We were standing there a few
minutes ago, and it was Gabe and Todd and Dave. And I thought, man, I felt like
a small man among giants. And I guess now that we've heard
Dave, you've heard the long of it. And after I'm through, you'll
hear the short of it. Boy, it's so good to be here. No matter how many times you
read that passage of scripture, Dave, it's just a blessing. When
God makes it real again, that old leper, God brings us to himself. If you would open your Bible
to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. I'll be reading some from John
chapter 10, then I'm gonna come over to Psalms 22. The Lord willing, I've never done many conferences,
so I don't know exactly how you're supposed to do things, but I
kindly feel impressed, and I hope that it's of the Lord. With God's
help tonight, I want us to look at Psalms 22, the Psalm of the
Cross, looking at our Good Shepherd. And the Lord willing, tomorrow
we'll be looking at Psalms 23. Our comfort, the psalm of comfort,
our great shepherd who rose from the dead. And then Sunday morning,
we'll be looking at Psalms 24, the psalm of the crown. Our Lord,
he's coming again. As we sung the song earlier,
come thou fountain, I think many times when we read or hear things,
we just do it in a hurry and we, you know, it's like revive
us again. We've sung that and many times we just forget the
words. But in come thou found it says,
here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come, and I hope
by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought
me when a stranger, that's the shepherd seeking the sheep, wandering
from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger, interposed his
precious blood. Oh to grace how great a debtor,
Daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee, this old wandering sheep. Every
day we wander. You know what sheep need? They
need a shepherd. Like that old leopard needed a prophet, a sheep
must have a shepherd, and I thank God we have one. I rejoice that our great God,
that he condescended to use terms and pictured himself in different
pictures that we could understand, like a shepherd, and then one
time he's pictured as a lamb, or a priest, and so many pictures,
and you say, why so many pictures? One picture couldn't just do
justice. All those pictures that describe him, prone to wonder,
Lord, I feel it. Don't you feel it? If you're
his, you feel it. prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart,
oh, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. So let's look in John chapter
10. Begin in verse four. We won't
be reading the whole chapter, but in John chapter 10, verse
four, Our Lord said, when he put forth his own sheep, there
he is, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice. And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of
strangers. Verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. But he that is in hireland and
not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, he seeth the wolf
coming, and he leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf scattereth
them, catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireland fleeth
because he's a hireland. And he careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. and know
my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth 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. So what does the good shepherd
do? He lays down his life for the sheep. There was a division
over what he was saying, And he says in verse 26, he looked
at those people, those religious people who would not bow to his
word, they would not look to him. He said, but 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 is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. In this human race in which we
live, there are some people that our God distinguishes as His
sheep, and there are others that are goats, and He just leaves
them alone. And for His sheep, His sheep
that were given to Him before the foundation of the world,
He gives His life for those sheep. Turn over to John, just a few
chapters, John 18. When the hour was come, he set
his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. Many times they would
have tried to take him by force and make him a king, and he would
not bow to it. But when his hour was come, he
gave himself over to their will as the good shepherd. Look in
John 18, verse 1, and when Jesus had spoken these words, What
words? Those great words spoken in John
17. And as I read that again this evening, there's one verse
that jumped out to me in verse 19 of John 17. He said, and for
their sakes, for the sake of the sheep, I sanctify myself. And when he had spoken these
words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron. That brook that went through
that valley, and I looked for Mr. Hawker again this evening.
Most people believe that that was the brook where all the filth
from all the sacrifices from the temple ran. And he crosses
this brook, which is a picture of sin. He crossed this brook. It said he drank of the brook,
by the way. And when Jesus had spoken these
words, he went with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where
was a garden into which he entered and his disciples. And Judas
also, which betrayed him, knew the place, for Jesus oftentimes
resorted thither with his disciples. Judas then, having received a
band of men, some believe around 500 men, and officers from the
chief priests and Pharisees, they come with their lanterns
and with their torches and with their weapons. Jesus therefore
knowing all things that should come upon him, don't you see
those next two words, he went forth. He went forth. And he said unto them, Whom seek
ye? And as I read that this evening,
I thought, well, why didn't they just point a finger at him and
they said, it's you that we seek. But he said, whom seek ye? And
they answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Didn't Judas know who he was?
Of course he did. Didn't these Pharisees know who
he was? Of course they did. He could have blinded them. They
didn't know him. Whom seek ye? They answer, Jesus
of Nazareth. And Jesus said unto him, I am
he. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with them. And as soon then as he had said
unto them, I am he. Do you remember when he used
the word I am before earlier? Many times when Moses said, Lord,
you going to send me down to eat you? And they gonna ask me,
who sent me? What am I to tell those people?
He said, you tell them that I am have sent thee. You know who
this is standing in the garden? The same one. I am have sent
thee. And he said, I am he. They went
backwards and they fell to the ground. He's God. He's God. If they fell to the ground, just
those words could have destroyed them. He could have sent them
to hell at that very moment. Fell backwards. This is God,
His majesty, His greatness. He said to them, I am here. They
went backward and they fell to the ground. Then ask ye them
again, whom seek ye? You just thought they'd learn
it the first time. But you know what I say here? Though they
fell back to the ground, they still did not change in their
nature. Still the same. Still wicked
heart. We've come to take him. We've
come to get you. No. He gave him. He went to them. Pink said he took the battlefield
first. He didn't wait for them to bring
it to him. He knew what they would do. He knew Judas would
bring them. And they did. He asked them again,
whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus answered, I've told you that I am he. I want you to see
this. I want you to see this. If therefore
you seek me, let these go their way. You know what you see right
there? You see the good shepherd. Who's
standing behind him? His disciples. You know who they
are? They're his sheep. There is sheep, and you know
what he says? If you've come for me, you've got to let him
go. You know what they did? They
let him go. It's like he presented himself
to a pack of hungry wolves. That's what the shepherd does.
He don't flee when he sees the wolf coming. Why? He cares for
the sheep. He cares for them. That the saying
might be fulfilled, which he spake of them which thou hast
given me or gavest me, I have lost none, not one of them. Smite the shepherd and the sheep
shall be scattered. And they were for a little while. And we'll see tomorrow when God
brought him from the grave, he brought together his little flock.
He's the shepherd. David said in Psalms 27 verse
2, to be our Lord speaking, said, when the wicked, even mine enemies
and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled
and fell. Let me remind you this evening,
he's God and he condescended to take upon himself human nature
to die for his sheep, his flock. Now turn to Psalms 22. The good shepherd willingly,
voluntarily, lovingly gave himself a ransom for many. When we look at this Psalm, there's
no way we can look at all the verses. It's almost exactly like
you're standing there by the cross as our Lord dies as the
Good Shepherd. This couldn't be spoken of, David.
I don't know anywhere where David's hands was ever pierced. And to
think that God inspired David, that shepherd of his father's
sheep, to write this about our Lord. I went back this evening and
read all the four counts again where our Lord was on the cross.
Matthew and Mark both record this first verse. It says in
Matthew's account, now from the sixth hour, 12 o'clock, there
was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour, three o'clock
in the afternoon. Darkness. As I thought about
that, God put his hand over the sun, and it was darkness, darkness
for three hours. And about the sixth hour, Jesus
cried, the Lord Jesus Christ cried with a loud voice saying,
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, that is to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And that's what he says here
in Psalms. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art
thou so far from helping me, from the words of my roaring?
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in
the night season, and am not silent. Someone said Martin Luther one
day was sitting at his desk and he was reading that verse, My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He looked at that for three
or four hours and he got up, he hit the table and he said,
God forsaking God, how can that be? How can that be? I can't, only God can enable
you to understand that. We see through a glass darkly.
Mr. Hawker said, Jesus as the center
of surety cried out under the pressure of divine wrath against
sin. God is pouring out his wrath.
on the substitute. Mr. Gill said our Lord cried
out because he was now deprived of the gracious presence of God
and the manifestations of his love to his human soul and had
a sense of divine wrath, not for his own sins, he had none,
but for the sins of his people. It is like our Lord cried out
in the bitterness of his soul. The father forsaking him seemed
almost just crushing him. The father forsaking him is almost
more than he can bear as a man, the God man. And what it says
in Isaiah, everybody wants to talk about his physical sufferings
and they were true, they were horrible, horrible. I'll tell
you something greater than physical sufferings is soul suffering.
He made his soul an offering for sin. He was forsaken of God that his
sheep may never be forsaken. No never, no never, no never
forsake. Why did God forsake his son. Why did he turn his back on his
son? We find out in verse three. But
they weren't holy. That's why. God's holy. If that had been, I don't have
a son, but if I'd had a son or if you had a son, you would have
spared him from this right here. You would have spared him. But
not our God. He gave his only begotten son
lay down his life for his sheep. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Because God is holy and because
he is holy he must punish sin wherever he finds it. For he
hath made him to be sin for us. Let me read that again. hath made him the good shepherd
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we, the sheep of Almighty
God, might be made the righteousness of God in him. How God made him
sin, I do not know. I just read that and just bow
in amazement. He was made what he was not,
and he made me what I was not. God is holy. Not made to look like sin, sin.
He took all the sin of all his sheep, of all time, and put them
on his side. That's what's happening here. It says that thou art a pure
eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Our good shepherd suffered all
this hell and this anguish for the sake of his people. God is
holy and God must punish sin. The good shepherd left his sheep
and was willing to die. He was more willing to die than
to let the sheep die. He loved his sheep. Look in verse
six. But I am a worm and no man. A reproach of men and despised
of the people. I want to just read to you what
Mr. Spurgeon said when he said it
and I just, listen. He says, this verse is a miracle
in language. How could the Lord of Glory be
brought to such a basement as to be not only lower than the
angels, but even lower than men? What a contrast between I am
and I am a worm. Yet such a double nature was
found in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ when bleeding on
the tree. He felt himself to be comparable
to a helpless, powerless, drown-trodden worm, passive while crushed and
unnoticed and despised by those who trod upon him. What did he
say about Jacob? He said, you worm, Jacob. And what does our Lord say here?
He said, I'm a worm and no man. He selects the weakest of creatures,
which is all flesh, and becomes, when trodden upon, withering
quivering flesh, utterly devoid of any might except strength
to suffer. This was a true likeness of himself
when his body and soul had become a mass of misery. The very essence of agony in
the dying pains of crucifixion. Man by nature is but a worm. But our Lord puts himself even
beneath man, on account of the scorn which was heaped upon him,
and the weakness which he felt, and therefore he adds, and no
man the privileges and the blessings which belonged to the fathers
he could not obtain while deserted by God. And common acts of humanity
were not allowed him, for he was rejected of men. Just common
acts of humanity. He was outlawed from the society
of earth and shut out from the smile of heaven. How utterly
did the Savior empty himself of his glory and became of no
reputation for our sin. He said, I'm a worm. I'm a worm
and no man When our Lord was made sin and took all the sins
of his people upon himself, the sword of God's justice plunged
itself into the heart of God's Son. Listen to this, Zechariah
13 verse 7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
and smite the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the sheep, smite the shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon
the little ones. It is like God says, Awake, O
sword. Like this sword that had been
asleep for all these thousand years, and God says, Awake, O
sword. And it's like a man pulls it
out of his scabbard, and he said, smite the shepherd. Smite the
shepherd. Listen, Genesis chapter 3, verse
24, when man sinned, sinned into this world, but God made a promise
to the seed of the woman, she'll bruise the head of the serpent.
It says in Genesis 3, 24, so he drove out the man. Drove him out. I take that he
didn't want to go. He's got to go. He can't abide
in here anymore. He drove him out. And when he
drove him out, you know what he did? He placed at the east
of the Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned
every way to keep the way of the tree of life. What sword? God's justice. He said, Awake, O sword, smite
the shepherd. That's what he did. He did. He did not call for the sword
to awake against the sheep. Why didn't God destroy Adam the
moment he sinned? Why didn't he plunge that sword
into his heart? I'll tell you why. God took an
animal and killed that animal. and shed blood and took the coats
from that animal and made coats of skin for Adam and Eve. You
know what that was? That was the good shepherd giving
his life for the sheep. He said, Awake, O sword, against
my shepherd. He's not just any shepherd. He's
Jehovah's Shepherd. and the sheep's shepherd." David
said, the Lord, he's my shepherd. He says, a Waco sword against
the shepherd, against the man. There is one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. The man that is
my fellow. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. Would you like to explain that?
I just can. But I sure rejoice in it. Hawaii Kosor had been asleep
for all the thousands of years, pointing to the Lamb of God that
would come, and this is it. And you smite the shepherd. It says in Isaiah 53, hit please
the Lord, De Bruzy. The sheep, the apostles, were
scattered. Let me read the rest of the verse.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and smite the man that is my
fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered. And they were. They forsook him
and fled. But here's the promise, and I
will turn my hand upon the little ones. I'm going to gather them. They're
going to be scattered, scared to death. Peter's warming himself
by the enemy fire. Didn't he? He said, Peter, you're going
to do it. But you know what? He said, Peter, I prayed for you.
I prayed for you. Look in verse nine. But thou art he that took me
out of the womb, and thou didst make me hope when I was upon
my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb, thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from
me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. None that
wanted to, and none that could. He must tread the winepress alone. Verse 12, many bulls have come
past me, strong bulls of Bashan have been sent me round about.
Mr. Spurgeon again said, the mighty
ones in the crowd are the priests and the elders and the scribes
and the Pharisees and all these people. They are around our Lord's
cross. Read the gospel accounts again.
They're all standing there. They said, if you be the son
of God, come down from there. You said you believed in God,
now show us. Where's your God at now? Where's
he at? He's where he's always been. He said that these men bellowed
out around the cross like wild cattle. They stamped and foamed
around the innocent one and longed to gore him to death with their
cruelties. Look at the Lord Jesus as a helpless,
unarmed, naked man. cast into the midst of a herd
of infuriating wild bulls. That's what he said. Many bulls
of Bashan have gathered around me. They are brutal as bulls,
many and strong, and the rejected one was all alone and bound naked
to that tree. It ain't like you see it in the
pictures. It ain't like you've seen it.
Why did he endure all this? I tell you why. The good shepherd
gives his life for the sheep. They gaped upon me with their
mouth as a ravening and a roaring lion. They spewed out forth their
anger. They were like roaring lions.
They howled out their fury and longed to tear the Savior in
pieces like a wild beast on a prey. So I thought about this. He talked
about this lion, the mouth of the lion, roaring lion. We know
who that is. He walks about as a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour. You know what David said? Remember
David? You know what David was? He was
a shepherd. He watched his father's sheep. He was a shepherd. You know what he said before
he was getting ready to go fight Goliath? Here's what he said.
David said, moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the
paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear. The what? The
paw. You ever seen a lion's paw? You
ever seen a bear's paw? He said, he what? He delivered
me. And you know why God delivered
him? That bear and that lion came to take that sheep. And when he went to grab that
sheep, I can just picture that lion with that little lamb in
its mouth or whatever, and when David grabs hold of it, you know
what that lion's gonna do? It's gonna turn on him. And it
did. And he said, God delivered me
out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, and
he will deliver me out of the hand of this uncircumcised Philistine. He's on the throne. He looked like he was in his
weakest moment, naked. Probably didn't even look like
a man. And there's a thief over here
hanging beside of him. And he said, Lord, would you
remember me when you come into your kingdom? And he said, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. You know what he's doing? You
know what he did right there on the cross? He just saved one
of his little sheep. Talking about providence, God
arranged it and put this man on the cross beside our Lord. It looked like in his weakest
point, and God showed that sheep mercy. He came into this world to save
sinners. Simmers. Simmers. Verse 14, I am poured out like
water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax
that is melted in the midst of my bounds. He said, I'm poured
out like water. His physical strength was utterly
spent. I listened to a message you preached
to me and Sandy did coming up the road, talking about when
they took the cross off of him and put it on that man. They
didn't do it because they were showing him pity. They wanted
to make sure he didn't die before they got him to the cross. They
wanted to strip him. They wanted to humiliate him.
They wanted to nail him. His physical strength was utterly
spent. He was poured out like water.
His heart failed him. He was reduced to this low, exhausted
state. And he said, all my bones are
out of joint. Not a bone of his body was to
be broke, but all my bones are out of joint. Someone says it's
like putting somebody on a rack. You ever seen somebody when they
put them on a rack and they just stretch them? All my bones are
out of joint. My heart, like wax, is melted
within me. The fire of God's wrath would
have consumed our souls forever in hell. It was no light work
to bear as a substitute the heat of God's wrath. You ever seen
a candle when you got it close to a fire? You know what it does?
It melts it. Spurgeon or somebody I read from, you know what he
died from? A broken I don't know whether that's right or not,
but I tend to believe they were a broken heart. Gil said, if the heart of Christ,
the line of the tribe of Judah melded at the wrath of God, what
heart can endure or hands be strong when God deals with them
in wrath? If he did this to his son, I
pity you if you stand before Him outside of Christ in His wrath. He said, My strength, verse 15,
is dried up like the potsherd. You ever seen people make pottery?
They take the clay, and they wet it, and they'll shape that
piece of pottery, and they'll make a pot or whatever out of
it. But when they get that shape, they're not done with it. You
know what they got to do with it? They gotta stick it in a
furnace and get every bit of water out of it. You know what
God did to his son? He put him in his furnace. He
said, my strength is dried up like a pot shirt. Like a pot
shirt. He said, my tongue cleaveth to
my jaw. And when he said, I thirst, They gave him vinegar to drink.
This is our Lord. This is our Lord. Verse 16. For dogs have compassed me, the
assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and
my feet, and I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon
me. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. Be not far from me, O Lord. O
my strength, haste to help me deliver my soul from the sword
and my darling from the power of the dawn. Let me read you
this verse, Lamentation 112. Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by? Behold, and see if there is any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Can I behold this and not be
affected? Is it nothing to you? Is it nothing
to you? Is there nothing for me to learn
here? God help us to never forget it.
Never forget it. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ,
that good shepherd, die? Because God's holy. Why was the
purpose of his death? To satisfy justice. to bring
in a perfect righteousness. Here's another question. For
whom did the good shepherd die? He didn't die for the goats.
You wasn't a goat and then he made you a sheep. He laid down
his life for the sheep. Ephesians 1, 4, when did he do
it? According as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. Their names are written in the
Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. I remember
in religion, I remember hearing a false prophet, and here's what
he did. He was saying, God's got two
books. And he's got a book here, which
is the Lamb's Book of Life. And he said, why don't you come
down here and let God write your name in this book? God did it before the foundation
of the world. All that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation
17, eight, the beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall
ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. And
they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were
not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.
Let me give you one more. Revelation 21, 27. And there shall in no wise enter
into it, that's the new Jerusalem, anything that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie. You know who's
going in? You know who's going in? They
which are written in the Lamb's book of life. before anything was ever made.
It's not an afterthought with God. And God the Father gave
those sheep, John 17, to Him. And He said, I'll take them.
I'll be their surety. And I will willingly die in their
place that they may live. I can tell you that's good news
for a sheep. Cause the sheep and the goats
both deserve to die. We were by nature the children
of wrath even as others. God knows who the sheep are,
we don't. We find out later, but when we preach the gospel
to who? Every creature. And you know what God does through
the preaching of the gospel? He calls his sheep. My sheep,
hear my voice. It's not just hearing a man's
voice. It's when you hear his voice. His voice. And if you ever hear his voice,
you'll know his voice. He said, how will I know? You'll
just know. I don't know any other way to
explain it. If you're his, he's going to come get you like he
said in Luke 15. He leaves the ninety and nine
in the wilderness and he goes out after that one lost sheep.
And you know what he does when he finds it? He picks it up and
he lays it on his shoulders and he takes it home with him. And
do you know what he said? It's His sheep. And if you're
His, He knows exactly where you are. And He's going to find you. And you know what preachers are
doing? They're just on the trail of God's sheep. And I'm so glad. I rejoice in the fact that God
has established a place here where the Gospels preach because
it's through that Gospel that God reaches out and He fetches
His sheep and brings them Todd, ain't you glad it ain't on your
shoulders? He's the shepherd. He's the shepherd. We're nothing. We're nothing. We're just sheep,
just like you. It says in Matthew chapter 25, verse
33, he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats
on the left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, come you blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Oh, what great love that our good shepherd would lay down
his life for his sheep. He loves his sheep with an everlasting
love and he has never lost one sheep. and all for whom he died,
they're coming. They'll hear his voice, he'll
send his gospel to them, and when he gives them ears to hear,
they'll come. And you know how they come? They
come running. You can picture out in the field
and the shepherd walks out there and he says, little sheep, little
sheep, you know what they're gonna do if they notice, they're
gonna run. They're gonna run to him. They gonna run to that
prophet. I'm glad he sits on the throne.
I'm glad this little sheep has a shepherd. Cause like the song
I read, prone to wonder, Lord I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. You know what sheep are prone
to do? Wonder. Wonder. The only reason you're
still here is the shepherd keeping you. It ain't you keeping yourself.
God left us alone. It's untelling what we'll do.