Welcome to our program. Now today
I'm going to be preaching from Psalm 23, the 23rd Psalm, which
is I'm sure familiar to most of you, if not all of you. Maybe
one you have memorized, and it's certainly a great, great Psalm,
Psalm 23. The title of the message is,
The Lord My Shepherd. The Lord My Shepherd, and of
course this is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the
Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, and the Chief Shepherd as he's
identified in the Word of God. Let me say a little bit about
the context of Psalm 23. In the Psalms, we have here in
Psalm 23 what we call a trilogy. There are three Psalms here that
sort of go together. Psalm 22, Psalm 23, and Psalm
24. Now Psalm 22 is a psalm that is, we call it
a messianic psalm, because it's a psalm of the Messiah, and it
teaches and represents and symbolizes Christ, the great high priest. It represents Christ doing his
high priestly work, the priest of the old covenant, you remember,
in the Old Testament, in the tabernacle, in the temple. He
was a type of Christ, that office was. And in order to have a proper
atonement or propitiation for sin, which is a satisfaction
for sin, you had to have the appointed priest of God, you
had to have the altar, and you had to have the blood sacrifice.
In Christ, eternally and spiritually, we see all three. He is the great
high priest. He is the one who substituted
himself as the sin bearer, the sin offering. He died for the
sins of his people. And then he is the altar. He himself was set apart by God
to be the savior of his people. Now that's what Psalm 22 represents. It starts off, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Now David is speaking there,
but he's speaking typically foreshadowing the words of the Messiah whom
David typified on the cross. When Christ was on the cross
and he was under the wrath of his father for the sins of his
sheep charged to him, he said, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He died for our sins. Now, Psalm
23 represents the shepherd, Christ the good shepherd. And this represents
his prophetic office, as Psalm 22 represents his priestly office.
Psalm 23 represents his prophetic office as the good shepherd,
as the shepherd of the sheep, who guides them into all truth
and who cares for them. And then Psalm 24 represents
the kingly office of Christ. It starts out, the earth is the
Lord's in the fullness thereof. Then it mentions the King of
glory. Who is this King of glory? It's none other than Christ,
the King of Kings. So here we have in this trilogy
Christ our priest, Christ our prophet, and Christ our King. Now I want us to look at verse
or chapter 23, Psalm 23 rather, and it starts out, The Lord is
my shepherd, or the Lord my shepherd I shall not want. Now the Lord
there is Jehovah. That title, that name Jehovah,
means God our Savior, God my Savior. And what he says is,
God my Savior, who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, He
is God in human flesh, He is my Savior, and He is my Shepherd. Now over in the book of John,
chapter 10, the Lord taught His disciples concerning this issue
of His office as Prophet, His office as Shepherd. And I want
you to notice this in verse 11 of John chapter 10. He says,
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Now he identifies himself as
the good shepherd. Back then the shepherd who had
his sheep, he cared for those sheep and he would even give
his life for those sheep if he's a good shepherd. So here we see
who Christ is. He's the good shepherd. We see
what he did on Calvary and for whom he died. He died for his
sheep. And this is right in line with
what he says back here in Psalm 23 in the first verse. The Lord
is my shepherd. In other words, God who saved
me from my sins, God in human flesh, Jehovah, who died for
me, is my shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Now why did he have to give his
life for his sheep? Well, Isaiah 53 mentions this,
it says, We all like sheep have gone astray. We are sinners. You see, Christ's sheep, the
ones for whom he died, the ones whom he redeemed, the ones who
shall be saved without fail, by nature they were lost sheep,
dead and depraved, spiritually dead, who are under the wrath
of God by nature and cannot save themselves. God must be satisfied
in his justice. The soul that sinneth must die.
So if there's a good shepherd, he must die for the sheep. That's
why Christ died. He died to save his people from
their sins. He died to put away our sins.
He died to satisfy the justice of God against their sins. He
died to establish righteousness whereby God could justify such
ungodly sheep. And He brings them into the kingdom
of God. Now, somebody makes this statement,
how can I know if the Lord is my shepherd? How can I know if
He died for me? How can I know if I'm one of
His sheep? Well, let me read some more in
John chapter 10 to give you the truth of this from the Scripture.
He says down in verse 14 of John 10, He says, I am the good shepherd
and know my sheep and am known of mine. Now here's what he's
saying. He says the good shepherd knows his sheep and the sheep
know him. Back in these days when a shepherd
had sheep and they bring them into a city such as Jerusalem,
they had a sheep gate and a sheep fold. All the sheep were brought
into the sheep gate and they were all brought into the sheep
fold and they were all mixed up together, different shepherds,
different flocks of sheep. How did the sheep know the shepherd? Well, he would come in and he
had a specific calling that he would say, a specific sound that
only his sheep would know. And when he would come in there
and make that specific sound, that calling, here would come
his sheep. He knew his sheep and his sheep
knew him. And that's how we know that Christ
died for me, how we know that Christ died for any of us. He
knows His people. He knows them in sovereign electing
grace. He knows them in love, unconditional
love. We don't deserve to be loved.
We haven't earned His love. He loves the unlovely. He knows
them in redemptive grace. He bought them and paid for them
by His own precious blood. He knows them in justifying grace. It is God who justified them
in Christ. He knows them in regenerating
grace. He sends His Spirit into the
world for their new birth, and He brings them, calls them, so
that they recognize, He gives them ears to hear so that they
can recognize His voice in the calling of the gospel. He says
in verse 15 of John 10, As the Father knoweth me, even so know
I the Father, and I laid down my life for the sheep, Verse
16, he says, and other sheep I have which are not of this
fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice,
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Now what's he talking
about there? Other sheep which are not of
this fold. Well, he has some sheep among the Jews, and he
has some sheep among the Gentiles. God's elect, God has chosen a
people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Christ redeemed
them on the cross, and they shall hear His voice and come to Him. The Bible says, and Paul wrote
in Romans 1 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first, and to the Greek also, the Gentile also. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. So His sheep are going
to hear His voice, Well, over in verse 25 of John 10, now he's
preaching, he's teaching his disciples, but there are also
unbelievers there, the Pharisees who rejected him. And listen
to what he says to them in verse 25. It says, Jesus answered them,
I told you and you believed not the works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. Now the works that he's speaking
of is all that he did to keep the law, all of his miracles,
and ultimately his work on the cross. And he says in verse 26,
But you believe not, because you are not of my sheep. As I
said unto you, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me. And he says, And I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
pluck them out of my hand. He says, My Father which gave
them me is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck out
of my Father's hand. So that's who His sheep are.
Now back over here in Psalm 23, this is how I know the Lord is
my shepherd. He's my shepherd. He laid down
His life for me. He called me into His fold. I
know, He knows me and I know Him in His Word, by the power
of the Spirit. He's God in human flesh. He's
my Savior, my Redeemer. He didn't come down here and
try to save me or try to save you. He saves His sheep. He said
over in John chapter 6 and verse 37, He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He said, This is the Father's
will that hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me
I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.
Now look back at Psalm 23 verse 1, The Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not want. Wanting means lacking. means
you have need of something that you don't have and he's saying
here if the Lord Christ who saved me from my sins Christ who washed
me in his blood Christ by whose righteousness I'm justified before
God Christ by whom the Holy Spirit has called me into his fold Christ
who is my shepherd if I'm in him and I have him if he knows
me and I know him I have everything that I need in him Everything
that God requires of me, I find in Him. All wisdom, all righteousness,
all holiness, all redemption, I have in Christ. He is my shepherd. And everything that I need, all
things, all blessings, all eternal life, all spiritual graces, I
have in Christ. I don't want for anything. I
have the riches of His treasury. I have the inheritance of his
grace and glory. Everything that it takes to save
me, to keep me, and to bring me to heaven, I have, because
he's my shepherd. He says in verse 2, he maketh
me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still
waters. What he's talking about there
is that the Good Shepherd gives me peace, he gives me assurance,
he makes me to lie down in green pastures, and the green pastures,
that's where the sheep feed, That's His Word. We feast upon His Word. His Word has been implanted into
our hearts, our minds, affections, and will. And we have His written
Word that teaches us of Him. Who He is and what He did, why
He did it, where He is now. And guides us, you see. And He
leads us beside the still waters, peaceful waters, not the stormy
seas. As we go through this life, we'll
face stormy seas. But He'll bring us through, and
in doing so, He'll lead us beside the still waters of His grace
and His glory. All that He accomplished for
us, there's nothing that we lack, you see, in Him. That's what
a believer is. That's what a sheep is. He has
everything He needs from the shepherd. And these still waters,
you know, Christ spoke of Himself quite often as the water of life. He told the woman at the well,
he said, if you'll just look to me, he said, there'll be rivers
of living water, fountains of living water that spring up through
you. That's what he does, still waters,
because they're peaceful, because he's the Prince of Peace. He
goes on in verse 3, he says, he restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Now, when He
restores our soul, that's what He means is that we get weary
quite often. A believer, a sheep, as they're
going through this life, we get weary. But He restores us. And how does He do it? By His
Spirit and by His Word that continually feeds us and leads us and guides
us. And He leads us in paths of righteousness. Now, what does that mean? He
leads us in paths of Himself. resting in Christ, for His namesake. He shows me the way of righteousness
before God. What is that way? Well, Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by Him. And He said, by Me. And when
He leads us in the path of righteousness, that's not leading us to establish
a righteousness of our own. That's wicked. But it's leading
us to rest in Him and follow Him as the Lord our righteousness. And it's for His namesake. In
other words, it's to honor Him, not honor us. Our honor is Christ. It's to show how He's worthy. Not that we're worthy. Our worthiness
is Christ. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. In verse 4, he says this, 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." You see here, as we walk through this life, it
is a valley of the shadow of death. In this world, there's
nothing but death. In the works of man, there's
nothing but death. Death, death, because sin demands
death. The Bible teaches that the soul
that sinneth must surely die. And there's no way out of that
to be found on this earth because it's the valley of the shadow
of death. When the Bible speaks of death,
you can look at death in several different ways. There's physical
death, which we all must experience. Now, somebody says, well, if
we're alive when the Lord comes back, we won't have to experience
physical death. But the truth of the matter is,
is we will have to experience the equivalent of physical death.
And the reason is, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15 that
this corruptible body, that's what it means by this corruptible,
must put on incorruption. So we who are in Christ now,
and I stress that because if you're a sinner who has not yet
sought the Lord and come to Christ and submitted to Him and His
righteousness as your only ground of salvation, then you need to
do that now. You need to come to Him. But
all of us who are in Christ, we shall be changed in the twinkling
of an eye. And so we won't maybe experience
what others experience in physical death, but we will, if we're
alive when the Lord comes again, we will experience the equivalent.
Either way, this body, the Scripture says in Romans 8, is dead because
of sin. But the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. So now when it says this body
is dead because of sin, it's my sin. But the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. Who? Christ. In other words,
the only reason I have spiritual eternal life is because of Christ
and His righteousness. Now, you can talk about spiritual
death. You can talk about eternal death.
But here's the key. He says, Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. We don't
have to fear death. Over in the book of Hebrews chapter
6, the scriptures speak, or chapter 2 rather, Hebrews 2, the scriptures
speak of being delivered from the fear of death, the bondage
of the fear of death. And that's what Satan's hold
is on people. He gets people so afraid of death
to inspire them to seek ways of salvation that dishonor God. Ways of salvation that essentially
end up in death. When Christ died on the cross
for his sheep, as the good shepherd gave his life for his sheep,
you know what he did? He conquered death. O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
It's all removed. Why? Because Christ died. It's Christ that died. Over in
Romans chapter 8, after Paul related the whole reality and
truth of God's grace for his people, for Christ's sheep, for
those who are resting in Christ. He said, what shall we say to
these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? And he said this, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is Christ that died,
yea rather, is risen again. Who can condemn us? Who can,
is God who justifies, who can condemn us? It is Christ that
died, yea rather is risen again. And he's seated at the right
hand of the Father, making intercession for us. You see, Christ died
so that his people would not have to die eternally and everlastingly. He conquered death, so we don't
have to fear. And then he says, for thou art
with me. Christ is with his people. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. He'll never leave us alone. We
may feel like he has, but he hasn't. The Word of God tells
us plainly, our Lord made that promise, and He says, thy rod
and thy staff, they comfort me. The rod and staff is His discipline. You know, the shepherd of the
sheep, he had to have a rod as staff, you see, the same thing.
And that's the way He guided the sheep through the sheep gate.
He guided them into the pasture. He used that rod. And it's the
Word of God for us, for us who are His sheep, for we who are
His sheep. He guides us by His Word. He says in verse 5, Thou
preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
You know, God always, always provides for his people, even
in the presence of their enemies. And they may seem like they're
going without, but they're not. And it reminds me of the gospel
feast. The gospel feast is a feast prepared
by Christ. Whenever you're called into the
kingdom by the gospel, It's not a covered dish dinner, bring
your own food. It's already prepared. And he continually prepares that
feast. He meets our every need. Now sometimes we don't get what
we want. But you see the problem is, we're just like little children. The sheep are, you know, that's
one reason why we're called sheep. You know, somebody told me one
time that sheep were the dumbest of animals, and they may be.
But we're just like little children, we who are his sheep. We want
things that aren't good for us, but our Heavenly Father, He knows
what we need, and He knows what's good for us, and He provides
it even in the face of our enemies. He says here in verse 5, Thou
anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Now anytime
you see in the Scripture the anointing of oil, it's representative
or symbolic of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
is the sovereign agent in the new birth. He comes from Christ
as the fruit and result of what Christ accomplished at Calvary
to give the sheep spiritual life, to give them ears to hear, to
give them eyes to see, spiritual ears, spiritual eyes, to give
them a heart to understand and know the reality of their sins
and the greatness of the glory of Christ in Him crucified. And
He anoints our head with oil. He anoints our minds, our affections,
our wills, the heart. This is the oil of gladness.
It's the oil of joy that a sheep can only find in the shepherd,
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, all the joys that we
have here on this earth, all the gladness that we have here
on this earth is temporary. We may have moments of joy, and
as we grow older, they usually become even more moments of sorrow.
But what joy we have in this life is temporary. But the joy
that we have in Christ, the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd,
the Chief Shepherd, is eternal. It's joy, and joy and more joy,
and it's gladness. And He says, My cup runneth over.
In other words, there's no end to it. You can drink from this
cup, and it'll never go dry. It's always filled with the joy
and peace that comes in believing. Now look at verse 6. He says,
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life. Those who are true sheep, believers,
justified sinners, know well by the Word of God that all their
lives, no matter what we experience throughout this life, whether
it's pain, affliction, trials and sorrows, or whether it's
joy and gladness and things, it is always accompanied with
the goodness and the mercy of God. Goodness, because you know
why? Because as Romans 8.28 says,
that God, God works all things together. for our good, for those
who love God, who are the called according to His purpose. He
overrules even ourselves and works it for His glory and our
good. And what about mercy? Well, now
and forever, it's of the Lord's mercies that we are not concerned. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 103,
he says, O Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who
would stand? If you would impute or credit
sin to me, I would not stand. Thank God my sins are imputed
or accounted and credited to Christ and He took care of them.
He paid the debt and His righteousness is imputed, credited, accounted
to me. It's of the Lord's mercy. Then
he concludes, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever
to length of days. In other words, there's no end
to it. My friend, this shepherd's psalm tells us that there's no
end to salvation. You can't be saved today and
lost tomorrow. If you're saved today and lost
tomorrow, I'm going to tell you why that is. Because you were
never saved to begin with and the Lord is not your shepherd.
That's what it's saying. If the Lord is my shepherd, I
shall not want. If the Lord is my shepherd, I'm
going to have the green pastures and the still waters. If the
Lord is my shepherd, I'm going to be led in paths of righteousness.
I'm going to walk through the valley of the shadow of death
and fear no evil, and I'm going to be comforted. and I'm going
to be guided by his rod and his staff. If the Lord is my shepherd,
my table is always prepared, my head is always anointed with
evil, with the good that stands against evil, with the oil of
gladness, and my cup always will run over. If the Lord is my shepherd,
goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and
I'm going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever and forever
and forever. There'll be no end to it, absolutely,
in Christ. I hope this message has been
helpful to your understanding of the Scriptures. And if you'd
like to get a copy of this message, listen to the announcer as he
gives you the details. The title of the message is,
The Lord My Shepherd. And I hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's Word.