As I said, we're gonna look at
the 23rd Psalm, and this is, you know, sometimes you hear
scriptures repeated so often, they sort of lose their meaning.
They're kind of like become a byline, but I don't want that to happen
to me, and I don't want it to happen to you when we look at
the 23rd Psalm. Probably some of you can quote
the whole Psalm. You've heard it so much. And
even in false religion, even though we didn't know the reality
of the Good Shepherd, the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd,
who is Christ, But when you look at it through the eyes of God's
grace, it really, really means something. I mean, what comfort
it gives. But before I get to Psalm 23,
let me say a word about Psalm 22. Now what I want you to see
is that what we're going to read in Psalm 23 about the good shepherd,
Christ being our shepherd, is all founded upon, conditioned
upon the work described in Psalm 22, which is, as you know, commonly
called the Psalm of the Cross. And you can see that right away
in Psalm 22, one, listen to the words, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? That's the words of Christ on
the cross. And so even though there's a limited, this is a
Psalm of David, Psalm 22, and so is Psalm 23, but there's a
very limited physical application to David going through trials
and troubles. But the ultimate application,
the spiritual and eternal application and prophecy here of Psalm 22
and Psalm 23 and even Psalm 24 is to Christ. And he said this, my God, by
God, why hast thou forsaken me? And that's repeated in Matthew
27, recording the words of Christ on the cross. And it presents,
and this Psalm 22, look at verse six, it presents the Lord, Jesus
Christ, as the crimson worm. You remember, I've talked about
that, the tola. that they used the blood of that
worm, the red blood of that worm to dye the red curtains in the
tabernacle, the red parts of the priest's clothing. And he
says, but I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despise
of the people. And it's the same word that's
translated in Isaiah 118 when he says, come let us reason together,
though your sins be scarlet, they'll be white as snow, though
they be red like crimson. That word crimson's the same
word worm here. And it's talking of Christ, though
they be red like crimson, they'll be white as wool. So this is
a prophecy of Christ. Now Psalm 22 ends, look at verses
30 and 31. It ends, a seed shall serve him. He's talking about the seed of
Christ. Talking about his generation,
we'll see in just, he says, it shall be accounted to the Lord
for a generation. All for whom he died, that's
his seed. That's his generation. So they're
going to be saved. That's the effectual nature of
the death of Christ. It's a propitiation. It's righteousness
established that demands life for his sheep. And it says in
verse 31, they shall come and shall declare his righteousness
unto a people that shall be born that he hath done this. Well,
what has he done? Well, Psalm 23 is gonna pick
up right there and present Christ in the glory of his death, burial,
and resurrection. and the benefits that we receive
as his sheep. And we must receive. And it starts
off, look at verse one. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Being our shepherd, if he's my
shepherd, not just a shepherd, but he's my shepherd, if he's
your shepherd, that means you belong to him. We are his. Just like his bride, you know,
I love how the scripture presents Christ in so many different titles
and descriptions. He's our husband, we're his wife. He's the bridegroom, we're the
bride. He's the shepherd, we're the
sheep. And he's also called the Lamb, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. But what that shows us is that
this thing about salvation in Christ is so full and so complete
that if you read the Bible, and if God enlightens your mind,
obviously, you can't get around it, he's my shepherd. And so
we belong to him. Well, when were we given to him?
before the foundation of the world. He said, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. God the Father chose us,
loved us in electing grace, gave us to Christ, made him to be
our surety. That's a beautiful thought now. Adopted us into his family and
so we belong to him. We've always belonged to him.
Now when we're born into this world in our physical human nature,
we're born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. We're born
depraved, born ignorant in darkness. We don't know we belong to him
until he reveals himself to us. And that's what the good shepherd
here does. So we belong to him. You remember, and a good parallel,
when you read Psalm 23, a good parallel to this, as you know,
is John chapter 10. Christ says, I'm the good shepherd.
I giveth my life for the sheep. I give my life for those sheep.
Those are the ones who belong to him. And you remember down
in there, he said this. He said, other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, talking about the Jewish elect, He said,
them also I must bring. I love that. He must bring them. He doesn't say, well, I'm gonna
bring them to me if they'll come to me, because by nature we won't
do it. We're lost sheep. As one old preacher said, we're
dumb sheep. I'll never forget reading about sheep, you know,
and I'm not gonna go into all that, because I wanna talk more
about the shepherd. But they talk about how sheep are the
dumbest of all. They get out there and get lost.
They cannot find their way home. The shepherd has to go get them.
And the good shepherd knows them by name. Do you realize this,
that before the foundation of the world, now listen, before
the foundation of the world, your name, your name, my name,
was written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Now I don't believe
that's a literal book with pen and ink and all that, but it's
in the mind of God. He knew you by name. The shepherd
knows his sheep by name. They belong to him. His call
is to them. And so when he says, I am, the
Lord is my shepherd, David is just basking in the assurance. of grace based upon his righteousness
that he accomplished as described in Psalm 22. And he says, I shall
not want. Now what does that mean? That
means I lack nothing. There's nothing missing. Now
isn't that a beautiful thought? If I'm his and he's mine, everything
that God requires for salvation Everything that God requires
in the way of blessings and benefits, all the forgiveness of sin, all
the righteousness that God requires, I find complete in Christ. Spiritual life, everything, every
blessing, every benefit of salvation by God's grace is in my shepherd. The Bible says that in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete
in him. And the good shepherd who gave
his life for the sheep, the Bible says in Hebrews 10 and verse
14, it talks about by his one offering, he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. That means he did everything
that was required. There was nothing conditioned
on us. This is gospel language here. I don't like anything.
You see, false religion, that's the nature of false religion.
You know, you might be saved by grace, but there's something
you've got to do in order to make this thing complete, in
order to make it real, in order to make it powerful. And so they
put conditions on the sinner. And they'll say, well, he died
for you, but that death doesn't really mean anything unless you
do your part. Well, that's not the shepherd
of Israel. That's not the shepherd that's
our shepherd. Because the Lord is my shepherd
and I shall not want. He even provides the life and
the knowledge and the faith that brings me to him. That's part
of the completeness that he provides. Because if left to myself like
a dumb sheep out there in the wilderness lost, that's where
I would remain if it weren't for the shepherd giving me everything,
all spiritual blessings in him. We don't lack anything. Now,
we don't see that by nature or by looking at ourselves physically.
I'm gonna talk about that in the message today where James
talks about looking into the mirror and the title of the message
is What Manner of Man Am I? And I want you all to ask that
question, you ladies, what manner of woman are you? And we'll go
through that. But when I look at myself, especially
in the mirror of the law, I don't see completeness. I see sin. It's what I see. But realizing
that the Lord is my shepherd, that gives me a different view
of things, doesn't it? And it's all based on God's word.
It's not based on how I feel. It's not based on my circumstances. It's not based upon my opinion.
And thank God it's not based upon the opinions of others that
they have of me. So thank God for that. But the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. Look at verse two. He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. My concordance is pastures of
tender grass. He leadeth me beside the still
waters, waters of quietness. Now what's that about? Well,
you notice he says he maketh me to lie down? One of the things
that by nature we will not do, by nature, is believe in and
rest in Christ for all salvation. Isn't that right? By nature we
won't do that. He has to make us lie down. He
has to treat us like sheep. That's what it's saying here.
Because by nature, we won't do it. And even as sinners saved
by grace who are resting in Christ, sometimes we have to struggle
to do it, don't we? And so he continually makes us
to lie down in green pastures. And what are these green pastures
and still waters? Well, it's the word of God. You know that's what you're doing
right now? You're lying down in green pastures. You're being
led by God through his word to the still waters of his word. And you know sometimes we have
to struggle with that? But you know, picture yourself
so to speak, out on a dry desert. And I have a lot of trouble with
dryness. That's why I have to sit up here
and drink water. I think what I'm going to have somebody do
is just get one of those hospital stands with a bottle and put
it into me intravenously. And you know I'm just joking
on that. But anyway, picture yourself out on a dry desert
with no water. And then all of a sudden, you
come up on an oasis, and there's some green, plush grass and some
still, pure water. Think about how happy you'd be.
Well, that's what we're doing here. We've been out there in
the desert of the world all week, but now we're coming, and he
maketh us do it. Now, does that mean that he brings
us to him? You know, Christ is the bread
of life. He's the life of that green grass. And he's the water
of life. That's what he's called, isn't
it? In John chapter four, the water of life. The fountain of
waters, he's called a fountain. And when it says, he maketh me
to lie down, does that mean he brings me against my will? No,
he changes our will. You know, I love that passage
in Matthew five, it says, blessed are they who hunger and thirst
after righteousness. Now man by nature thinks he hungers
and thirsts after righteousness, but he doesn't even know what
righteousness is. I didn't know what righteousness
is until God revealed my sinfulness and revealed the glory of Christ,
who is the Lord my righteousness. But when God convicted me of
my sin and my depravity, what did he do? He made me thirsty
for righteousness that I could not find in myself. Righteousness
that I could not work in myself. Righteousness that could only
be found in Christ. And boy, he's the end of the
law for righteousness, isn't he? The bread of life. And that's
what he does. Christ is the good shepherd. We'll talk about that in just
a moment. He's the great shepherd of the sheep. He's the chief
shepherd. And our shepherd is our eternal
rest. And we'll feed upon his bread
and drink from his fountain forever and ever. And that's not just
a pipe dream. Look at verse three. He says,
he restoreth my soul. Now, he restoreth my soul. By nature, what are we? We're
spiritually dead. And he restores our souls initially
in a new birth. A bright new day, a day of life,
when the Holy Spirit comes, brings us under the preaching of the
water of life and the bread of life and righteousness. It says, he leadeth me in paths
of righteousness. For the first time, you know,
in false religion, we thought we were being led in paths of
righteousness, didn't we? We thought we were doing our
best, And that was good enough. We operated on that sliding scale
of self-righteous religionists. You know, I know I'm not perfect,
but I've done enough. I'm sincere. We were talking
Wednesday night and Brother Bob Higbee brought up, he said, you
know, I can't remember who he was quoting, but he said, most
people will not come out and say they believe salvation by
works even though they do. But what they'll say, we're saved
not by works, but we're saved by character. And think about
it. Think about that. How many of
you in false religion, and I know I did, we thought that God would
accept us if we were sincere, trying to be good. That's salvation
by character. Well, salvation is not by works,
it's not by character. It's by grace. By grace. And so he leads us in paths of
righteousness. What does that mean? That's Christ.
Christ is my righteousness. What is the path of righteousness?
It's believing in him, resting in him, looking to him, following
him, pleading his merits all the time. That's paths of righteousness. Doing righteousness, what does
that mean? That doesn't mean trying to do your best. Should
we try to do our best? Yes, but that's not doing righteousness. Doing righteousness is looking
to and following Christ, who is my righteousness. And it says
for his namesake, that means for his glory. For the glory
of God in Christ. And look at verse four, he says,
yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil. You know what we're doing today?
Tomorrow, the next day, the day after, we're walking through
the valley of the shadow of death. Do you know that? Do you realize
that you're dying? Oh, I know that's not the power
of positive thinking, is it? That's not gonna be a chapter
in Dale Carnegie's book, you know, How to Win Friends and
Influence People. The world says you take this vitamin, you go
through this operation, you drink this drink, you can live forever
almost. You can see it all the time on
TV and on the internet. And I'm all for healthy living,
oh don't get me wrong, you know, but we are dying. It's what God
told Adam, in the day that you eat thereof, dying thou shalt
die. And that was a spiritual death
to start with because we're all by nature spiritually dead, but
God has given us life from the dead. And so that's what he's
saying here. I'm walking through this, he
restored my soul, but I'm still walking through the valley of
the shadow of death. I'm dying. This is a dying world. This is a cursed world. But I
will fear no evil. For thou art with me. That's the way a good shepherd
does. He stays with his sheep. And if one gets lost, he goes
and he finds it and he brings it back into the fold. That's
what he did for us, the 90 and nine. We're the lost sheep. And he brought us in. And he
stays with us and he'll never leave us, he'll never forsake
us. His rod and his staff, they comfort us. His rod and staff,
I believe, refer to both his word and his power. It's his word that we read, but
it's the power that enforces his word within our hearts, and
he guides us. He shows us the way to go. He
keeps us. He preserves us. And so we don't
have to fear any evil because think about it. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Are you a sinner? Well,
of course you are. Am I a sinner? Yes. But God in
his word powerfully convinces us that he will not impute sins
to us. What does that mean? That means
he's imputed the righteousness of the shepherd to us. So what evil could touch you
as far as eternal matters, as far as spiritual matters? And
so we stand before God forgiven of all our sins by the blood
of the Lamb of God. We stand before God righteous
in his sight and that can never be taken away. If you want to
talk about a righteousness that cannot be contaminated, Talk
about the imputed righteousness of Christ. Think about it. And then, there's no condemnation.
Nothing can condemn us, don't care what happens. There's old
Job, going through that suffering, lost his family, lost his health,
lost his possessions. And he said, though he slay me,
I'll trust him. Didn't he say that? Well, that's
a gift from God, isn't it? That's the grace of God. So no
matter what happens to us in this life, I may be healthy today,
I may be sick tomorrow. But here, we don't have to fear
any evil for Christ is with us. He is rod and staff. There is
therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, is risen
again, seated at the right hand of the Father. And then nothing
can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Remember that
passage in Romans 8, 35 through 39? Read that sometime. Is there
anything that comes against me? or anything that happens to me
that can separate me from God's love in Christ. Now, I can be
separated from you. I can be separated from my wife.
I can be separated from any physical comfort. Could be through death. Could be through a lot of things.
But nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. That's
the key. And that's comforting, that's
the rod and staff that comforts. Look at verse five. Thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Now we've got
enemies. Don't ever fool yourself to think
you don't. You may be a real friendly person and have a lot
of friends and that's okay. I wish I was friendlier and had
more friends. But we've got enemies. And of
course you know the main enemies of a Christian The world, the
flesh, the devil. But even though our enemies would
wanna take away what we have, we're seated at a prepared table. It's already been prepared. We
didn't have to bring it. It's now next week, y'all bring
a dish. Because we're gonna eat. But
in this spiritual, Realm, salvation, don't bring a dish, don't bring
your works, don't bring anything except God be merciful to me,
a sinner. That's what it is. And he says,
thou anointest my head with oil, that's usually a metaphor for
the Holy Spirit and the word, and my cup runneth over. We don't
realize how much we do have in Christ. I mean, we realize it
to a point. But I think about the Apostle
John when he said in 1 John 3, he said, it does not yet appear
what we shall be. And Paul in Romans 8 when he
said, the sufferings of this present time are not even to
be compared with the glory that's to come. Our cup runs over. And then here's the grand conclusion
for all the sheep. because of the shepherd. Verse
six, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever,
forever. You know, I'm so glad that it
doesn't say just goodness, but it says goodness and mercy, because
we need both, don't we? We're mercy beggars. It is of
the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. And they are so
great. Great is his faithfulness. All
of that. That's the grand conclusion for
everyone whom the good shepherd died. He said, I'm the good shepherd.
The good shepherd gave his life for the sheep. He said, I know
them. They know me, they'll hear my
voice, they'll answer my call, and no one will pluck them out
of my father's hand. They have a permanent residence
in the household and family of God that can never be taken away. Amen.