I just want to tell your brother.
Jane Thompson had a good night last night. He's had a good day
so far today. And we're thankful for that news.
He's doing better. He remains in Saint Mary's Hospital. And we're always thankful for
the. Improvement. That the Lord has
been pleased to give to him. And we ask that if it'd be pleasing
to the Lord that he would continue to improve and get a little stronger
if it'd be God's will. All right, let's get our Bibles. Let's go back to Psalm 23. Look
now at Psalm 23. I was looking over this again this afternoon looking over this
psalm and looking over the message for this evening, it occurred
to me it could be that some of you do not know what the word
psalm means. What is a psalm? What does the
word itself mean? Well, taken literally, it means
melody. Those of you who have some musical
background, you know that a melody is a series of notes or sounds
that are sweet, that are delightful, that are pleasant. And the Lord
gives us 150 sweet, delightful, pleasant psalms. And of all of
them, though we've been blessed by all of the Psalms from time
to time, this one certainly has been very significant in being
a melody to the hearts of God's people. Because it is filled
with sweet, sweet truths for the children of God. Here is
satisfying and very soothing words that were put together
by the spirit of grace that he gave to King David. This is a psalm of David. It's
a melody that God gave to David and it begins this way, the Lord
is my shepherd. He doesn't say that the Lord
may be my shepherd, or he doesn't say the Lord will be my shepherd,
but he says the Lord is my shepherd. And take note of the fact that
the shepherd of the sheep is the Lord Jesus Christ, and here's
David and he speaks for all the ransomed of God, He speaks for
all of the people of God, and David says, of the Lord, of the
great I am, David says, he's my shepherd. And you who are believers, you
may say, and you should say, with great confidence, that this
Lord Jesus, who is the Christ, he is my shepherd. And you know
what the shepherd says of his sheep? He says, they're my sheep. He says in John 10, 27, my sheep
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So the sheep
say of the Lord Jesus, he's my shepherd. He's my keeper. He's my guardian. He's my guide. He's my provider. He's the one
who takes care of me. The one who has always looked
after me from before the foundation of the world until time shall
end and shall be no more on out throughout eternity. He will
always be my shepherd. And the Lord says of these who
can honestly and by the spirit of truth say he's my shepherd,
the Lord says of all of us, you're my sheep. You see, this is a
very personal thing, isn't it? It's a personal relationship. We love the shepherd. He's my
shepherd. I love the shepherd. He is the
one who has brought me in the fold of salvation. He is the
one who saved me. He's the one who washed me. He's
the one who robed me. He is the one who watches over me.
I was the lost sheep. He picked
me up. He put me on his shoulders. He's
carrying me all the way home to see the Father. I'm going
to the Father's house, and I'm being carried all of the way
by this mighty shepherd. And the shepherd says of me,
and he says of all of his chosen ones, he says, you're my sheep. We're not ownerless sheep. We're owned by somebody. He bought
us. He paid for us. He purchased
us. When He came into this world,
He came for His sheep. He came to lay down His life,
the Good Shepherd who giveth His life for His sheep. We're owned by Him. We were given
to Him by the Father in electing grace. We were gifted to the
shepherd. And the shepherd has come and
redeemed us from the curse of God's law. The law held us for
ransom. The law demanded death for all
of our sins. Yes, we were beloved of the shepherd. We were the chosen of God. We're
the loved of the Lord from old eternity. But something had to
be done about our sins, about our iniquities, about all of
our transgressions. And therefore, my shepherd came,
and he says he came for his sheep. He calls us My sheep, my sheep. And he came and he took up the
position of being our substitute. And he has identified himself
with us so much so that I began the service this morning by reading
from John chapter one. He is not, he is not hesitant
to identify himself with us by saying he's God's lamb. And we're God's lambs. We're
God's sheep. And the Savior came, he identified
with us. And so he joined his own deity
with our nature. He became in many ways like His
lambs. Not in every way, but in many
ways. To identify with us and then
as that perfect Lamb of God, He had to lay down His life in
order to save His own sheep. And by His sacrifice upon the
cross of Calvary, He did indeed save us. And now by the gospel,
which is his voice, by means of this gospel, he is on the
trail, he says, of my sheep. And he will make sure that his
sheep hear his voice. Doesn't matter where you live.
Doesn't matter where any of his sheep are. His voice will search
them out and he will find every one of his lost sheep. After
all, he gave his life to save his sheep. He said, 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. If words mean anything, and they
mean everything in the Word of God, that means all of his sheep,
not the goats, not the non-elect, But all of those that the Father
gave him in covenant grace before the world began, all those for
whom he was the surety, who's the savior, who he is the sacrifice
and our substitute, all of his sheep are safe in him forever. There is no possibility that
one sheep can ever be lost because that purchase purchase price
paid by the Savior was paid with his own bloodied death. And his
blood was not wasted. His blood is never to be proven
useless. His blood shed for the sheep
was presented to God. Read in the Old Testament, read
especially in the book of Leviticus, and you'll find the blood of
those sacrifices is always referred to as the blood before the Lord. It's the blood for God. The blood,
you see, of the shepherd of the sheep was not offered to the
devil. And it's not offered to us. And
this is where preachers are way off base when they say, Jesus
offers you the price of redemption. Will you accept it? Hang on a
minute. That price wasn't offered to
us. Because there was no price owed to us. That price of redemption was
offered to the Father's offended justice. And that's what most preachers
today, most so-called preachers don't see that. They don't understand
that. There's been a price paid, paid
by the shepherd of the sheep, paid by the shepherd for the
sheep, presented to the father. Well, did the father receive,
was he satisfied with the price of redemption presented to him
by the shepherd? Yes, and the evidence of that
is his resurrection and exaltation to glory. That one who is our shepherd
is the triumphant shepherd who saved his sheep. And David says,
this one who is the Lord, he's my shepherd. He's my shepherd. I ask you, who is the shepherd
of your soul? You claim to be one of the sheep?
You claim to know the Lord? Who's your shepherd? You see,
the only shepherd who can save and who has saved, the only shepherd
is the Lord. He's got to be the Lord. He's
Lord, number one, because he's the owner of all things, the
maker of all things, the creator of all things. There's nothing
that has ever existed over which the Son of God is not the Lord. He made all things by the word
of his power. And the owner of all things is
King Jesus. All things were made by him.
And without him was not anything made that was made. You see, the only shepherd who
can do you any good has got to be the Lord. He's got to be the
master. He's got to be the sovereign.
If he isn't sovereign over every single thing, over the demons,
over the devils, over the angels, over wicked men, over unrighteous
men, over the saved and the lost, if he's not the Lord over all,
he's not worthy to be and he cannot be the shepherd. He's
got to be the Lord. He must be the Lord. He's the owner of all things.
Someone said, and these words are not original with me, an
old preacher wrote these long ago, he who is the Lord, he doesn't
have to put his signature on the paintings of nature. He's
the owner. He doesn't have to build a fence
around the meadows. He's the owner. He doesn't have
to carve his initials on the sides of the mountains. He's
the owner. He doesn't have to put a brand
on the cattle upon a thousand hills. He's the owner. He doesn't have to get a copyright
over the songs that the birds sing faithfully every day. He's
the owner. He doesn't have to get a deed
to the gold mines and the diamond mines and the silver mines of
this world. He's the owner. He doesn't have
to raise a flag over all the nations of the earth. Why not? He's the owner. And he doesn't
have to stake a claim to the universe. He's the owner. And he won't have to get a court
order to open graves at last. We're talking about the resurrection
just before the service began. The Lord Jesus is not going to
have to get a court order to open the graves. Why not? He's
the owner. And he's not gonna have to get
a building permit to build a new heaven and a new earth either.
Why not? He's the owner. That means he's
the Lord. He's the Lord. He said, cannot
I do what I will with my own? And if the shepherd you trust
in, if he cannot do what he wills with his own, I pray that the
shepherd of the sheep will reveal himself to you, because he's
the only one who's the Lord. He's the Lord because he's the
owner, and then my shepherd, David says, my shepherd is the
Lord, and he became Lord as a man. As God, he was already a Lord
over all, blessed forever. As man he humbled himself and
came to this earth and he suffered, bled, and died to save his people. Just as were ordained in the
covenant of everlasting grace. I love that passage in Romans
chapter 14 in verse nine. For to this end, for to this
reason, for to this purpose, the Lord Jesus both died and
arose that he might be Lord of the dead and the living. He died. He died. He willingly laid down his life
for his sheep. And in that once for all act
of obedience, he satisfied God's justice, as I've already said,
and thereby God made him Lord because he was obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. He's not waiting on you to make
him Lord. He's not waiting for you to say,
yes, I give you permission to be my Lord. He's already your
Lord. He's everybody's Lord. God made
him Lord. That's what Peter said on the
day of Pentecost. He said, you with your wicked
hands, you've crucified the Lord of glory, but God has exalted
Him. God's given Him a name. God has
made Him Lord over all. And He says in Philippians chapter
2, to this Lord, every knee's going to bow, and every tongue's
going to confess that Jesus Christ, the Jesus of Nazareth, that Jesus
despised and rejected by men. Everybody's gonna bow their knees
and confess with their tongues, Jesus Christ is the Lord, because
God ordained it. No, you can't make him Lord. One of the preachers that has
a nationwide program He usually closes his program by saying
something like, won't you make Jesus Lord? Who does he think
we are that we can make Jesus of Nazareth Lord? We can't do
anything. God made him Lord. and you'll
bow to him willingly in this life. I'm telling you the truth.
You will bow to him in your heart by the power of the spirit of
grace who effectually humbles people before King Jesus, the
only shepherd who can save. You'll either humble yourself
before him by his grace or he'll make you bow at the judgment. He'll put his scepter on your
head and force you to bow down and kiss the dirt before King
Jesus and then cast you into hell. I'm telling you, he's the Lord.
He's the Lord because he's the owner of all things. He's the
Lord because he earned the right to be the Lord. He's Lord by
sovereign determination. God has ordained. that this man,
Jesus of Nazareth, would be Lord over all. He's God and he's man. And there's one who represents
us in the presence of God. He's seated right now at the
Father's right hand. And he's got a glorified body.
And he's a real man who really suffered, who really bore the
vengeance of God's wrath in his own body on the tree, a real
man whose soul was punished by God himself as he endured the
vengeance of the fury of God's wrath on account of the sins
that he bore, which were not his own except by imputation. And that one who died in the
stead of his people, God said, now he's the Lord. And everybody's
gonna answer to him. You're not gonna answer to me.
I'm nobody. You're gonna stand before the
sovereign king of the ages, Christ the Lord. And whatever his sentence
is that he passes upon you, I promise you will be just and fair. If you're righteous in his righteousness,
made the righteousness of God in this life because of the sacrifice
of Christ, you'll stand before him in that day righteous. He
that is righteous, let him be righteous still. He that is just,
let him be just still. But if you die in the filth of
your sins, he that is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that
is wicked, he that is unrighteous, let him be unrighteous still.
Those will be the words of the judge in that day. And David
says of this one who is the Lord, he said, he's my shepherd. He's my shepherd. You talking
about sweet, soothing, melodious words. These are words that are
very soothing to the hearts of the Lord's dear blood-bought
sheep. He's my shepherd. My shepherd
has all power in heaven and in earth. He's the Lord. He earned the right as the God-man
to be Lord over all, blessed forever. David says he's my shepherd. Well, what kind of shepherd is
he? Well, the Savior said in John chapter 10 and verse 11,
and you can jot it down if you want, If you want to, you can
read it, but most everybody here and probably most people who
are watching can quote it. Our Savior, in one of his great
I am statements, he said, I am the good shepherd. I am. Jehovah, the ever existent one
who identified himself in that way to Moses. as he spoke to
Moses out of the bush that burned but wasn't consumed. He said,
I am. That gets my attention. Does it get your attention? I
am. Who are you? He said, I'm the
good shepherd. What are you going to do? Give
my life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. Joe read to us just a little
bit ago, those religious leaders of Israel, they weren't good
shepherds. They were hirelings. They devoured
the sheep. But the good shepherd, he's ever
watchful for his sheep. And when the payment was due
for our sins, the good shepherd gave his life. He laid down his
life for the sheep. The Lord Jesus is the good shepherd,
definite article, the. There's not another one like
him. You know, the word shepherd has
within it the meaning of a pastor. And indeed, God has his under-shepherds,
I'll call us. But he only has one who is the
good shepherd, and nobody like him. He's the fairest among 10,000,
Solomon said in that passage I read out of Song of Solomon,
chapter five. And majestic sweetness sits enthroned
upon the Savior's brow. He's the good shepherd. The word good is actually quite
a magnificent word. It's a complex word with several
different shades of meaning, that word good. And they all
certainly accurately apply to the shepherd of the sheep. Because
you remember, there's none good but one. That's God. Good, here's what good means. Number one, beautiful. So this might well read, I am
the beautiful shepherd. Solomon said in that passage
I read, he is altogether lovely. View him from any angle. View Him all the way around. View Him in His thoughts, in
His mind, in His motives. View Him thoroughly and you will
come to this conclusion, He's altogether beautiful. He's the
Good Shepherd. There was no ugliness about Him
like there is about us because sin is an ugly thing. Sin is
not an attractive characteristic, it's a terrible characteristic. Our Lord had no sin, in Him is
no sin. He's the beautiful shepherd.
He's beautiful to God. Beautiful to God. I hope He's
beautiful to you. Secondly, he's excellent. I am
the excellent, excellent shepherd. Why his excellency is so great
that he is equal with the father and the spirit. That's how excellent
he is. So we read in Hebrews chapter
eight in verse six, but now hath he obtained a more excellent
ministry. by how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. He's the excellent shepherd.
I tell you, we don't have a halfway shepherd or a puny shepherd. Why, he's excellent. He's excellent. He's powerful. He's God. He's God. How'd you like to have
God for your shepherd? Hear me, you do. You do have
God for your shepherd. You're not a sheep who's out
here on his own. You say, well, my life is such
a maze. It isn't a maze, the shepherd's
carrying you. Now, he may take you over here
and then take you over there. He may take you up on the mountaintop. He may take you down in the valley,
but he's still the shepherd who bears you, who carries you, and
he is excellent in his wisdom and in his providence and in
all of his promises to you. I'm the beautiful shepherd. I'm
the excellent shepherd. The word good has within it the
meaning of precious. I am the precious shepherd. 1 Peter 2, Peter says, wherefore
also it is contained in the scriptures. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect precious. And he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe,
to you who believe he is precious in me. He's precious to you. He's all you need. And he's all we want. He's all we want to hear about. He's our motive for living. He's the love of our hearts.
He won us over by His triumphant grace. He has conquered us. And we bow to Him and we say
Christ is our all in all. and we'll brag on his bloody
death and we'll brag on his righteousness freely imputed to all those for
whom he laid down his life, we'll do that forever because he's
precious to us. I saw a special on TV the other
day, just a little bit of it. It says if your house is catching
on fire, what would you grab hold of, what would you take
as being the most precious thing to you? And somebody said, my
pictures. That's a good possibility there
on your cell phone. Just grab your cell phone. Pictures. What's the most precious possession
that God in the riches of his grace has ever given you? Is it not the chief treasure
of your soul who is Christ Jesus the Lord? You say, well, He's
given me righteousness. You're right. He's given me forgiveness. You're right. But the reason
those are precious is because the person who merited those
for us, He is precious. It's the Lord that we want. Not
just forgiveness. Not just righteousness. We want
Him. If we have Him, we got everything.
Because in him we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly place. You got everything in him. If
he's the shepherd of your soul, and you're one of his sheep,
you have everything. He's the beautiful shepherd,
he's the excellent shepherd, he's the precious shepherd, and
number four, he's the useful shepherd. That word good means
useful. He says, I am the useful shepherd. The hirelings weren't useful.
They were destructive. The thief, he says there in John
10, comes to destroy, comes to kill. The hireling sees danger
approaching to the sheep and the hireling, he runs to save
himself. Those religious leaders who claim
to be the shepherds of God's sheep, those about whom Joe read
earlier from Ezekiel chapter 34, they were not useful. In fact, the pastures that the
sheep should feed in, they just trampled that under their feet. And the water, they muddied the
water. Oh, how false preachers just
muddy the water. The shepherd gives us good pasture. He calls them, in Psalm 23, green
pastures. And the waters, he says, they're
still waters, not troubled waters, not muddied waters, pure water, pure water. He came to give his life for
his sheath, He's the good, the good shepherd. And now let me emphasize shepherd. Shepherd presents the idea of
a leader. A leader who has infinite wisdom. He knows the direction that the
sheep need to go. He knows the path that they need
to follow. And let me tell you something.
the shepherd of the sheep. My shepherd, and I'm one of his
sheep, he knows the best route to carry me. Now, all of the
people of God will wind up in glory. And we all go by the way
of grace, by blood sprinkled way. But he carries us along
different paths. Your path is not the same path
that I will follow. But my shepherd is leading me.
He leads his sheep. And some of his sheep must go
through thorns and briars Wounded on their journey home. Rough pathway. Because that's the way the shepherd's
leading them. A lot of trials. A lot of troubles. Preacher, I don't know why I
suffer these troubles, these trials. That's the way the shepherd's
leading you. Don't focus on the trials. Don't
focus on the troubles. Focus on the one who's leading
you. And know that that route that he's taking you is the best
one for you. For you. Because he's an all-wise
leader. I tell you, this word shepherd
also has within it the idea of the commander. He is, after all, your Lord. And you're one of his followers. And what he commands, then obey. Follow. But within the word shepherd
is also the idea of protector. He is the protector of His sheep. The way may be difficult. There's
no question about that. We were talking in Sun School
class this morning about the saints of God in Jerusalem. According
to the prophecy of a man by the name of Agabus, a dearth occurred,
a famine occurred in the Jerusalem area. And not only did they have
to deal with that famine, then Herod, he decides he's going
to behead James, the brother of John, one of the two sons
of thunder. And he did this to make the Jews
happy. But there in Jerusalem, that
was a great trial for them, a famine and persecution. But in all of that, the Lord
protected his sheep. You say, well, he didn't protect
James. Yes, he did. Took him on home to glory. It's
like Brother John Bunyan said when his family gathered around
him. Six or eight kids, I forget now.
He had several kids. His wife was there, gathered
around. They're all crying. He says, don't weep for me. I'll
soon be well. I'll soon be well. That's the
way it is for the people of God. We're going home. The great physician
of our souls is gonna take us home, and then there'll be no
more sickness, and sickness is caused only by the presence of
sin. No more sin. Visiting yesterday
with Brother James Thompson. He said Friday night, we were
talking yesterday, so he said last night, he said, I thought
I was going home. He said, that was fine with me.
Thought I was going home. I said, well, you'll go home
when the Lord's ready for you, when he's fulfilled his purpose
for you. He's protecting you from the evil one. He's protecting
you, guarding your life. You who are the Lord's sheep,
he's watching over you, he's protecting you until that hour,
until that moment when he says, it's time for you to come home.
And when it's time for me to come home, my shepherd is going
to take this sheep directly into his presence and then I'll be
fully well. And I know, I know, The thing
about death for the child of God, for the Lord's sheep, we have families that we love,
and there's the difficulty in turning loose of them. Believe
me, I know. My dad preached his funeral first,
and then my mom, Nancy's dad, Nancy's mom, and it you hate
to say goodbye. I understand that. And when time
comes for me to die, if the Lord wills and I'm still got some
sanity about me and not dulled by drugs or medicine, in that
sense, it'll be hard, it'll be difficult to leave the family
behind. But I know in my soul, that my real family awaits me
in glory and other members of my spiritual family shall meet
me in glory and all of us together will gather around the good shepherd
who giveth his life for the sheep. He's our protector and he's our
defender. And I'll tell you what, if the
shepherd before us who can be against us. Let all the wolves
of false religion bark and howl against us and show their teeth. Let the very pit of hell growl
against us. The lion that goes about seeking
whom it may devour, he may growl and he does growl at us, but
his teeth will never be sunk into any of the Lord's sheep.
That cannot happen. Why not? Because the Lord is
our shepherd, and we shall not lack for any good thing. That
sure is a powerful statement David made there. The Lord is
my shepherd. I shall not lack for anything
that God deems necessary to give me, and I shall not lack for
anything that I need to get into glory. And I'll have the blood
of Jesus Christ ever speaking for me on my behalf. And I'll
have his righteousness robed around me and not just to paste
it on righteousness either. I made the righteousness of God
through the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
want of his sheep? You're in good shape. You're
in good shape. Nothing but good things awaits
you as the sheep of the Lord. Let's turn to hymn number 75.
Hymn number 75, Abide With Me. And you know what? He will. He
said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. that
we may with confidence say, the Lord is my helper. I'm not going
to be afraid of anything. Number 75, abide with me.