Let's look just at the first
verse of this Psalm. Psalm 23, the Lord, and you'll
notice it's all uppercase, which is the way in our Bible that
they indicate the name is Jehovah. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. We might as well read on to the
end of the chapter. He maketh me 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 name's sake. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest 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. In Scripture, Jesus Christ is
called the Chief Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, and the Good
Shepherd. He is the shepherd whose blood
made the everlasting covenant to us. It is His life that was laid
down for us in love that He might save us and bring us and have
us and give us everlasting life, keep us and bring us to Himself. We were given to Him by His Father
And all of his sheep can say by scripture that he bought me,
sought me, found me, carried me in his bosom, and brought
me to himself. And now he feeds me with himself,
the bread of life, because he has the words of eternal life. He gives his sheep water out
of the wells of salvation, and he himself draws this water from
the deep well of his sin-atoning death. And he gives it to his
sheep. He makes me lie down in the pastures
of green grass, which is his gospel in his word, giving me
knowledge and understanding of himself and his saving work,
like grass growing up by clear shining after the rain. He has
prepared for me by His own blood, out of the riches of His mercy
and grace, a great plenty in abundance and eternal rest, even
in the presence of mine enemies." Now, what I've done in this first
part is just to summarize from Scripture, taking quotations
from Scripture, really, about the office and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ as our shepherd. In Psalm 23, David prays, The
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. David wrote Psalm 23. It says so at the beginning of
the psalm. He spoke of Christ because he
was a prophet. In Acts 2, verse 30 and following,
Peter says in a sermon that David was a prophet. And therefore,
when he spoke, he spoke of things to come. He spoke God's word.
David's words are the words of a prophet who also, as a prophet,
himself portrayed in his character and office the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a man after God's own
heart. That was his character. He was
the chosen and anointed king of Israel, that was his office.
And so Christ is the man after God's own heart, who was chosen
and anointed to be the king over his people. In scripture, God
chose and gave a king to his people, a king to serve God for
them. to shepherd them, to save them,
to protect them, to lead them, and to feed them. If you look
at Psalm 78, chapter 78 and verse 20, you'll see these words concerning
the role of King David as a shepherd, as a king and shepherd, which
is a role that he filled In that fulfillment of that role, he
pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Psalm 78, verse 70, he says
that the Lord chose David, also his servant, and took him from
the sheepfolds, because David cared for his father's sheep.
From following the youths, great with young, he brought him to
feed Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance. So he fed them
according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by
the skillfulness of his hand. So you see how David portrayed
the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember how David hazarded his
own life to save one lamb from the mouth of the bear and the
lion? He took hold, he says in 1 Samuel
17, he took hold of the lion by his beard and smote him and
killed him. He laid his life down as it were
in doing so. He killed both the lion and the
bear to save that one lamb and take it back from the mouth of
those beasts. That's something he could only
do by the power of God's Spirit. No man could take a lion by the
beard and kill him with his hands, even with a club, unless he was
given strength from God. David took care of his father's
sheep, Jesse's sheep. Before the Lord Jesus Christ
was enthroned in glory in his human nature, He took on that
nature in humiliation in order to take care of his father's
sheep. His sheep are the people that
belong to God the Father from eternity, and they were given
to him to save and lead and to feed. David was a nobody before
God exalted him out of the people. Before the Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world to shepherd us, he made himself of no reputation. in order that he might fulfill
that office of a shepherd to save and to rule for his people
and rule over his people with saving grace and tender mercies. He is the great shepherd of the
sheep, who is also the king of glory, who serves his God and
Father for his people. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ in
Acts 3.15 is called the Prince of Life. He is the Lord of Glory,
from 1 Corinthians 2.8. Before the world was, before
the world was, he had glory with the Father. You find that in
John 17.5. And Isaiah, the prophet, spoke
of his pre-incarnate glory. Remember we read that last week.
In chapter 6 of Isaiah, he saw the King, the Lord, on his throne
in his glory. Isaiah was a prophet and he spoke
of Christ. I want to turn with you to Isaiah
6 and read those words because last week when I read them I
didn't take us down as far as I want to read today. Isaiah
6. It says, in the year that King
Uzziah died, verse 1, I saw also the Lord sitting upon his throne
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood
the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, the whole
earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then Isaiah said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because
I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin is purged. Also I heard the voice
of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send
me. And so, like David, Isaiah was
a prophet, and he spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ when he saw
his glory in his pre-incarnate glory. He spoke of Christ in
his prophecies throughout the book of Isaiah, chapter 6, chapter
11, chapter 12, 53, and so on. When Isaiah saw Christ in His
glory, he cried, Woe is me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips,
for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. The Apostle
John, commenting on Isaiah's vision, explained that Isaiah
saw Christ's glory. Like David and like many prophets,
Isaiah was a prophet in word and in his life, not only what
he said, but what happened to him and what he did. What he
said and what he did made up the prophecy. When Isaiah saw
Christ's glory and confessed himself to be a sinner, one of
the seraphim took a coal from the altar and touched his lips.
And the seraph said to him, thine iniquity is taken away, and thy
sin is purged. That coal from the altar signifies
the cleansing of Christ's sacrifice, which purges all of our sins. As it says in 1 John 1 7, the
blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sins. Christ
is the altar. Hebrews 13 says we have an altar. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord Jesus is the sacrifice. In Hebrews 9.26 it says, "...once
in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself." Then heard the voice of the Lord
Jesus saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And so
Isaiah said in response, Here am I, send me. And God did send
Isaiah. He spent the rest of his days
prophesying of Christ. All of Isaiah's prophecy was
of Christ. But remember, remember this,
Isaiah's words and life made up the prophecy. When the Lord
said, whom shall I send and who will go for us? We have to understand
this as a much larger prophecy than merely the ministry of Isaiah
as a prophet. This question, whom shall I send
and who shall go for us, also is explained in John chapter
12 and verse 39. Take a look at that. in the Gospel
of John, chapter 12. And we read it there explained
to us. He says, In verse 37, Though
he, Christ, had done so many miracles before them, yet they
believed not on him, that the saying of Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed
our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
And that quotation was from Isaiah 53, 1. Therefore, they could
not believe because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their
eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with
their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted,
and I should heal them. These things said Isaiah, when
he saw His glory, and spake of Him. In Isaiah chapter 6, which
we were just reading. And so this question is posed
by the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who shall go for
us? And God did send Isaiah. But
remember the words and life of Isaiah were prophetic of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so it was the Lord Jesus
who spoke the gospel. And as we just read in John chapter
12, he was the one who spoke the gospel. He was the one who
was rejected of men, as it says in Isaiah 53. It was in his days
that the unbelieving Jews to whom he was sent were blinded
in their eyes and hardened in their heart, because God had
blinded and hardened them. So the fulfillment of the prophecy
that Isaiah gave in chapter 6 of Isaiah and in Isaiah 53 were
fulfilled in Christ. Therefore, when the Lord asked,
Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? He is not speaking
primarily of Isaiah. Isaiah spoke and lived as a prophet,
but Jesus is the prophet of the Lord. Remember in Deuteronomy
18.15 what Moses prophesied, that Christ would be the prophet,
God would raise up and we must hear Him. It is in these last
days that God has spoken to us by His Son. Therefore, the question
that was raised and answered by Isaiah in Isaiah 6-8 is much
more extensive in its scope and in its duration. Before the foundation
of the world, the Lord Jesus entered into covenant obligations
to his father as surety for his people. It says in Hebrews 7.22,
Jesus was made a surety of a better testament. That's the covenant.
He is the mediator of a better covenant, Hebrews 8.6. So the
testament, the covenant, of God, the New Testament, the New Covenant,
which is the everlasting covenant, as we read in Hebrews 13.20,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the surety and the mediator of that
covenant, that testament. Therefore, we understand that
the words of Isaiah fulfilled in Christ were spoken by God
the Father, by our Triune God, and fulfilled in the Lord Jesus
Christ in his human nature as our mediator, as our surety. Remember in Revelation 13.8,
it says that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, slain from
the foundation of the world. from the foundation of the world,
he was the Lamb of God. Therefore, this obligation laid
on him, which he accepted. In the words of the Lord, whom
shall I send, and who will go for us, is a question posed by
God the Father. And Christ, as God the Son, entered
into covenant, and God the Holy Spirit, all together to save
a people for himself. And this is referred to throughout
scripture, but we don't see it so much so clearly when we read
scripture. We have to look at the New Testament
and then read back with that explanation to see it there in
the Old Testament. And so the question posed to
Isaiah reflects that eternal engagement of the Father and
the Son. Whom shall I send and who will
go for us? This is recorded by the Spirit
of the Lord who gave these words to the prophet Isaiah indicating
that God the Father chose His Son as our mediator and surety. And Christ, our Mediator, ensured
He offered Himself willingly and gladly to fulfill all that
His Father required Him to do in His eternal will. The Us in
Isaiah 6-8 refers to our Triune God, the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. Christ, in His human nature,
was chosen as our Mediator to fulfill God the Father's will.
He was the King of Glory. as it says in Isaiah 6. And this
is the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Ephesians 3.11. And so, before the foundation
of the world, the Son of God was chosen and set up as the
Lamb of God. This is an eternal appointment.
We cannot set a time on it. We cannot even put these things
in chronological order because in eternity there is no chronology. God speaks of these things as
if in a sequence because of the weakness of our flesh. But this
is God's eternal will. It has always been in His heart. As long as God the Father has
been the Father, God the Son has been His Son. And as long
as He has been the Son of God, He was chosen and set up as our
mediator. From eternity He was found and
chosen and accepted in His person and in His office and in His
human nature to be our covenant head. And so it says in Isaiah
42 verse 6 and 49 verse 8, he was set up as the covenant for
the people. He alone was found worthy. He alone was willing. He alone
was given this office to fill and he alone is able to do it. There is no other but him. And
so we must see in Isaiah 6 how Christ as Lord and King of Glory
stooped to fulfill eternal engagements with His Father on behalf of
His people. And this was an infinite stoop,
wasn't it? An infinite condescension, an
infinite step of voluntary humility. It was all done by Him in love. He loved His Father, He loved
His people, and for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. Christ became our surety from
eternity. As early as then, He took our
obligations, and He was not ashamed to call us His brethren. As we read in Hebrews chapter
2 and verse 11, to fulfill covenant engagements as our surety Christ
offered himself in sacrifice for our sins. He is the Lamb
of God. He is the Lamb of God slain from
the foundation of the world. He was foreordained, as it says
in 1 Peter 1 verse 20, foreordained to redeem us by his blood before
the foundation of the world. And therefore, in time, the eternal
word was made flesh." John 1.14. Jehovah, God, the Lord, His Father,
prepared a body for Him. And notice in this, that in this
eternal covenant, the Father and the Spirit are not idle. They are not passive. They actively
fulfill their part in this covenant. The Father loved and chose His
people in Christ. This is His part. He loved His
people. He chose His people. He predestinated
them to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. He
made them accepted in Christ, the Beloved, before time, in
that covenant. It was the Father who proposed
and chose and appointed Christ to stand as one for all of His
people. And the Father laid on Him obligations
to save us from our sins and to present us to Himself holy
and without blame in love. The Father loved, and predestinated,
and adopted us in Christ, and provided, and delivered up, and
did not spare His Son in order to have us and to fulfill His
covenant promises to Christ and to us in Him, as we've been reading
in Galatians chapter 3, verses 16, 19, and verse 29. Now the Son of God's part was
that He loved His Father. He loved His people. He would
not go out free, as it says in Exodus 21 about the Hebrew servant. But He put His ear, as it were,
to the post of the door and the all of God's covenant promise
to his son was thrust through his ear, because in the time
appointed Christ would be pierced with many a sorrow and many a
thorn, a crown of thorns on his head, nails in his hands and
feet, and a spear piercing his side. The Spirit of God, his
part in the covenant, was that he created the human nature of
the Lord Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary. He anointed the
Lord Jesus Christ And he was filled with the Spirit of God
without measure. And he, the Spirit of God, upheld and enabled
Christ to fulfill his duties as the great shepherd of the
sheep. And now he takes those things of Christ, who he is and
what he accomplished for his people, and he shows them to
us. So we see that he applies to us the things concerning Christ
by his accomplishments, and we see all three in the triune and
our triune God in the covenant relationship. Thus, the Lamb
of God is the mediatorial office of our Lord Jesus Christ in God's
eternal will, And in Christ's eternal engagements with His
Father, He committed Himself to His Father for His people.
He owned their debts to God's justice and their obligations
to His law to fulfill His will, which was to save them from their
sins. Now, it is necessary for us to
refresh our familiarity with these things at all times, to
know and believe the eternal nature of God's will and work,
and therefore the eternal certainty of our salvation, that we contributed
nothing to it. How could we do anything to a
salvation that was ordained and an engagement that was made between
the triune God in eternity on our behalf? It was all of God's
will, all of His purpose, all of His love, completely apart
from all that we were, and in spite of all that we would be,
but all of His grace. And so God alone is glorified,
both in His truth and grace, and in His righteousness and
in His peace. So when we see the panoramic
eternal will of God in Christ, we understand these words of
scripture. And when we do, we worship and praise our God and
Father for His wisdom, for His faithfulness, for His sovereign
power to fulfill all of His promises to us in Christ, our Shepherd
King. And this gives us strength in
every trouble, doesn't it? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
was made our Shepherd. All things must and shall be
fulfilled precisely according to the will and purpose of God. Nothing shall fall short of all
that He determined and promised. He shall do all His pleasure,
and He shall do it all by the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall do
all that is in His heart. He shall do all of His thoughts.
But what we might fall short of realizing is this. The understanding
and the faith and the strength and comfort and the joy that
we experience from God's eternal purpose and promises of salvation
in Christ, what we experience, are but a reflection of the understanding
and faith and strength and comfort and joy that the Lord Jesus Christ
himself experienced in the days of his humiliation, who he is,
The king, he who is the king and Lord of glory, stooped to
do and die. And when he did, he came as a
baby. He was born of a woman. Look
at Psalm chapter 22, which precedes Psalm 23. Psalm 22, I want to
read these verses to you. See the humiliation of the Lord
Jesus just in becoming a man. Psalm 22, verse nine, he says,
In prayer to his father, we know this is the Lord Jesus speaking
in prayer to his father. He says in verse 9, but thou
art he that took me out of the womb. 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. Just think about that for a minute.
The Lord Jesus Christ, nursing at the breast of his mother,
is consciously aware in the human nature of his body and soul that
his father took him from the womb and made him hope in him
as a man while he was on his mother's breasts. It was a humbling
thing. Job says, naked I came from my
mother's womb. It was a low stoop that he made.
Thus, we should not be surprised, but rather we should revel in
this truth, considering the fact that all that we experience in
our salvation is but a reflection of Christ's experience. We should
not be surprised, but rather revel in this truth, that in
Psalm 23, which follows Psalm 22, which is a prophecy of Christ
as a man trusting His Father under trials and sufferings and
humiliation and suffering as our substitute. And notice in
that Psalm, Psalm 22, how he pours out his heart to his father
in utter dependence and trust. Look at Psalm 22, verse 8. It
says, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. He
rolled himself, the whole weight of his existence upon his father,
the whole weight of the accomplishment of the will God gave him to do,
he rolled that on his father as a man in order that he might
be upheld and enabled to do it. So he was in utter dependence
on his father and his father's promises. His word, the word
of his God and father were his only foundation and confidence
and hope as a man and yet it was a sure hope. Truly the Lord
Jesus trusted in the Lord Jehovah his father. As it says in Hebrews
2.13, he says he was not ashamed to call them brethren. And He
says, again He says this, I will put my trust in Him. Those are
the words of the Lord Jesus in His humiliation of our nature
on earth. Truly, He owned the humiliation
of calling us His brethren, taking our nature, and owning our sins,
and fulfilling our requirements, bearing our guilt and shame,
and our punishment, and in all this, glorifying our God in all
of His perfections by what He did. That's the Lord Jesus. Now, with this lengthy introduction,
look again at Psalm 23 and verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not want. It is right and it is natural
for us to take these words in Psalm 23 to ourselves in trust
and in comfort. But before we can and should
apply them to ourselves, we must first apply them to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He called on His Father as His
shepherd. Now a shepherd in Scripture does
many things for his sheep. He leads them beside cool waters,
feeds them, causes them to lie down in rest, and protects them
in the presence of their enemies. He provides all for them in abundance,
and comforts them, and many more things. And so when we consider
these words as the words of the Lord Jesus, our mediator, we
might ask these questions. First, how can the Lord Jesus
call on His Father as His shepherd? Because we know from other scriptures
that He Himself is the Great Shepherd, the Good Shepherd,
and the Chief Shepherd of the sheep. Another question, the
second question we might ask is, if these are the words of
the Lord Jesus, does this take away our own warrant to take
these words as God's promise to us and find comfort in them?
And then the third question is, in what instruction and confidence
and comfort is it to us to know that these are, first of all,
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ? So let's consider each of these
questions. First, how can the Lord Jesus call on His Father
as His shepherd? Well, the background for the
answer to this question has already been given. It is because in
his office as our mediator and surety, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the Lamb of God. If he is the Lamb of God, then
he stands in relation to his Father as a lamb to its shepherd. He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, therefore from eternity as the Lamb of
God. He voluntarily endured suffering,
trials, temptations, and troubles. Even though He was the Son of
God, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
And in all points, He was tempted like we are, yet without sin.
Therefore, we see that when he came into the world, he experienced
what we experience. He was amazed, remember? He was
amazed. God isn't amazed, but he was
amazed. He was in weakness, and weariness,
and hunger, and thirst, even sorrow and disappointments as
we are. In Isaiah 49 and verse 3 and
4, let me read this to you. These are the words of, again,
the prophet Isaiah of the Lord Jesus, speaking about his ministry. God's servant. He says in Isaiah
49 verse 1, listen O Isles unto me and hearken you people from
afar the Lord hath called me from the womb from the bowels
of my mother hath he made mention of my name and he hath made my
mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand hath he hid
me and made me a polished shaft in his quiver hath he hid me
because the Lord Jesus spoke the word of God. Well, He is
the word. He spoke the words of His Father.
He said it over and over, and in the book of John especially,
He said, These are not My words, but the words of My Father, because
He was a prophet. And He said unto me, Thou art
my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. This is
God the Father speaking of His Son, speaking of Him in the name
of Israel. He says, Thou art my servant,
O Israel, the Prince of God, in whom I will be glorified.
Verse 4, listen to these words. Then I said, I have labored in
vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain, because
so many in Israel, to whom he preached the gospel, were hardened
in their heart, and their eyes were blinded. Yet surely my judgment
is with the Lord, and my work with my God. And now, saith the
Lord, that formed me from the womb, to be his servant, to bring
Jacob again to him, though Israel be not gathered, Yet shall I
be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my
strength. And so he goes on. Though Israel
is not gathered, The nation, the outward nation of Israel,
were not gathered. He said, It is a light thing
that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and to restore the preserved of Israel, meaning God's elect
in that nation. I will also give thee for a light
to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of
the earth. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
spoken of. But notice how he says this.
Though Israel be not gathered, yet will I be glorious. This
is the temptation to be frustrated because he spoke to so many and
so few heard him. And so we see this in the Lord
Jesus. As a man, he lived by the word of God. Remember what
he told the devil when the devil tempted him to turn these stones
into bread? He says, if you are the son of God, and yet he didn't
claim that. He said, I mean, he didn't assert
that to the devil. He said instead, it is written,
man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. He
owned this in great humility when he was tempted by the devil.
And he was happy to endure this and much more because he would
give himself in life and death to save and have his people.
Think of what it must have been like for him to live in this
world. Think about it for a minute. It's a burden for us, isn't it?
And we're sinful. Do you ever look around in this
world and think, What it must have been like for the sinless
Son of God in our nature to be surrounded with sinful people
like us, when He knew their thoughts and knew what they were saying,
that it was all out of a heart of sinfulness. The sinless Son
of God in a world full of sinners, Think of what that must have
been like. The lies, the hypocrisy, the ignorance and pride, the
hate and murder in the heart and the lust for things and hatred
for God in a world without any comfort. And yet he was chosen
and he was alone in utter dependence on his father as a lamb, as a
lamb is dependent on its shepherd. And so in this he trusted his
father, and rolled himself upon him, and leaned the entire weight
of his success on his father's words and promises, which he
learned in childhood, growing up from scripture. He learned his father's will,
and he learned his place, and he learned his dependence on
him to do that will, when he says in Luke 2, verse 52, Jesus
increased in wisdom, and stature, and in favor with God and man.
He lived as a boy, on God's Word, and he grew up to be a man, learning
that Word, and learning who it was that was spoken of by the
Spirit of God in the Scripture, and he knew it was of Him. He
says in Hebrews, in Psalm 40, he says, in the volume of the
book, it is written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. Remember? And then Luke 2, 49, he says
to his father and mother at the age of 12, don't you know I must
be about my father's business? And so on he goes through the
whole New Testament talking about it was his meat and drink to
do the will of God. Now we can see how in this the
Lord Jesus Christ, who loved righteousness and hated iniquity,
must have suffered more than any man. And as a man, a perfect
man, he obtained strength and help and wisdom and comfort and
all things from his Father. That's the first thing we see
here, is that the Lord Jesus Christ certainly was spoken of
in Psalm 23, first and primarily of Him as the Lamb of God, depending
on His Father to do the will God gave Him to do to save His
people from their sins. And now, we see secondly to this
question, if this is true of Christ, how can we have warrant
to take care of it? How are we able to understand
how this view of Christ strengthens us and gives us warrant to take
these words from Psalm 23 as God's promise to us and enable
us to enter into the strength of living upon God's word and
comfort and the comfort of His promises? First of all, see this. That when we see that the Shepherd,
our Lord Jesus Christ, is our Shepherd, first because He became
the Lamb of God and fulfilled that will in dependence on His
Father and by the strength of God's Spirit given to Him, and
therefore He could not fail, when we see that, that in itself
should be comfort enough, because He, as the Shepherd, has saved
us from our sins. Because the Lord Jesus stood
before God as our mediator, as the Lamb of God, we find immeasurable
strength in these words. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. All that he did, he did for us. God the Father chose and provided
Him to save us, and He agreed to accept His obedience as ours,
and His sufferings and death in satisfaction to His justice
for our sins. God the Father did that. It was
His will to appoint and anoint His Son to stand in our place
and do all for us, and then receive from Him as if from us, because
it was for us. And so He made Him our Mediator. God the Son is the Son of Man. And in that office, as our Shepherd
was able to perfectly fulfill that for us, He made Him our
Mediator so that all that He is to Christ, all that the Father
is to Christ, He is to us in Christ. He made Him our mediator,
so that all Christ is to God, He is to God for us. And in Him the fullness of the
Godhead dwells bodily, and because He is our mediator and surety,
all that He is, we are complete in Him. Moreover, as He was tempted
and tried in all points like we are, He is a very sympathetic
High Priest towards us. As one with us in our sufferings,
He knows our weaknesses. We are His sheep. He is to us
our shepherd. He knows our needs. He Himself
has experienced every need, every sorrow, every trouble that we
experience. And yet in all, He leaned and
was upheld by His Father, through His Word and through His promises.
And those words and promises to Him were words and promises
to Him as our surety and covenant head. Therefore, all of God's
promises to Him are promises to us in Him. We are the children of promise.
Galatians 4.28, all of the promises of God in him are yes and amen
to the glory of God by us. 2 Corinthians 1.20, we give glory
to God because God's promises to Christ are promises to us. and we are Christ's sheep. We belong to Him. Therefore,
all that is His is ours. As it says in 1 Corinthians 3.21,
the world, life, death, everything is yours, and you are Christ's,
and Christ is God's. Just as He is the Lamb of God,
and God the Father is His shepherd, we are Christ's sheep, and Christ
is our shepherd. Do you see His place as our mediator? He is the way. He brought us
to the Father. He is the truth. We know God
by knowing Christ, by His Spirit from Scripture. We hear His voice. Not the audible sound of His
voice, but the truth of Christ in Him crucified. His doctrine.
Look at Jeremiah chapter 3. Jeremiah 3, God gives a promise
here to give shepherds, men who are under shepherds, to give
men who are pastors to shepherd his flock. In Jeremiah 3, verse
15, he says, And I will give you pastors according
to mine heart, which shall feed you That's what the shepherd's
supposed to do, feed the sheep. He says, they shall feed you
with what? With knowledge and understanding. So we hear his voice, not the
audible sound of it, but the doctrine, the truth of it. We
follow him in believing his word just as he followed his father
believing and trusting in him through his word. It says, Isaiah chapter 50 verse 10 listen
to these words the king The King trusteth in the Lord, and through
the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. Actually,
that's Psalm 21, verse 7. The King trusteth in the Lord.
Who is the King? Who is our King? It's the Shepherd
King, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, in Isaiah 50, verse
10, it says this. Who is among you that feareth
the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh
in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of
the Lord, and stay upon his God. Now think about the Lord Jesus
in his life as a man. He had to trust in the Lord just
like we do. It says also in Jeremiah 17,
7, blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord whose hope the Lord
is. And in Nahum 1 verse 7, the Lord
is good and a stronghold in the day of trouble, he knoweth them
that trust in him. So we see in the words of Psalm
23 how the Lord Jesus Christ trusted his father and so we
now trust our shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, our mediator. How
do the words of Psalm 23 apply to us, if they first of all apply
to Christ? Because He is our mediator. As
the Father is His shepherd, so Christ is ours. As He trusted
and followed His Father, so we trust and follow Christ. As He
made Himself our brother, so Christ has brought us to God.
His God is our God, His Father is our Father, as He says in
John 20, verse 17. and so many other places. As
He was tempted and tried and suffered in all of His trouble
and depended on His Father's will and words and provision
and strength and care, so in all of our trouble we depend
on Christ's words and our Father's will and provision and care.
Remember when he said, when the men in Matthew verse chapter
11, he said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
you have hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them to babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy
sight. Isn't that what we say in all of our uncertainty of
our life? I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Because
your will is being worked out in this earth, and we pray that.
Thy will be done on earth as it already is in heaven. Every
promise to Christ is a promise to us in Him. We go to God through
the blood of our mediator. We go boldly because it is His
blood that God the Father required. and accepted, and whose blood
He tells us to come to Him by. Thus we are conformed to Christ's
image, aren't we? When we depend on our Savior
as He did on His Father, aren't we conformed to His image? We
learn of God in Christ, and we worship the Father by Christ
in His person, His offices, and His saving work. And thirdly,
the question we raised is what instruction and confidence and
comfort is it to us to know that these are, first of all, the
words of the Lord Jesus? Well, think about the dependence
of Christ that He exercised on His Father while He was on earth.
And think how He was filled with the Spirit of God to do the will
of God from His heart. And think how He received strength
in every trial and how His Father upheld Him, even though there
was none but Him to help Him. And think how he depended on
the unchanging, unfailing, eternal will of God in every circumstance.
And how he trusted himself to his father in death. And think
how he feared his God and was heard. And think of all of this. and realize that he lived and
prayed and suffered and died and rose again and now intercedes
for us and cannot fail but to bring all of his sheep to himself
because this is the will he came to fulfill, the reason he laid
his life down to save his people from their sins. And as you think
of these things, you will find great comfort in knowing that
the Lord Jesus Christ is our shepherd because he fulfilled
his place as the Lamb of God to bring us to God by the sacrifice
of himself He's our shepherd, he cannot fail. He rules as king
in glory, because as king he came from glory to gather his
sheep to himself, to feed them with the bread of heaven, to
give them drink from the wells of salvation, to make them rest
in his finished work, and to give them green pastures of grass
sprung up after clear shining of dew and rain. It says in Psalm
86, verse 5, take a look at this. Psalm 86, verse 5, just one psalm
out of many we could turn to. Psalm 86, in verse 5, he says,
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous
in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. That's a truth. It's a truth about our Savior.
It's a truth about our God and Father. And isn't the truth of
Christ's accomplishments for us salvation and the great comfort
of our souls? Isn't the truth of his accomplishments
for us in salvation the great comfort of our souls? It is,
isn't it? Thou comfortest me. To think
that the Lord is more merciful and more ready to forgive us
than we could imagine anyone being to such as we are. More merciful and forgiving towards
us than we would be or could imagine ourselves to be toward
anyone else like us. Thou, Lord, art good and ready
to forgive, plenteous in mercy. How many times in your life or
day do you think, Lord, how could I possibly be your sheep, given
that I'm so sinful? How could you possibly receive
me? Lord, thou art good and ready to forgive, plenteous in mercy
to all them that call upon thee. When we think of how the words
of Psalm 23 are the prophecy of Christ's words in His relation
to His Father in the days of His humiliation, we can draw
much strength and comfort because we now live in this world where
there is no food or water for God's sheep but what there is
in Christ and Him crucified. With the psalm, Asaph, the writer
of the psalm, chapter 23 of the psalms, we look to our savior,
shepherd, king, and we say this, so foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before thee.
Nevertheless, I am continually with thee. now has holden me
by my right hand, now shall guide me with thy counsel, and afterward
receive me to glory." Doesn't this sound like the prayer of
a sheep to a shepherd? This is the prayer of one of
us, one of God's dear saints, in expressing his own sin, so
foolish and ignorant was I, like a beast before thee. Nevertheless,
I'm continually with thee, because he will not forsake us. He'll
not leave us or forsake us. You've holden me by your right
hand. You'll guide me with your counsel. You'll afterward receive
me to glory. Think of how you long in yourself,
long in delight to hear someone you love find salvation and draw
life and comfort from God's word in the gospel. Just think about
that for a minute. What thrill. how it brings you
to your knees in thankfulness to God, tears in your eyes and
joy in your heart. How much infinitely more does
the Lord Jesus rejoice when his sheep live upon his words in
the gospel as he did when he called upon his father, the Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. This is His gift to us by His
Spirit, to take His words as our words, His relation to His
God as our relation, His Father as our Father, and to live and
die trusting our surety, living in hope in our Mediator, and
in so doing, living upon His God and Father as our God and
Father truly. The Lord is our Shepherd in His
Son, isn't He? Our food is Christ and Him crucified. John 6.35, Jesus said, I am the
bread that came down from heaven. He is our drink, the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. He is our rest, the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. The green pastures in which we
now lie as sheep are Christ and Him crucified, open to us from
the word of God, by these under-shepherds, these preachers, these pastors
sent of God, to give us and feed us with knowledge and understanding,
that the word of Christ, as green grass springing up by clear shining
after the rain, might be the pasture we lie down in and feed
upon. The clear shining, from 2 Samuel
23 verse 4, I'll take you there in a minute. The clear shining
is the gospel illuminated by the Spirit of God in our hearts
because the reign of God's grace in Christ and His saving work
produces this green grass in which we lie. Listen to these
words from 2 Samuel 23. It's in verse 1 through 4. Now these be the last words of
David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised
up on high, the anointed of God, sorry, the anointed of the God
of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, the spirit of
the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God
of Israel said, the rock of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over
men must be just, ruling in the fear of God, and he shall be
as the light of the morning. when the sun riseth, even a morning
without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth
by clear shining after the rain." That's speaking of our Lord Jesus.
He's the one who is the light of the morning. He rises with
the healing in His wings as the day star rises in our heart.
And He rises a morning without clouds because the judgment of
God is passed. because he's taken away God's
judgment in his own sufferings and death for his people. Therefore
the gospel rises up like green grass springing out of that rain
and we are fed and we join with David and we say, although my
house be not so with God. It's not me God is speaking of
here. Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things, and sure, for this is all my salvation, all
my desire, although he make it not to grow, not in my case. The Lord is my shepherd, not
another. None less than he, the almighty
God, the God of all grace, who is the way, the truth, and the
life, the great mediator, the surety and substitute, the Lord
of life and glory, under whose wings I take refuge, and underneath
me are his everlasting arms. Let's pray.