? And one of the
best things that we can do is to keep our eyes upon Him, upon
His word. Stay close to Him. You know,
you get away from somebody, you may not be as close to them.
Let me say this, let me say this real quick. The Lord blessed
me, I had 11 siblings. I had five brothers. Well, three
of my brothers, before I was even five or six years old, they
left the country. We were raised on a farm. They
didn't just leave the state. They left the country. They was
charged farming. And I might see them once or
twice a year. They were my brothers. My blood brothers. But I'd see
them maybe a week in July and a week at Christmas. And I'll
be honest with you, I wasn't that close to them, because I
was never around them. But then I had two brothers.
They stayed right there in the same county I lived. They wasn't
within five or six miles of me. We did things together. We'd
call. We'd talk. And we were always together.
You know, I was so much closer to my brothers You know, those
two brothers, and I worked for the three. And they stood there
most of their life until they retired, you know. And that's
the way it is with our Lord. We want to get to our Lord, get
close to our Lord. We want to know Him, spend time
with Him, talk to Him. You know, I talk to Him like
a brother. I spend a lot of time by myself. Unfortunately, Sabrina's
not retired, but I am. And I'm there a lot, and I spend
a lot of time by myself. But my mind, it ain't close to
a whole lot. You may think it is, but it's
not. Because my mind keeps turning, thinking about the Lord, and
what he's done for me, and what he's going to do for me. And
I'll be honest with you, there was a time in my life when I
was ready to go to church, because I didn't know what I was going
to hear. But in the last nine years, not one time have I come
to this church. Granted to hear what I hear because
I knew what I was going to hear. There's only one message and
that's Jesus Christ and him crucified It's all about Christ and what
he has done for us And I thank him for that but anyway Right
here we look, if you will, let me read. Isaiah 40, speaking
of Christ our Lord, he says, he shall feed Christ. He shall,
who's his flock? We are. He shall feed his flock
like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom. You know, our enemies
are held back by the sovereignty of God and we have enemies. God
had enemies. The Lord Jesus Christ had enemies.
but we feast upon his word and upon his great love that he shows
us each and every day of our lives. If you will, turn over
just, I'm about finished, turn over just a few pages to Psalm
40. We don't realize this. I don't
realize this. I don't realize this right here,
but this is absolute truth. Look at verse 5 of Psalm 40,
talking about our Lord Jesus. It says, Many, O Lord my God,
are thou wonderful works which thou hast done, and thou thoughts
which are to us word. He's talking about his elect.
They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare
and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Go back
to Psalms 23, but he blesses us each and every day of his
life. Verse six here, he says, surely. Don't you love that word when
you're thinking about the word of God? He said, surely, not
maybe. He said, surely, speaking to
his people, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We will not want for anything
in this life or the life to come. It has nothing to do With anything
that we have done, anything that we have said, anything that we
will do, it's all because of the love of God and Christ Jesus,
our Lord, who is our great shepherd, who is the great shepherd of
his sheep. And what makes this such a blessing?
It's set in stone, and it will never change. And there's nothing
and no one in this world that can change that. Why? Because
our Lord, Jesus Christ, has the preemptance over all things. And it's a blessing. It's a blessing. It's a blessing to be here. We
love you all. I'm finished.