And indeed, many people have read this who even have
no interest in the Word of God, but they know Psalm 23 or know
something about it. It has long been a comfort to
the saints of God ever since David wrote it by divine inspiration. We have often found great consolation
for our souls from this very sweet psalm. Let's ask God to
bless us again as we go through this glorious psalm. Dear Father,
It is such a joy to assemble together and to open the Word
of God, the reading of John chapter 10, reading of our shepherd,
reading of his love for the sheep, reading of how he laid down his
life for the sheep, reading of how he has other sheep that must
be taught the gospel and those he would draw unto himself so
that there is in reality one shepherd and one fold. Lord, we have often read this
precious, precious psalm. But we don't want to get so familiar
with it that we can read it without being touched by the magnificence
of our shepherd. And so this evening, though many
of us could no doubt quote these six verses, this evening may
this psalm be real, and fresh as though we had never read it
before. And Lord, we ask that you'd feed
your sheep this evening from this portion of Holy Scripture. We thank you for our blessed
shepherd, for the love that he has always had for his sheep. And what a joy it is to be able
to say by the witness of the Spirit, the Lord is my shepherd. The ever-existent God, He's my
shepherd. Therefore I shall not want. Bless
now as the word of God goes forth and bless these who listen. May our souls rejoice in our
shepherd, and may we find great comfort as we read these words
that concern the shepherd and his sheep. We ask in the shepherd's
name, amen. This is a magnificent portion
of scripture, to say the least. And it is very significant, the
psalm that is before it and the psalm that is after it. I would
call this three glorious psalms that kind of must be kept together,
I believe. The Spirit of God has arranged
the Word of God so that it is presented to us in an orderly
fashion. And we must remember that these
Psalms, Psalm 22 I'm talking about, 23 and 24, they're not
randomly selected to be together. There's a reason God in his providence
arranged for these to be associated with one another. Psalm 22, we
see Christ our Savior. There's no question about that.
Psalm 23, we see Christ our shepherd. There's no question about that.
In Psalm 24, we see Christ our sovereign. Go back to Psalm 22. Here's our Redeemer. There isn't
any use in speaking about Christ Jesus being the shepherd unless
we understand He's our shepherd because He's our Savior. He's our everlasting Savior.
Look back at the beginning of Psalm 22. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me? And from the words of my roaring,
you recognize those first words immediately. That's one of the
great statements that our Savior made when He hung upon the cross
of Calvary. Forsaken by God. Afflicted by
God. And in His agony, He made that
cry. Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. My God. My God. He didn't say, Father. He said,
My God. There's our substitute being
forsaken by God because he bore our iniquities in his own body
on the tree. And God forsook him. And because
God forsook him, because God poured out his wrath upon his
only begotten son, we will never be forsaken. He was forsaken
so that all of those in whose stead he died will never be forsaken. and the work that God gave him
to do, he finished. Now look at the very end of the
psalm. Look at the end of the psalm, the last two verses of
the psalm. It says, a seed shall serve him. This is a remnant. This is the
elect of God. These are his sheep and they
shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. Now look at the last verse. They shall come, they shall come
to him drawn by effectual grace. These sheep shall come to the
shepherd and they shall declare his righteousness unto a people
that shall be born. That he hath done this. Or literally, he hath finished
this. It is finished. Here are two
statements that our Lord made from the cross of Calvary that
are set forth here in Psalm 22. The first one literally, and
the second one here in verse 31, He hath done this. That's
what it means. It's finished. The Savior has
finished the work that God gave Him to do. We may comfortably
believe that our Lord Jesus is our shepherd and that He will
care for us. He will never desert us. He will
never forsake His sheep. He will always guide us. He will
always lead us. He will always direct us because
He's the Savior who was forsaken by God for us. and the work of redemption that
God gave Him to do, He finished it. He finished it to the satisfaction
of God. He finished it to His own glory. And we're His seed. You remember
in Isaiah chapter 53, it says when He was suffering upon the
cross of Calvary. And Isaiah 53 reads as though
it was written right there when Christ was dying. He shall see
His seed. He saw us. He's seen us from
old eternity. We've always been His. He saw
us with loving kindness. He saw His seed. And He died
for His seed. And He finished the work of redemption.
Christ our Savior. You have no right You have no
right to take Psalm 23 and say, the Lord is my shepherd, unless
you understand He's the only Savior. There's no use going
to Psalm 23 if you skip over Psalm 22. If you don't see the
necessity for His death upon the cross of Calvary, this is
how God can be just and justify the ungodly through the death
of the Savior. But if you see Him and believe
Him and love Him as the Savior, then you can say with David,
with great confidence, the Lord is my shepherd. And then we get
to Psalm 24. I'll come back, of course, to
Psalm 23. Here's God our sovereign, Christ
our sovereign. Look at how verse one of Psalm
24 begins. The earth is the Lord's. It's
the Lord's. And the fullness thereof, the
world, and they that are therein, all of it, it all belongs to
the Lord. The Lord who saved us, Psalm
22. The Lord who is our shepherd,
Psalm 23. He's the sovereign. I quoted yesterday a little bit
of that song by Watts. He rules the world with truth
and grace. He rules. He's the sovereign.
The root word is reign. He reigns. He reigns over everything. Everything big and everything
little. And there's nothing left out of His reign. Not in the
whole world. Not in your little world. in
your life, in all the things that pertain to you. He reigns,
he's the sovereign. There's nothing that hasn't been
put under his feet. And the government is upon his
shoulders. He bears full responsibility
for the government of all the world, and he's conducting business
right on schedule. He's the sovereign. Look at the
last verse of this psalm. Who is this king of glory? Who
is this sovereign? Who is this one who reigns? Well,
he's the savior of Psalm 22, and he's the shepherd of Psalm
23, and here he is the sovereign. Who is this king of glory? The
Lord of hosts. He is the king of glory. Now
you stop and think about that. Don't you read over that word,
just keep on going. Every time you see that word,
you need to take a pause. You need to think, you need to
reflect. He is the King of glory. He's
not a pretend king. He's not a king with an empty
title. He is the King who reigns over
all things, over all the kingdoms of this world. He's the Savior, He's the Shepherd,
He's the Sovereign. Now throughout the Word of God,
as you well know, our Savior is revealed to us as being the
Shepherd, the Shepherd of His sheep. And blessed is that man,
blessed is that woman, blessed is that boy, blessed is that
girl, who with a heart of true faith can say, The Lord is my
shepherd. In Genesis chapter 49 in verse
24, here's the very first reference to our Savior as being the shepherd. He's called the shepherd, the
stone of Israel. He's the stone or the rock of
Israel, and he would come from the mighty God of Jacob. That's
what it says. The shepherd is from the mighty
God of Jacob. In Isaiah 40 and verse 11, Isaiah
the prophet tells us what Christ would do for his sheep. When
he's revealed as the shepherd, he shall feed his flock. like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs, the
little ones, the weak ones in his arm and in his bosom. And he shall
gently lead those that are with child. You who are the people
of God, you who are the sheep of his pasture. Does this not
greatly comfort you that the shepherd holds you in his arms? And he holds you in his bosom. Oh my God, if I could always
remember that. I'd have peace that passes understanding. I wouldn't have a trouble nor
a care in this world. I'm in the arms of the shepherd.
He carries me, he found me, he picked me up, he put me on his
shoulders. And he's going on back to glory.
And he's carrying me. Why I shouldn't have a care in
the world. No worry, no fear, no anxiety. If the Spirit of
God would always remind me of that, He's the one who carries
the sheep. In the book of Ezekiel, chapter
34, the Lord says, the Father says, I will set up one shepherd
over them. He shall feed them. He shall
feed them. And he'll be their shepherd.
He's the seeker of the lost sheep. and he's the one who finds the
lost sheep. In Luke chapter 15, that's exactly
what he does. Man had a hundred sheep. The
Savior told this story. Man's got a hundred sheep. He
leaves 90 and nine out there in the wilderness. That's the
Pharisees who in their self-righteousness thought they was right with God.
But in reality, they're in the wilderness. Dry and barren. Ain't nothing out there for them.
But they think they're right with God. But our Lord Jesus,
He leads them. He leads them. And He goes after
one lost sheep. That was you, wasn't it? That
was me. Nancy and I were watching a little
bit of a church service, a religious service,
where we used to attend many years ago. Bunch of foolishness
now. And she began to shed a few tears. She said, that's what God saved
us from right there. He rescues His sheep. He doesn't
leave us out there in the wilderness. We're lost. He seeks and finds
us. He said, well, you know, we seek
the Lord. I beg your pardon. No man seeketh after God's what
the Scripture says. And the Lord says in Isaiah,
I was found of them who sought Me not. He sought us. And He found us. Where did He find us? In the
miry clay. He found us wandering further
away from Him. He found us. Because we're His. We've always been His. And He
came after us. Not gonna let us perish. That
can't be. Can't be that one of His sheep
will perish. He picks us up. He teaches us
the truth. He doesn't leave us in false
religion. A lot of us came out of false religion. And really,
all people who are saved by God's grace come out of false religion
because we all think that we ought to be good to go to heaven.
And that is false, false, false religion right there. It's the
Lord Himself who came after us and saw us. In Zechariah, Zechariah
mentions this shepherd, chapter 13, verse 7. Awake, O sword,
God said against my shepherd. Against the man who is my fellow. He's my equal. Wake up, sword of vengeance. Against that man who walked this
earth for 33 or 34 years, who never did anything wrong, who
obeyed God's law exactly. Wake up, sword of justice! Kill
him. Kill him. Why? Because he's got to die as the
substitute for his sheep, and then they'll live forever. Smite the shepherd. That's what
God did. God smoked the shepherd. And
then Joe read to us from John chapter 10, our Lord Jesus, he
describes himself as the shepherd. I am the good shepherd. Yes,
you are. Yes, you are. I am the Good Shepherd. And all the sheep say, Amen.
Bless the name of our Shepherd. I am the Good Shepherd. And He
said, The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. I wonder
what His disciples thought when He said that. Because He had
begun to mention to them that He must suffer many things of
the chief priests, Pharisees, He must be put to death and they
didn't want him to die. And now he talks about giving
his life for the sheep. And he says, I'm the good shepherd
and I know my sheep. I love my sheep. And later he says, my sheep hear
my voice. His voice is in the gospel. My
sheep hear my voice and I know them. I love them. I've always
known them. And they'll hear and they'll
follow me. And of course, the Pharisees, oh, they rebelled
against him. If you're really the Christ,
won't you show us a miracle? He said, you believe not. The
reason you don't believe me is because you're not of my sheep. It's right where the rubber meets
the road. He said, here's the reason you don't believe. You're not of my sheep. You never
were. You aren't now. You never will
be. You're not my sheep. I didn't
come to die for you. I didn't come to save you. You
bunch of rebels. You're in love with yourself. You think you're good people.
You're not good people, you're bad people. And I'm just gonna
leave you just like I found you, in error. The reason you don't
believe is because you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you,
my sheep hear my voice. They hear. These bunch of rebels,
they wouldn't hear. But who's gonna hear? The sheep. The sheep will hear. They'll
hear. So I don't want to hear that
kind of preaching. Okay. Go on about your business then. And if I was real blunt, I'd
just say, well go on to hell then. You don't want to hear
this kind of preaching. Just go on. But somebody's going
to hear it and I know who they are. The sheep. But now I can't
tell who the sheep are. I don't know who in this congregation
is His sheep, so I'll just keep on preaching. And if you're one
of His sheep, if you hadn't heard His voice yet, you will hear
His voice, and you'll believe Him. Our Lord Jesus, He is abundantly
qualified to be the shepherd. of the sheep. After all, he's
the omniscient God. He knows all things. He's the
omnipotent God. He can do all things. He has
all power in heaven and earth. None of his sheep are ever in
danger. It doesn't matter if they're
on their sickbed or their deathbed. They're not in any danger. Never
were. Never were. I don't know when David wrote
this psalm. There's quite a bit of discussion
among the expositores. Some say he wrote this when he
was out watching his father's sheep all by himself and he was
surrounded by quietness. He had time to reflect upon the
Lord. Maybe, maybe that's when the
Lord inspired him to write this. Others say David wrote this when
he was in great trouble from King Saul or from Absalom, his
own son who rebelled against him. He wrote it during a season
of great distress. Well, that's a good time to remember
that the Lord is your shepherd in a time of distress. Some say
after a great victory, That's also a good time to remember
that he's your shepherd. There are others who even say
he wrote this in his sunset years, as he's looking over his life,
and he says, the Lord is my shepherd. I don't know when he wrote this,
the scripture doesn't tell us, but I do know the reasons that
he wrote it. Number one, he wrote it to declare
that the Lord of glory, that is, Jesus Christ, our Savior,
and our sovereign, is the shepherd of his people. He wrote it for
that reason, so we'd know who the shepherd is. And secondly,
he wrote it so that we would come to have confidence in him,
because he is the shepherd of the sheep. I read a really interesting
story. I started telling it yesterday
at the funeral, but I didn't want to take up too much time. But a great congregation gathered
together to hear a missionary who had come back to America,
and he was speaking at a very large church somewhere in the
city up north. And lots of people came out to
hear this missionary speak. And among them was a great orator,
an English orator, an actor who had a very great voice, who had
often recited Psalm 23. With him was his business manager, The old missionary got up and
he preached. And then, at the end of his message,
he just quoted Psalm 23. And most people began to weep. And the business manager leaned
over to this orator and he said, I've heard you quote Psalm 23
many times. But this has never happened where
people weep. It's never happened when you
read or when you quoted Psalm 23. It's never happened that
people broke out weeping. And the orator said, I can tell
you The difference. The business manager said, what's
the difference? He said, I know the psalm. He knows the shepherd. He knows the shepherd. These words in these six verses, they're more than just words.
This is a message to the sheep. Oh, be comforted, be comforted
here. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. That's the key to the whole thing.
Tell me who your shepherd is, and I'll tell you if you're all
right. And David says, I'll tell you
who my shepherd is, he's the Lord. Well, then everything's
alright. No wonder you won't lack any
good thing. No wonder you're not going to
want for anything because of who your shepherd is. Now, if
your Jesus is weak and feeble and He wants to do some things
and people won't let Him and all that kind of foolishness
and nonsense, well, you can't get any comfort from a Jesus
like that. But if He's the Lord, if He's
the Lord, if He's the Sovereign, You can get great comfort from
the fact he's your shepherd, because he can't fail to do anything.
He'll take care of his sheep. He always has and he always will.
And David says, with great assurance and confidence, the Lord is my
shepherd. He didn't say, I think He is,
or maybe He is, or He's going to be one day, or I hope He is. He said, the Lord is my shepherd.
Now that's a blessed assurance right there. Blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. Here's our confidence. The one
who is our shepherd is the Lord. Everything about our salvation,
redemption, sanctification, justification, glorification, all of it hinges
on this. Who is our shepherd? He's the
Lord of glory. He's Lord eternally. He made
all things. And He's been made Lord because
He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross, wherefore God hath highly exalted Him,
and given Him a name which is above every name, that it's the
name of Jesus. Every knee shall bow, things
in heaven and things under the earth, and every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father. Peter said to that crowd on the
day of Pentecost, you with your wicked hand, you crucified the
Lord of glory. God has exalted him. God raised
him and exalted him and made him both Lord and Christ. Who's your shepherd? He better be the Lord of glory.
because He's the only one that can do anything for the sheep.
And if He doesn't reign over all things, there's no hope for
you or hope for me either, if He doesn't reign over all things.
When did He become our Shepherd? Before the world began. He's
the Great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. The sheep were given to Him,
entrusted to Him by the Father. Save my sheep, the Father said. And in the end, you'll see the
sheep, read it in Matthew 25. The sheep at His right hand,
and to them He says, Come ye blessed of My Father. Inherit
the kingdom prepared for you. Since when? Well, since we believe. No. prepared for you from before
the foundation of the world. That's how long He's been our
Shepherd. Now, when did I realize He's
my Shepherd? When He called me by His grace. And because He is my Shepherd,
I shall not want. I believe Him. It's not that I have great faith. Understand this. It's not that
I have great faith, but I have faith in a great shepherd. Can't
you say that? I wouldn't say my faith is great.
I pray for the increase of faith. But even the weakest faith that
takes hold of the great shepherd is safe. It's safe. The Lord is my shepherd. And
because He's my shepherd, I shall not want. I shall not want. I shall never lack for any good
thing. Oh, how vast are His benefits. Blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In Him we have wisdom. righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Let him that glorieth glory in
this great shepherd. And then look at the second verse. Of course, I love all this psalm.
I was looking over this again today, and this just kind of
jumped out at me. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. You know what I call that? Making
grace. Making grace. Aren't you glad
He makes you lie down? You'd think we'd do it naturally,
but we won't. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures and then watch, He leads me. He doesn't leave me on my own.
Find your way the best you can. That's Armenian error. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures. That's effectual grace. I'm the ruler of my own destiny. I'm the master of my own fate.
I don't want that. I want Him to make me. Make me,
Lord. Don't you want Him to make you?
Because if He doesn't make me willing in the day of His power,
I won't be willing. That's the truth. He makes me to lie down. Where
do we lie down? Green pastures, the Word of God. Here's a flock of sheep here
tonight. We're laying down in the green
pastures. That's what we're doing. Lush
pastures, because it's the Word of God. And then He leads me
beside the still waters. Not the troubled waters. Not
fast rolling rivers that scare you to death. Wouldn't want to
go tubing on them, be too dangerous. No, that's not where He leads
us. He leads us beside the still waters. Oh, there's a calmness.
There's a calmness in the Word of God. A calmness in the Lord
that He gives to us. If you look at the news, everything's in an upheaval,
isn't it? It's just like nothing good on the news. You know, one
of the things that we liked about Japan, in Japan, their news,
it's all entertainment. It's kind of funny. They don't
major on the negative stuff, but you turn the news on here. upheaval, demonstrations, violence, anger,
all of that mess. And sometimes we'll watch a little
bit of that and turn it off. Let me just be led by the still
waters, quiet. You see, really, all this junk
that's going on out here It's a sad thing. It's a sad day.
We all acknowledge that. The immorality, the perversion,
the false religion out there. It's absolutely horrible. But
for the sheep, for the sheep, He leads us beside the still
waters. Nothing to trouble you. Don't
be troubled. Don't be anxious. Don't be fearful. The disciples on the Sea of Galilee
with the Master of the Masters in the back of the boat, he fell
asleep. And in his sleep, he wills a
storm. And the disciples, like us, When
we face a storm, we go into pieces. Lord! Carest Thou not that we
perish? And the Sovereign, He says to
them, O ye of little faith, peace be still. The wind stopped blowing. The
storm's over. dark clouds blow away, blue skies
and sunshine. Why did you fear? Why are you
so afraid? Why do you have such weak faith?
He said. He leads us. He makes me to lie
down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. Look at verse three. He restoreth
my soul. And another psalm, it says, he
restored that which he took not away. We lost everything in Adam,
but our Lord Jesus came and he restored everything we lost in
Adam and infinitely more. He restored my soul. He saved
me. He makes me lie down. He leads
me beside the still water. He restoreth my soul. And He
leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Every step I take is ordained
of the Lord. Paths of righteousness. And He
does it for His glory. And He says this in verse 4.
Yea, yes, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil, and here's the reason, for thou
art with me. And I said this yesterday, that
really our whole journey of life is lived in the shadow, in the
valley of the shadow of death. Death is all around us. But he says, I'm not going to
fear any evil. And the reason I'm not going
to fear any evil is because the shepherd is with me. Can anything
happen to one of the sheep if the shepherd is holding that
sheep in his arms? Cradling that little lamb in
his bosom? Nothing truly evil can happen
to the sheep. And maybe He won't cause the
storm clouds to pass over. He might keep in the storm. But like those disciples, don't
forget, boys, the Savior, the Shepherd, He's in the boat with
you. And I'll guarantee you, the boat's
not going down with Him in it. And I'm in it with Him. I'm in
the good ship of grace. And the captain of my salvation
is Christ Himself, my shepherd. He's leading me. He's guiding
me. He's directing me. He's making
me to lie down. He restored me. He leads me in
paths of righteousness. And even though I walk through
this valley of the shadow of death every day, not knowing
what shall befall me, nor do you know what's gonna happen
to you. But he says, I will fear no evil because thou art with
me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Some say the rod is the rod of correction, the rod of chastisement. Well, he does chasten us when
we need it. But I rather think the rod stands
for the scepter, the scepter that the king holds in his hand.
This is what comforts me. He rules. He rules. He rules the world, as I said
a while ago. If he rules over everything,
then I don't have anything to worry about. thy rod and thy staff." A shepherd's
staff, of course, got a crook on it. And it's to pull a sheep back
in with the rest of the flock, and I'm thankful he doesn't let
us wander off. He's put that crook around my
neck and gently pulled me back in a bunch of times, and you
too. But also this rod and staff there,
the numbering, that's the way they numbered the sheep and examined
the sheep. Sheep been out all day and they
come back in. The shepherd, you know, they
pick up stuff out there when they're eating, briars, and you
gotta be careful that these sheep are taken care of. And so the
shepherd takes the crook of his staff and he takes hold of the
sheep and he examines him. Make sure you're all right. And then he goes on into the
fold. I want to tell you something. This may be a startling statement
to you, but I'll tell you what, when God Almighty examines me, when he inspects me, He sees
no sin. Can you get hold of that? He
sees no sin, no iniquities in his people because the Savior
bore them all and he bore them away. And God sees us in the
Lord Jesus. Thou anointest my head with oil. He refreshes us. Traveling through this wilderness,
we often need refreshing. He refreshes us with His Spirit. And David says, my cup just runs
over. Nancy's daddy used to have a
little saying. He'd say, I have more blessings
than a man can say grace over. In other words, I have more blessings
than a man can really be fully thankful for. My cup runs over, doesn't yours?
If we're just, we're so negative thinking, well my cup's only
half full, I beg your pardon, it's running over. You're just
looking at it the wrong way. It's running over with the blessings
of God. You've been blessed with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. David
says, my cup's running over. And I said, well, I'm going to
move my cup under yours. Maybe I can get some of that
in my cup. As I realize the blessings of
God to me, maybe it'll help others realize that God's blessing them
too. And then the last verse. He says, surely. And that's a
word kind of akin to amen or, you know, so often in the New
Testament, the Savior said, verily, verily, verily, I say unto you. Here David says, he said, surely,
verily. This is a truth. Goodness and
mercy. I call them twins. These twins,
goodness and mercy, shall follow me all the days of my life. When I was formed in my mother's
womb, over 70 years ago, goodness and mercy were right
there. And when I came out into this
world Probably got my first spanking, maybe. And I started to cry. Goodness and mercy, they were
there. And all through my days of youth,
falling out of trees, getting hurt playing, just like with
you, goodness and mercy were there. Hey, nothing's gonna harm
you, not really. God sent these wonderful, blessed
twins. Goodness and mercy. And goodness
and mercy followed you. And they pushed you by God's
sovereign grace to hear the gospel. And you heard the truth of Christ
and Him crucified, buried, risen, exalted. And you believed the
gospel. And goodness and mercy's still
there. See, they were there in your years of rebellion, in your
years of unbelief, in your years of false religion. Goodness and
mercy were there. When you was telling me yesterday
about the church y'all were in, goodness and mercy were there,
really pushing you out. Pushing you out. At church we
were, goodness and mercy were there. I said, you don't need
to stay here. I'll get you out. All you gotta
do is tell the preacher, believe in sovereign grace, you're not
gonna be worth anything around here anyway. Goodness and mercy
pushed me out, pushed me out of college. And they're still back there.
Thank you, goodness. Thank you, mercy. That's God's
goodness to me. That's God's mercy. And they'll
follow me. till I get to my deathbed or
ever how God's already ordained for me to leave this world. And
goodness and mercy gonna say, here you go. Here you go. And goodness and mercy will take
me to glory. They'll follow me all the days
of my life. And David says this, and I will,
I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Well, how can you be upset over
anything when this is the way it is? It's shame on us. It's shame on me for doubting
and having fears, being troubled. I don't have any troubles. Why
not? Because I have the Savior, Psalm
22. The Lord is my shepherd, the
same one who's my Savior is my shepherd. Psalm 23 and Psalm
24, He's the Sovereign. Isn't that wonderful? Now you
go out of here tonight with a smile in your heart, and you can even
have it reflected on your face. And Lord, don't let us forget
this. Because these things do have
a way of kind of seeping out of our minds, don't they? I know,
because I'm just like you. Yeah. Let's pray. Thank You,
Lord, for the sweetness of the Word of God. And oh Lord, how
glorious it is that You minister to Your sheep. Thank you. We're the sheep of your pasture.
We were lost sheep. You found us. We're the black
sheep of the family in our iniquity and depravity. But you washed
us. You robed us. We stand before
you in the beauties of the king. Oh, blessed Lord, thank you for
saving our souls. For Jesus' sake, I offer this
thanksgiving. Amen.