The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. 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, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever." Look back here in the 23rd Psalm
with me, and the message is in the title. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. You know David was a shepherd. He was a shepherd. He generally
took the youngest in the family and sent them out to take care
of the sheep. Well that's what he did. Maybe he wrote this psalm
when he was thinking about the sheep and how he took care of
the sheep. Maybe he wrote this psalm when
he was fixing to leave this world and he began to think about His
eternal home, being with the Lord Jesus Christ. But I do know
this, that the psalm before this is the 22nd psalm. The psalm
of the cross. The psalm of the cross, where
Christ was forsaken and all the things that he went through.
And then, he comes and says, the Lord is my shepherd. All
the anguish has been done. The victory's been won. Sin's
been put away. Christ has arisen. Christ sits
at the right hand of God. And so David says here, and we
say, the Lord's my shepherd. You know why he's my shepherd?
Because he died for me. My shepherd. My shepherd. And
when we understand the 23rd, 22nd Psalms, and what Christ
did for us there, we can truthfully, thankfully, honestly say, the
Lord's my shepherd. The Lord's my shepherd. You know,
he was the one who purchased the sheep. He said he laid down
his life for the sheep. David, you know, he fought a
bear, And he fought a lion and slew both of them to protect
his sheep. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ met
much greater enemies than that. Great, greater enemies than that.
And he destroyed them. He defeated them for one reason.
Take care of his sheep. Because he loved his sheep. And
look who it says the shepherd is. It says the Lord. The Lord. Not just anybody's the shepherd,
the Lord is. Who is this Lord he's talking
about? Well, of course, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ, that's who he's talking about. He's the shepherd
of the sheep. The shepherd of the sheep is
the Lord of lords and king of kings. He rides on a white horse. He's got all power in heaven
and earth. And I tell you, beloved, you're
talking about sheep, and a kind shepherd, and a blessed shepherd.
Our shepherd is the Lord Jehovah, the Lord God, the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. Now you keep 22nd Psalm here,
and look over here in Psalm 100. I want you, here's something
here I want you to see. About being the Lord's sheep.
Psalm 100. Look down verse 3. look what he says know ye that
the Lord he is God it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves
now when he says what's not he that made us it's not he that
has made us and what he's talking about making us his sheep and
we not ourselves we didn't make ourselves sheep we didn't have
a clue we was one of the sheep until we heard the shepherds
voice And we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. He made us that way. He made
us that way. And I tell you, beloved, He owns
the sheep as His Lord. You know, when that Luke 15 said,
when that shepherd had all them sheep, one of them, one of them
was lost. Just one of them. And the scripture
said he went into the wilderness. Christ came into the wilderness.
The wilderness of this world. The wilderness of sin. The wilderness
of depravity. The wilderness of wickedness.
The wilderness of where he was aided. He went into the wilderness
and he sought that sheep until he found it. And that's the way
He does. He knows where His sheep are
and He's come into this wilderness to find them. And when He has
found it, people say, I found the Lord. No, He found us. He
wasn't the one lost. We was the one lost. And he finds
that lost sheep, and you know what he does? He puts it on his
shoulder, and he carries it all the way back. And I'll tell you,
bless his holy name, I'll tell you, he's the shepherd. And you
know our Lord, he said, I know my sheep. I know my sheep. And you know what else he said?
And my sheep hear my voice, and are known of me. Oh, by I tell
you, the Lord Jesus Christ, there's nothing like hearing His voice.
But God made Him to be Lord. You know, you've seen these billboards
and stuff up, you know, that says, you know, so and so, Jesus
is Lord over this place and that place, in this town, that town,
wherever they want to put it up at. Well, I got news for you.
Putting His name on a billboard doesn't make Him Lord. He was
Lord whether anybody ever acknowledges Him as Lord. God gave Him a name
that's above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee
is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. Why? To the glory of God the
Father. Now that's our shepherd. That's
our shepherd. That's my shepherd. And then
look what it says. He said, the Lord is, watch what
it says, the Lord Jesus Christ is my shepherd, is my shepherd. Now you notice here it says,
no ifs, no ifs, no maybes, or no hope so, no perhaps, the Lord
Jesus Christ is my shepherd. Oh my, that's what he said, is. Not I hope he is, I'd like for
him to be and I think he is, but he is. Oh my, he is my shepherd and
he owns me. You know where He owes me at?
He owes me before the Father who gave me to Him and gave us
to Him. You know, John 17 says this,
that Christ said, I have all power over all flesh is given
unto me that I may give eternal life. Now who's He going to give
eternal life to? As many as thou hast given me. Huh? So He has to own us as His
sheep. Now this is one thing that when
I learned the gospel, the shepherd's responsible for the sheep. God
don't turn sheep loose to do what they want and go where they
want. He is the shepherd's responsible for the sheep. And I tell you, He owns us as
His sheep. He loves us and bought us with
His own blood. and you know the Lord Jesus Christ
is a shepherd in three ways he's called the great shepherd of
the sheep that was brought again from the dead to the blood of
the everlasting covenant he's called the chief shepherd of
the sheep when he shall appear we shall see him as he is and
shall receive a crown of glory and then he's the good shepherd
that laid down his life for the sheep so he's our shepherd When
before he got here, he's our shepherd. He was the shepherd
of the everlasting covenant before he ever come in this world. He was the shepherd, chief shepherd. Then when he got here, he was
a good shepherd, laid down his life for the sheep. And he's
the chief shepherd, he's going to come back again. And look
what he said here now. In the next verse. He said there in that first verse,
I shall not want. Now what in the world is he talking
about? I shall not want. I may be the weakest, the dumbest, the slowest, sorriest, that they are. I may wander,
I may stray, I may grow old and feeble, but
God says I shall not want. Now he didn't say you should
have all you wish, even all you'd like to have. But he says you
shall not want. Oh my, we may endure sickness. We may endure sorrow. We may
walk the valley of the Shad, going, you know, we certainly
talked about it the other day, going down the valley, one by
one by one by one. And you know, we're going to
have to walk that valley one of these days and stand before
God's throne. But I shall not want, because
the Lord is my shepherd. Huh? Oh my, I certainly don't
want righteousness because I got His. I don't want forgiveness
because He put my sins away. I don't want justification. His rose. He rose again for my
justification. I don't want for a new nature.
He gave me one of them. I don't want for His blessed
word. He gave us that. And I'll not want for any good
thing in this world. You know, beloved, our Lord Jesus
Christ, you know what He said? He said He's going to present
us flawless before His throne in glory. That's what He's going
to do. That's what He's going to do.
And then look what He said. And oh, I shall not want. I won't
want for rest. Now, I want you to notice something.
Everything here, the Lord does it. Now, I like this right here. It says, He makes me to lie down
in green pastures. When you get real, real tired,
I mean, you know, you want to go stretch out. But we are so
taken up with this flesh and the things of this flesh and
this world that our Lord Jesus Christ, He has to make us lay
down. We don't want to lay down. But
he says, he maketh us to lie down. He gets all his sheep and
says, lie down here now. Where does he tell us to lie
down at? Rest in him. That's what he's talking about.
Rest in him. And I tell you what, maketh us
to lie down in the green pastures. Oh my. And when we land down
in them green pastures, what's the green pastures? I tell you
what, the green pastures of his covenant, The green pastures
of His oath, the green pastures of His blood and His righteousness,
green pastures of His word and His rest. My Lord Jesus Christ
said, come unto me and rest. And I tell you what, why in the
world would we be afraid of any enemies when the Lord makes us
to lay down? You remember when He fed those
multitudes. in two different places. The
scripture says that make them sit down. Make them sit down. Make them
sit down. Sit them down right there. And the Lord, I tell you
what, He makes us sit down. And when you land and He makes
you to lie down, and He puts you down, you will stay down.
Don't you? Oh, the Lord can put me anywhere
He wants to. Then look what He says, and then
He leadeth me beside the still waters. Oh my, you know there's
such peace beside the still waters. When He talks about the still
waters here, they're called waters of quietness. Waters of quietness. Now there's rivers and creeks
and things you can go to, you can really hear them. You can
hear them a long way off. But boy, when He takes you and
lays you down beside a water that's so quiet and so still
and so refreshing and is so wonderful. He takes you in these green pastures
and then He lays you down right beside some still waters. And
I tell you what the still waters of his precious precious word
the still waters of his gospel the still waters of peace The
still waters of rest. Oh My he leadeth me beside the
still waters You know our lives are made up of two parts See
if I can explain this best I can two parts we have we think and
then we do. We have thoughts and then we
have deeds. We think of something, then we
get active. And that person who can think and do in both cases,
when he meditates and is active, He's a blessed, blessed person
in both areas that can say the Lord is my shepherd in my thinking
and in my doing. That He's the Lord of my... You
know what? Do you thank Him as the Lord
your shepherd? And then do you put it in action? Yes, He's my shepherd. I'm going
to go to my shepherd. My shepherd's going to take me.
And then He said, I shall not want for peace here because I
rest in mind, I rest in soul, fed by His Word, assured by his
promises and then he says he makes us to lie down in green
pastures and then he leads us, he leads us beside the still
waters, wonderful still waters. You know, that's still waters. That also means peace. Such peace. You know, when He leads you.
He leads you. He makes you lie down, then when
you get up, He starts leading you again. Starts leading you.
You know, sometimes trials are pictured as deep waters, troubled
waters, waves of the sea. But our Lord Jesus Christ leads
us beside still waters. Then look what else He does. He said, He restores my soul. Oh, what did He restore our soul
from? Psalm 69 verse 4 said, He restored that which He took
not away. I tell you one thing He restored.
He restored life that we lost in Adam. He restored that. He gave us life. We were dead,
and He gave us life. We lost life in Adam, but He
restored life. And He gave us a new life, a
new heart, a new nature. And I'll tell you, in Adam we
died, but in Christ we're made alive. And I'll tell you, He
restored us to holiness, and purity, and sanctification. We
can't, you know, I used to think that a person could make himself
holy and keep himself holy. Until I found out that holiness
is not something you do, it's a state of mind. And God himself,
Christ himself came and he restored our holiness. You know Adam,
when God made Adam, Adam was a holy and a righteous man, right
from the hand of God. But he had something that you
and I didn't have. He had one commandment to do,
and he broke that commandment. And when he done that, he lost
everything that the nature has to weigh life, truth, everything. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He came and restored it all back. 10,000 times more than what we
lost in Adam. You think we lost something in
Adam? What we lost in Adam, what we gained in Christ, not even
comparable. Not even comparable. And I tell
you what, not only did He restore us to holiness and purity, but
He restored us to God. I didn't even know who God was
until Christ come and made me to know who He was. Nobody knows
the Father, but the Son, and He to whom shall be revealed.
And you know what He's going to do one of these days? He's
going to take this old body and this soul, this soul that's going
to be with Him when this spirit that's going to be with Him when
I leave this body. But one of these days He's going
to take soul and body and put them back together and raise
them to power and glory and we're going to reign with Him forever
and ever and ever. Huh? Yes. Amen. That's not far off. And then look what else He said
here. He restored my soul and then look what He does. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Let me tell
you something. Was it your nature to know where
righteousness was? Did you know where to find it?
Would you have recognized it if you had found it? And you
sure wouldn't have walked in it. But oh my! He leads you though. But oh my, what He does when
He restores us, He leads us, He leads us there for it's His
path. It's the path of righteousness. Oh my, not only does He lead
us in the path of righteousness, He leads us in that path. And
we love that path. We walk in that path. We delight
in that path. That path is of righteousness.
And look what He said, He does it for His name's sake. Now what
does that mean? That means that He put His own
name and His honor at stake. to lead us in this path of righteousness
for His name's sake. Because He said, because for
His name's sake. For His glory and to the praise
of the glory of His grace. And then look what else He says
now. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death. Now let me say something about
this. I fear no evil. You know I think this valley
of the shadow of death, I think we are walking in it every day.
I think we are in this valley right now. We go through this
valley of the shadow of death. And you know for you to have
a shadow you got to have light. You can't have a shadow without
light. And Christ is our light, and He's already conquered death,
already destroyed His power, already put away His penalty,
He bore the curse for us, and now, beloved, because He's there,
we have this shadow. A shadow can't hurt you. A shadow may scare you sometimes. But I tell you what, a shadow
can't hurt you. And you can't have a shadow without light.
And Christ is that light and He cast that, you know, because
of that we have this shadow. Damn! And that's all it is, is
a shadow. And I tell you, in this valley
we walk through it. We walk through it every single
day while we're in this world. Every day we're in this world. And one of these days, when you
get in this valley, there's an end to a valley. And when you get through this
valley, there'll be an end to it. And the shadows will disappear. You don't need it anymore. Oh,
I tell you what, it's the valley of death. And I tell you why
it's called death down here in the valley of death. Because
the fall of Adam put the stamp and stench of death on everything
in this world. And we're walking, though we're
in this world, this world is not our home. This world is not
our dwelling place. Oh my. A shadow can't hurt us,
a shadow can't destroy us. Because Christ already destroyed
it. Then look what he says, I fear
no evil. When you got a shepherd like Christ, why would you fear
evil? He didn't say there wasn't going to be any evil. There's
plenty of that. But we don't fear, because the
Shepherd's with us. Because the Shepherd's with us.
Always with us. Where the sheep is, the Shepherd
is. Where the Shepherd is, the sheep is. And that's what He
said here. For thou art with me. I'll fear
no evil, for thou art with me. You're with me. Wherever I go,
that's where you are. Wherever you are, I am. Wherever
I am, you are. So, oh my! Yeah, He's with us, for thou
art with me. That's why we don't fear evil.
Why do we fear evil? Then look what He says here now.
And thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. You know, the rod
and staff is one and the same thing. The rod and the staff. You see these Catholics, you
know, these priests and stuff carrying one of them sticks,
you know, because they're all supposed to be shepherds and
they've got these sticks that they carry with a crook on them.
Well, I'll tell you what, when David was taking care of the
sheep, it wasn't something real fancy and fine. But when our
Lord Jesus Christ has the rod and His staff, I tell you what,
it'd be comforting. You know why it's comforting?
Because if you have to chastise, you know, every once in a while
the sheep will start getting out of line. Whom He loves, He chases. Pop!
Get back in there. Get back, get back, get back
in there. You know, and this is what's
so wonderful about the Lord chastising His people. He'll chastise one
of His elect and one of His sheep, and they'll be the only one to
know they was getting chastised. God knows, you know when you,
if you take one of your kids back there and whip them, everybody
in the mill is going to know they got a whipping. They're
going to scream and holler and you're going to hear the belt
and everything. But boy, when Christ chastises you, you're
the only one that knows He did it. Maybe He uses that thing
to number the sheep. Sheep going through there. Make
sure I got them all. Oh yeah, all the sheep are here.
All the sheep are here. Got them all in the fold. There's
some other sheep that I've got yet to bring to the fold. I'll
get them. I'll get them in there. I'll get them in there. And He
numbers the sheep. Some say that this is His sovereign
direction, His defense. That He defends the sheep with
this staff and this rod, this staff that He has. It says that
He defends them with it. Somebody gets around, He knocks
them. And I tell you, He rules the
flock. He defends the flock. He's the one that directs the
flock. And wherever He wants them to go, that's where they're
going. And I know this much, that it's a very comforting thing
to know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one taking care of us.
And He can do what He wants to. If He wants to chastise me with
His rod, or number me with His rod, or rule over me with His
rod, just as long as He defends me and takes care of me and leads
me. That's just all I... Why couldn't
we find wrong with that? Then look what else He says now.
I'm not going to want for food. I'm not going to want for food.
Thou preparest me a table. You notice now, now God doesn't
ever do this. He makes us to lie down. He leads
us. He restores us. He takes us down
the valley. His rod and staff that comfort
us. He's with us while we don't fear Him. Then He sets us a table.
On top of that, He sets a table. You remember when David set the
table for Mephibosheth? And I mean, he set the table.
And I'll tell you, our Lord Jesus Christ has set a table for us.
He said that He prepared it. He prepared the table. It's not making a table, it's
preparing what went on the table is what he's talking about. And
I tell you, we'll not want for food because there prepares the
table. Wonder what he puts on that table.
Well, I think right in the very centerpiece, right in the centerpiece,
I think is the love of God given us in Christ before the world
ever began. Secondly, I think it's the blood
that Christ shed for His own blood, shed for our sins, shed
His own blood for our sins, and then I believe that He tops it
all off with this wonderful, free, and sovereign grace, and
He set the table for us. Now, any enemy that comes up,
don't bother me. You know why? Because he put
this table right in the front. Sin's our enemy, the world's
our enemy, the devil's our enemy, the flesh is our enemy. And you
know what? He sets us a table in front of
all of them things because he's whipped all our enemies for us. Oh my, now we're not without
enemies. We're not without enemies, but
I'll tell you what. The scripture says that He prepares
a table for us in the presence of His enemy. And then when we
sit there, look what it says. He said, He anoints our head
with oil. What is that? That's the Holy Spirit that He
pours on us. Anoints us. And then look what
He says. And then He puts stuff in our
cup and our cup runs over. You ever come here sometime and
say, boy, my cup is running over. Running over. Old timers, I know
not many old timers, but you remember old timers, they'd cook,
make their coffee, and they'd make it a great old big thing,
and then they'd put it in a big saucer, and they'd pour a little
out in the saucer, you know, and let it get cool, and then
they'd set the cup down and drink it out of the saucer, you know,
let it cool down a little bit. Well, Christ gave us a cup. He drunk a cup of the dregs of
the wrath of God and then he turns around and filled our cup
with grace, and love, and mercy, and kindness, tenderness, and
pity, forgiveness. Oh, he fills our cup up. Oh my, what a, Lord give me that
cup, let me drink it. Oh, he fills my, I tell you what,
Did I ever tell you about the fellow that every time he'd come
to church he said, how you feel? I said, I'm loaded down. I mean
I'm just loaded down. And it went on for several, you
know, several times. He'd come in, how you feel? Oh, I'm just so loaded down,
just so loaded down. Somebody said, well what in the
world's the matter with you? He said, God so blessed me, loaded
me down with so many blessings that I can't hardly carry them
all to carry on. That's the way we are. He loads
us down so much. He loads us down and He fills
our cup. Oh, fills it with that love and
that grace and the fellowship. Look what a wonderful fellowship
we have. Oh, what a sweet cup it is to have fellowship like
we have. A sweet cup to know one another and love one another
and care for one another and pray for one another. What a
sweet cup. What a cup He's filled up for us. And oh my, then look
what He says. Oh, I love this right in there.
Now, now, the Lord's my shepherd, He told us. Jehovah's our God,
He said, we won't want. Then look what He says. Surely,
surely, surely because of Him, the Lord's my shepherd. Goodness
and mercy, you know, shall follow me all the days of my life. Oh, my goodness. Goodness? Oh,
my. When you look about goodness,
oh, you think about God's goodness to you. I'll tell you something
that God's good to. He gives us the gospel. That's
goodness. He gives us His Word. That's
goodness. He gives us the truth. That's
goodness. Every kept word, every sweet
gesture, every gift, every prayer, everything that God has given
us is good. Good, good, good. And then mercy. I have told you this before.
You know, over here is goodness over here and mercy is over here.
And there is nowhere you will go when them two won't be behind
you. You get up tomorrow and there
will be a new mercy sitting right there beside you. And how long are they going to
follow you? Just as long as you have a day in this life. When
you don't have another day in this life they are going to quit
following you. You are going to need them in glory. And then look what else
he said and that's why I said it'll follow me all the days
of my life Well, I'm here in this world And then when this
one's over, you know where I'm going. I'm gonna go and dwell
in the house of the Lord forever Going home. That's what it's
called going home going home. Oh Lord, we thank you. Oh God,
how we bless you and praise you and Your word is so precious,
so real to us, so vital to us. Thank you for the dear saints
of God and their love for the cross, for their love for the
word. And Lord, I thank you for their faithfulness. God bless
them. Lord, meet their needs. See them
home safely. And Lord, we all look forward
to the day. when we can be with you. But while we yet live in
this world, going through the valley of the shadow of death,
we'll not want, because you're our shepherd. We'll lie down
in green pastures. You'll lead us beside those still,
still, still, calm, quiet waters. And oh Lord, you'll restore our
souls. Oh Lord, God, what a blessed
day that'll be. when this soul here that's in
our bodies now will be taken to glory and be new, not just
restored, be new, be new. God bless these dear saints.
Thank you for your word. Meet the needs of our hearts
and minds and bodies for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. upon Jesus look full in his wonderful
face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the
light of his glorious Glory and grace.