pastor about an hour ago in Barcelona,
Spain, enjoying his visit there. Brought back some memories. Brother
Ferrell Griswold, Brother Bill Clark and I went to Barcelona,
Valencia, Carcahentes, cities over in Spain and preached
with David Estrada. I don't know whether you folks
remember him or not, but back thirty-one years ago. All right, tonight I want you to turn to perhaps
the most familiar portion of God's Word. What would it be? a psalm that everybody knows,
everybody's familiar with it, Psalm 23. Psalm 23, the title
of the message tonight is, The Lord is My Shepherd. As I said, this is perhaps the
most familiar of the psalms. Most of you can quote it by memory. But our familiarity with it,
this is one of the things I thought about when I was studying it
this morning. Our familiarity with it, we're
familiar with it, and the beauty of it. This is a beautiful piece
of work. This is just a beautiful, beautiful
song. All I admire, this one in particular, is just about everybody's favorite,
but what we must guard against. Familiarity with the Scripture
and being enamored with the beauty of the Scripture is not nearly
as important as knowing the author of the Scripture. There was a huge gathering of
people in a large city years ago. They were there for some
special rally or some special cause, and an elderly believer
of the respected man in the community was asked to give the invocation. Instead of praying, he quoted
the 23rd Psalm. He said, The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not 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. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. But art
with me I ride in 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. And he sat down. And the people
were just overwhelmed. He looked about and a few people
were wiping their tears. There was a newspaper man sitting
next to an actor, a popular actor. And he turned to him and he said,
You know, I've heard you recite that psalm several times. But your audience has never reacted
that way as this audience did when that old gentleman quoted
that song. And the actor said, well, I'll tell you the reason. I know
the song. He knows the shepherd. There
is a difference. I know the song. He knows the
shepherd. And let's look at it tonight
together. Ask the Lord to, when we finish this, that we
might not just rejoice in the psalm and the beauty of it, but
in the glory of the shepherd. He begins this way, the Lord
is my shepherd. This is my testimony. David said,
this is my hope. This is my assurance. the Lord
Jehovah, God my Savior, the Christ. He's my Shepherd. He was my Shepherd
long before I was born. He was my Shepherd when I had
no being. He's my Shepherd now and He'll
always be my Shepherd. God the Father made Him my Shepherd. Our Lord said, My sheep hear
My voice. I give them eternal life. They'll
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 can pluck them out of My Father's
hand. He was My shepherd before I knew Him. He knew Me, but I
didn't know Him before I was born, before I knew Him, before
I loved He loved me. The Father made Him my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. He's
my good shepherd. He's my great shepherd. He's
my chief shepherd. He said in John chapter 10 also
that I lay down my life for my sheep. The hireling fleeth when he sees
the wolf coming. But the shepherd loves the sheep,
and he lays down his life for the sheep. The Lord is my shepherd. I don't know whether he's anybody
else's shepherd. Now, David said, but he's my
shepherd. He's not my partner. He's my
shepherd. He's not my co-panelist. He's
my shepherd. He's not my inspiration. He's
my shepherd. He owns me. We're His sheep. My sheep, He
said. The Father gave me My sheep. He's my shepherd. He owns me.
And if He wills to hold me close or let me wander, He's my shepherd. If He wills to honor me or to
humble me, He's my shepherd. If He wills to bless me or to
try me, my shepherd. The shepherd knows what's good
for the sheep, what's best for the sheep. If he wills to shear
me or to slay me, the Lord is my shepherd. Let that be a statement. I see these football players
when they make a touchdown, and they'll kneel and they'll point
up to heaven. indicating that God gave them
that touchdown. But when one of them fumbles,
I don't see the importance of that. When he fouls down and loses
the ball, and the other team gets it and goes for a touchdown,
he goes to cussing. Well, let me tell you something. Unless God not only gives the
touchdown, but also the fumbles, then God's not running the game,
you see. But see, they don't know this sovereign God. They're not able like His sheep
to say, the Lord is my shepherd. And whatever He brings my way
or sends my way is according to His will and for my good and
His glory. He's my shepherd in pain or in
plenty. He's my shepherd in trial, trouble,
or joy. He's my shepherd. He's controlling
things. The Lord's my shepherd. And because
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not walk. I shall not walk. There may be
in the Lord's good providence, and there will be, days of trouble
and days of joy. There will be in the Lord's good
providence, days of poverty and days of plenty. There will be days of pain, sadness,
suffering, days of blackness. But if the Lord's my shepherd
in all these times, I shall not want. I shall not want for anything
that's good for me or His will for me. I may not have all I
wish. But I have all I need. I may not have all I desire.
I may not have all that some other people have. But I shall
not want. David said, I'm old, I've been
young. I have never seen the Lord's
seed begging bread. Have you? Never have. Never have. Let me turn over
and read. You just keep Psalm 23 and let
me read a passage over here in the book of Philippians. Listen
to this. Philippians 4 verse 11. Paul said, Not that I speak
in respect of want. I have learned in whatsoever
state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased,
do without, I know how to abound and have plenty. Everywhere and
in all things I'm instructed both sometimes to be full and
sometimes to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer and eat. shall supply all our needs according
to his riches and glory, good Christ Jesus. My shepherd will
supply all my needs. He's my shepherd, I shall not
want. Old Belshazzar gave a party one
time. King Belshazzar gave a party
for all of his captains and generals and princes and concubines and
friends They ran out of something to do, so he sent them down to
the temple and gathered up the holy vessels and brought them
up there, the vessels dedicated to God. They filled them full
of wine, and he passed those holy vessels around for all his
friends to drink out of. And they were all shocked when
they saw the fingers of a man's hand, no body, no arm, just a
hand, writing on the wall. And the king's knees smoked together
and his loins were like water. Everybody was shocked. Meanie,
meanie, teakale, you're far singing. They couldn't figure out what
it was. They sent for Daniel. They sent for his wise men. They
couldn't interpret it. They sent for Daniel, brought
Daniel, God's man up there. And he said, well, King Belshazzar,
I'll tell you what it is. God's sending you a message.
Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. Weighed and found wanting. That's
a terrible message from God. You wade in the law, in the balances
of holiness, in the balances of God, and you come up short.
All is sin and comes short in the glory of God. But that can
never be said of you and me. If the Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not fall. I shall not want. That can't
be said of one of his own. I shall not want. No matter how
weak, I'll never want. I'll never want. The Lord is
my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd and I
shall not want. We, Doris and I have a friend. I just met him in November out
in California. Interesting story. This man,
along with his brothers and brother-in-law, I believe,
owned a computer company. His name's Jesse Eldridge. And
he started listening to our television program out there in Oakland,
California, and learned something about the gospel of God's grace. And they started writing, getting
our tapes. This has been about four years
ago. And he began looking for a church
where he could hear this gospel preached. And he found Brother
Gene Harmon Church in Rescue, California. And he started going
over there to Gene's church. And he met a young lady, Diane,
and they got married. And I had a little boy, Jesse
Jr. This has all happened in the
last three years, four years, the first four years. Loved the
gospel. And about a year and a half ago,
a year ago, the pastor told me when I was out there in November,
he noticed Jesse's had a problem putting things together, talking.
He thought he had a stroke. Jesse did, too. He went to the
doctor. And the doctor told him he had Lou Gehrig's disease,
and he didn't have over two years to live. And we got there in November.
This was just after, oh, 13, 14 months of this disease. He
couldn't move. He couldn't talk. She could understand
a little bit that he was saying, but I couldn't understand a word. He opened his mouth, sits in a wheelchair, motorized
wheelchair, and he can move his left hand. And that's how he
runs his computer. He's a computer expert. And he'd
sit in that wheelchair, and he'd move that left hand, and he's
taking all of my messages on television on that computer and
putting them on CDs. that are supposed to last years
and years and years and years and years. He's already gotten
about 20 of them made. He makes them slowly, runs the
color, the picture, the CD, makes everything on that computer,
and all he can move is that left hand. Isn't that right? But he's
so happy, he came to hear me preach. She brought him in the
car and in his wheelchair, sat back in the back. We went to
the house the next day, had some coffee and cookies and tried
to talk a little with her and his mother staying there with
him. And little boy, cutest little fellow, just went around, happy
home, but he's dying. It's just a matter of any time
now I expect to hear Jesse's gone, but smile, happy. The Lord's his shepherd. I shall
not want him. There's just nobody I've met
lately in the condition he's in, but he smiles all the time. He's happy. He used to play a
guitar. He sent me some tapes, Rick,
playing his guitar. It was him on the guitar and
her on the flute, wasn't it, and the piano. I've got it in
the car there, the tape he sent me. What I'm saying is that the
Lord doesn't give us always what we wish, but I'll tell you, He's
our shepherd. I don't know what tomorrow holds,
but I know who holds tomorrow. He does. And that man is an inspiration
to me. I just cherish every moment I
was in his presence out there beholding his joy in Christ and
his future glory in Christ. Let's read on. I won't get through
if I don't. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not walk. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. To lie down is to rest. To lie
down is to be at peace in our thoughts, in our minds, in our
hearts. Where do we lie down and find
this rest and peace? In green pastures. What are the
green pastures? This way. There's where a believer
gets his comfort, his peace, his assurance, His joy, the promises
of God, the Word of God. How can this boy, this young
man, Jesse, knowing he's leaving his year and a half old son,
an orphan, knowing this charming lady he's married to that's given
him this wonderful little son, and she's such a happy believer
too, and he's leaving him. It won't be long, he'll be leaving
him. He's so happy, he gets his comfort
from the promises of God, the promises, the Word of God. That's
where we, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. You know, our Lord
set Peter down by the second fire. The first fire he set by,
he denied his Lord three times. And after his resurrection and
that expedition of fishing they went on, he called him by another
fire and he said, Peter, you love me? Yea, Lord, I love thee. Feed my lambs. He asked him a
second time, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know I love
you. Feed my lambs, feed my sheep. He asked him a third time, Peter,
do you love me? Lord, you know all. He was grieved, wasn't he?
The Lord asked him. He said, Lord, you know everything.
You know I love you. Feed my sheep. Feed them what? The Word of God. That's what
sheep eat, the Word of God. They feed on the Word of God.
The Word of God quickens us. The Word of God teaches us. The
Word of God comforts us. The Word of God enables us to
grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. The Word is our children's
bread. The Word of God. The Word of
God is the children's bread. We're never weary of it. We're
always blessed by it. And then he said, he leads me,
he leads me beside the still waters, the trials of life. And some of you sitting right
here tonight are going through some very heavy trials, very
difficult trials. But you know, How can we expect
not to have trials in this life? This world is a world of rebellion
and sin and evil against Almighty God. This world is marked for
destruction. And these bodies, frail, weak,
decaying, dying bodies. So a dying body in a dying world,
how can we not have trouble? How can we not have trouble?
And troubles and trials are called deep water, troubled waters,
waves of the sea. But here he says he leads us
by still waters. Who made them still? He did. He did. Listen, I want to turn
to this Scripture. You listen to this. Sit down
and listen to this. Down over here in Mark chapter four. The
disciples were out in a ship, in a boat. The Lord Jesus was
with them. And it says, there arose a great
storm, a wind. And the waves beat upon the ship
and beat into the ship. And it was now filling full of
water. And he was in the hinder part
of the ship, our master, asleep on a pillow. And they came back
and awakened him, and they said, Master, don't you care if we
perish? And he arose and rebuked the
wind and said to this roaring, raging sea, Peace be still. Be what? Still. And the wind ceased, and there
was a great calm. And he said, Why were you so
fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly
and said, one's another. What manner of man is this that
even the wind and the sea obeys him? Well, it does. He's the
master of the wind and the master of the sea, and he leads us beside
waters, yes, troubled waters, but they're still. Be still. Peacefully still. Beside still
waters. You know, I thought about something,
too. Do you suppose that was the only little ship out there
on that sea that night? Well, there were plenty of ships.
There were other ships out there, too. And they were in trouble,
too. And the waves were knocking them around, too. And they were
praying to their false gods to steal the sea. And suddenly it
stopped. But we know who stealed it. And
we know for whom he his children. And they partook
of the children's blessings. And let me tell you something.
God will bless a whole community for the sake of his children.
That's right. When he blesses you, this church,
this congregation of believers, the fallout will be felt by people
all around. And they'll even give false gods
the credit. But we know who steals the We
know who sends the blessing. We know it's our God. That's
right. He leads. He leads me. My shepherd leads me. He doesn't
drive the sheep. The sheep don't go before Him.
He leads the sheep. He leads them by still water.
And listen, as we go on, He restores my soul. He restores my soul. My friends, I am my soul. What you're looking at is a body. I'm not the body. I'm living
in here. You're hearing me speak through
the mouth of this body, but I am a soul. I am the soul. He restores
my soul. He restored my soul to spiritual
life. I was dead in trespasses and
sin. In Adam, we die. By one man sin entered this world,
and death by sin, so death passed on all men. I was dead. You were
dead in trespasses and sin. He restored our soul. He gave
us life. He restored me to God. Isaiah
said, Your sins have separated you and your God. But He restored
us to God. He put our sins away. He bore
them in His own body on the tree. and made atonement and restored
us to God. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ. Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. He restored me the holiness Isaiah
said, from the sole of our feet to the top of our heads, there
was no soundness in us, nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. But he who knew no sin was made
sin for us that we might be made to what? The righteousness of
God in him. He restored us to holiness. He
restored my soul to life. He restored me to God. He restored
me to holiness. He restored me to my inheritance. Now are we sons of God, and because
we're sons of God, we're joint heirs with Christ. He restored
my soul, and He restores me daily. I made
some tape for... Paul has been after me for several
years to make a tape for him of illustrations that I've used
and heard through the years. And I've been promising for five,
six, seven, or eight years I was going to make that tape. Well,
I came over here Monday. I spent about three hours and
I made that tape. And he's been telling me, Dad,
don't die now before you make that tape. He's going to be shocked
when he comes home and finds that tape on his desk. But I
have an illustration in there that's a beautiful picture of
what the Lord did for us in restoring our souls. It was the Passover
season, and there were thousands of people in Jerusalem for the
Passover. And it was the season when our
Passover, Christ was going to be sacrificed for us. God used
these Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees to deliver Christ into
the hands of Herod and Pilate and Caiaphas and the soldiers
to be crucified. And they laid Him outside the
city wall. crucified him. But before they
took him out there, there was a trial, a mock trial held. And all these thousands of people
were in the courtyard. They're all like a lynch mob.
And there was Christ standing before Pilate. The crown of thorns
pressed down on his brow, his back lacerated with the whip,
and the mocking robe on his shoulders, and his hands tied behind his
back, his beard plucked out. and the people crying for his
blood. Down yonder in a dungeon was a man called Barabbas, Barabbas,
Bar, that's son of Mansara, thief, murderer, no good, scoundrel, sentenced
to be crucified. This was the day he was to be
crucified, Barabbas. And he was down in a dungeon,
chained to his bunk. And he heard that crowd up there.
He could hear hundreds and hundreds of people were screaming and
hollering, and he could hear them, but he couldn't hear Pilate.
But Pilate, one man spoke. He said, Shall I crucify your
king? We have no king but Caesar. We
have no king but Caesar. Well, it was customary at that
time of year for the king or the governor to release a prisoner,
a notable prisoner. He said, well, whom shall I release
unto you, Barabbas or Christ? They said, give us Barabbas.
Give us Barabbas. Give us Barabbas. They took up
the cry, give us Barabbas. All these voices, give us Barabbas.
And he's hearing them down there. Give us Barabbas. Scared to death. And Pilate got him quiet. He
said, What shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ? They
said, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him, crucify
him. All these people took up the
cry, give us Barabbas and crucify him. And Barabbas knew it's over. After a while, when they took
our Lord out yonder, these soldiers came down the steps. Varavas
heard their footprints on the steps, the clanging of their
swords and their armor. They came and they put the key
in the door and opened the dungeon door, walked down there and took
off his chains, took off his fetters, stood him up, marched
him outside, shaking like a leaf. You heard him, give us Barabbas,
crucify him. They led him out there in the
sunshine. He hadn't seen the sunshine in weeks. Covered his
eyes with his hands. And the soldiers walked away.
He said, wait, where are you going? They said, you're free.
He said, I'm free. I'm supposed to be crucified. One of them said, you see that,
those three crosses over on the hill? One of them was yours. But on that cross is a man called
Jesus of Nazareth, and he died in your place, and you're free
to go. What do you reckon he'd do? On his cross. Barabbas. You're looking at Barabbas. I'm
afraid because he died. He restored my soul. He took
my place. We, that substitution, in my
stead, in my place, on my cross, bearing my sin, taking my hell,
shame and guilt, and I went free. And I said, so He, the Lord my
shepherd, He restored my soul. I didn't do it. Coming down the
aisle, shaking the preacher's hand, didn't fix me up. It would
take more than that to fix a Barabbas up, wouldn't it? It would take
more than that to set a Barabbas free. To set Barabbas free, somebody
has got to die in His place. That cross has got to be occupied.
He restored my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness
for His namesake. Somebody said one time, there
is a path of perfect holiness. God requires it. But no son of
Adam's ever walked it. If you met the four nuns in Romans,
the four nuns in Romans, nun righteous, nun that understandeth,
nun that seeketh God, and nun that doeth good. That's the four.
They're all that. Learn them well, too. Because
there's nobody, that path of holiness, there's none ever walked
it. except one. And he won the son
of Adam. He's the son of God and the son
of man. That's right. And he walked it
perfectly. And you know who he took with
him? He leads me and you. He's my shepherd. He's my shepherd. The great shepherd, the good
shepherd, the chief shepherd, the victorious shepherd, the
conquering shepherd, God's shepherd. He's mine. And He led me down that path.
And I have a perfect righteousness in Him. We're together. See, He's the head and I'm the
body. And where the head is, the body ain't too far behind,
is it? That's right. He leads me in paths of righteousness. And listen to this. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, A lot of
people think that's when we come to die, but that's not when we
come to die. It's right now. We're walking
through a valley. This is a world of shadows and
darkness. This is a world of death. Death's
all about us. Death's in us. The instrument
of death's already in here. It's already here. It's already
The number of my months are with the Lord. My days are determined,
set. I cannot pass death. We ignore it. We dress it up. We cover it up. We don't talk
much about it. But we're walking through a valley
of death. That's right. And we're not staying
We're walking through. We're walking through. We're
walking through the valley of death. But you know, there's
another word here. It says it's the shadow of death. Oh, what's that mean? Well, no
substance. Shadows will scare you, but they
can't hurt you. The shadow of a gun can't kill
you. The shadow of a knife can't cut you. The shadow of a rope
can't hang you. Christ took the substance of
the sting out. That's right. There's nothing
left. There's a shadow of death here. There's death all about
us, but he that believeth on the Son will never die. That's
right. He'll never die. He said, I walk
through this valley of the shadow of death. But it's nothing but
shadows, and it scares the life out of us sometimes. But they
can't, they have no power over us. A shouter can't hurt you. A little
old boy came running in. Outside one day ran into his
mama. He said, mama, mama, mama, that old bee out there stung
me. She took a pair of tweezers,
looked around there, and she pulled that thing out and put
a little turpentine on it or iodine or something. You get
on out there and play, but that bee's still out there. Yeah,
she said, but he ain't got no stinger. It can't hurt you. And it's still out there. The
old bees are still out there. The shadow. That's right. And we're walking through it.
But he said, listen, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I'll fear no evil. David didn't say there wasn't
any evil out there. He said, I'll fear no evil. I'm not going to be afraid. Why? One reason. Thou art with me. thou art with. Evil cannot control
what he controls. Evil cannot touch what he protects. The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, he knows them that are here, and let them
depart from evil. Though I walk through this valley
of the shadow of death, I'm not going to be afraid, because And your rod and your staff,
you never see a shepherd without a staff. A shepherd's staff,
a shepherd's rod. Those shepherds back then, when
men were real shepherds. Now they shepherd different ways,
but back then, they shepherded personally. They knew the sheep,
and they had a rod. And that rod was used for several
things, that shepherd's staff. It was used to number the sheep
called passing under the rod. Our Lord gave an illustration.
He says there's a sheep foal that has one door. And he about
tries to come in another way as a thief and a robber. But
when one comes to the door who's the shepherd, the porter open
for him, And he calls his sheep by name, and they come out. And what that was, the shepherds
would bring their sheep in from the mountainside, from the fields,
coming into the town, and they'd put their sheep, all of them
in a sheepfold. All of them in the sheepfold. Close the door. Leave them with the porter. They'd
go get a little rest. Come back the next morning. Get
their sheep. And they had that rod. And those
sheep would come out and they'd pass onto the rod. My sheep. My sheep. Pass onto the rod. All those sheep coming out. They
had that rod there holding them. Counting them. Numbering them. Naming them. Second thing that rod was used
for is to Stir the sheep up and make them quicker in their pace.
Kind of jab them a little bit when they're going down the road
there. Get with it, you know. Pop them on the bottom a little
bit with a rod, you know. And you need, we need our bottoms
popped every once in a while with the Word of God. You need
to be, you need to be stirred up. As Paul wrote Timothy and
says, stir up the gift of God that's put within you. Don't
get indifferent and lazy and careless. I've been at that church
47 years, and I still have to once in a while pop a sheep,
you know, with the Word. Exhort one another, encourage
one another, lest you see indifference, you know. So we need to be stirred
up with the rod of God, with the Word of God. And then the
third thing this rod is used for is to bring back a strike. You know, like, well, I've got
a cook, and here's one It wanders off. You wouldn't be one of those,
would you? Would you be a sheep that kind of gets off the path
one line, he catches him with that rod and brings him back,
you know, brings the sheep back with the rest of them, you know,
just reaches out. That rod comforts me, numbers
the sheep, stirs up the sheep, brings back the stray, and that
rod will defend the sheep. Almighty God led Israel out of
Egypt to the Red Sea. And there it was. And behind
them was Pharaoh's army. And they just about gave up.
And God said, Moses, what's that in your hand? He said, it's a
rod. But he said, smite that water. And he smoked the water
and it just stood up on him. And they passed through the rod
of God. And then when they got on the other side, Moses took
that same rod, didn't he? And destroyed their enemies.
Opened the way and destroyed the enemies. I won't be afraid
because thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. He said, don't you touch one
of my little ones. Read Matthew 18 sometime. He
said, they're angels before the Father all the time. He said
he'd given his angels charge over them. Then he says here, I'll prepare
the table before me. I can think of a lot of tables
in the presence of my enemies. Listen, we have enemies. Satan's
our enemy. Principalities and powers, rulers
of darkness, spiritual wickedness and high places, they're your
enemies. Christ's enemies are your enemies. False religionists,
they're your enemies. We have enemies all around that
were seeking whom he may devour. He goes around like a roaring
lion. But he prepares us a table right here in this confused,
evil, religious, wicked world, He prepares our table. And I
can give you four, four things about it. Number one, we sat
down tonight at a table with potatoes and beans and a pork
roast and homemade bread. And before we ate it, he said,
thank you, Lord, for preparing this table for us. We eat so
good. I hope tomorrow night I'm going
to eat with Nancy. I know. I'm going to say thanks two or
three times over there. Don't you do that? Don't you?
He prepares our table. A man can receive nothing except
it be given him from above. Everything we have, God gave
us, and we're blessed with the comforts of life. Sometimes I'm embarrassed how
blessed we are over all the people of this world. We have so many
luxuries and comforts and good food. Don't we eat good and sleep
good? Last night I was lying there
reading in that lamp on my side, warm cover on me, I thought,
man, I'm richer than a king. Got my friends and family. He
prepared the table. We feast. But I tell you another
table he prepared, this doing remembrance of me. I don't think
we ever worship God quite like we do when we come to the table
of the Lord. Don't you enjoy it? Come in and
this is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you.
This is my body. This student remembers of me. He shed his blood and he gave
his body to redeem our soul. That's the table. He prepared
a table. I tell you this, he's preparing
one now. You ain't never seen the like
supper, the marriage supper of the Lamb. He said, I go to prepare
a place for you. And if I go and prepare that
place, oh, what a place. We're going to be married to
Him, Christ our husband, our brother, our friend. The church
is going to be His bride. And the marriage supper of the
Lamb. I tell you, we're going to sit down with the Lord our
God and all the angels of God. as his table. And then he prepares
this table. You know, we meet together on
Sunday to worship and Wednesday night. I read and got these things together
that I feel like the Lord gave them, but he gave them. That's
a gift to you. Your pastor studies. I see his
notes around everywhere that he reads and prepares a table
of the bread of God, the children's bread. So he prepares, he provides
my table, my table, my table, and my table. And he does it
right in the midst of our enemies. They're roaring and gnashing
their teeth out there. They can't touch us. We're sitting
here feasting in the presence of our enemies. I anoint my head
with oil. The Spirit of God anointed His
kings and king-priests. We're king-priests. We've been
anointed with the oil of the Spirit of God. Anointeth my head
with oil. That's when they used to welcome
people to their homes. They met them at the door and
anointed their heads with oil, washed their feet. And then He
said, My cup runneth over. I don't know how true this is,
but Spurgeon gave this illustration. He said over in these oriental
countries, when you had a guest, and he was just a special guest
and a welcome guest and a wanted guest and a guest that you just
was elated to have, when he held out his cup to pour the wine
or the drink, they ran it over. Let it run over. And that showed
how welcome he was. Just run his cup over. And I'll
tell you, we're so welcome in the home of the Heavenly Father,
he just runs our cups over. Our blessings are just, we're
just blessed beyond measure. Let it run over, run over, just
keep running over. I'll tell you, sometimes I think,
when you get out there like some of you do working, be nice to
say right here, Wesley. That's what Peter said. He's
on that mountain. He said, Lord, let's don't go
back down there. Let's build a free tabernacle
and just stay up here. I know how he felt. He wasn't
right, but I know how he felt. Don't go back down there. Just
don't go back at all. My cup run is over. My cup run
is over. Watch this. Surely, goodness
and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. Goodness
and mercy. You people I reckon I'm about
the oldest one here tonight, but whoever's next to me, all
my life I've been followed with goodness and mercy. I just have
to say that. After 72 and a half years, goodness
and mercy has followed me all the days of my life. Spurgeon said that when a king,
an old king, ruled a kingdom. He had a son. His son was his
heir, his firstborn son. And that prince, there were bodyguards. When he was sleeping, the bodyguards
were outside the door, two bodyguards outside the door. When he'd go
out in the courtyard, those two men went out in the courtyard.
When he went to play at a friend's house, those two men followed
him. Every step he took, those two
fellows followed him. And every step I've taken through
my life, the two fellows followed me, goodness and mercy, protecting
me, caring for me, overshadowing me, defending me, keeping me,
surely goodness and mercy. And here they're going to keep
following me till I won't need them anymore. And I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. And all of that, Because the
Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. And
I'll give you something in closing. You can write this in the margin
of your Bible if you want to. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Verse 2, I'll not want for rest. I'll not want for rest. Just
put rest there. You make it be to lie down. I've
got this written. I'll not want for peace. See,
he leads me beside still waters. Rest and peace. I'll not want
for forgiveness. He restored my soul. I'll not
want for holiness. He leads me in paths of righteousness.
Down here in verse four, I'll not want for comfort. I'll walk
through the valley of the shadow of death. I'll fear no evil.
Verse 5, I'll not want for provisions, that means spiritual or material,
thou preparest a table before me. And I'll not want for anything,
verse 6, in this life or the life to come, because goodness
and mercy is going to follow me and I'm going to dwell in
their house. I hope that's a blessing to you.
I love the 23rd Psalm, and I rejoice that the Lord led me to bring
you some thoughts on it tonight. All right, Brother Joe, you want
to lead us in a closing hymn?