Psalm 23, the shepherd of the sheep, our shepherd. This psalm is a great comfort
to God's people. And the older I get, the more
comfort I find in this psalm. That the Lord, Jehovah, the self-existing
one, creator of heaven and earth, is my shepherd. He is, let me put it this way,
he is my caretaker. Is there any better? Is there
any better news than that? That God is my caretaker. He's my shepherd. He's the one
who watches over me continually. I cannot watch over my two sons.
I never could watch over them continually. I watched over them
a little bit when they were in the house, but when they left
the house, I had no idea what was going on. But God never takes
His eye off His child. Never, at any given time, never. And this gives God's people great
comfort, to know that I have a shepherd, and that shepherd
is the Lord. David says, the Lord is my shepherd.
Could anyone have a better, a more loving, a more caring shepherd? Could any sheep have a more loving,
caring shepherd? Absolutely not. Our shepherd
is meek and lowly of heart. Our shepherd has done what no
other shepherd has ever done. He became one of the sheep. A
lamb. He became one of us. Would you
go out into a field? You have a flock of sheep. Let's
say I have a flock of sheep. I'm a man. They're animals. Would
I become one of them? that I might save them. Think
about who God is. Think about the greatness and
the glory of God. I mean, as much as we can imagine
that, as much as we can comprehend it, He's infinite in wisdom,
infinite in knowledge. He's eternal. He's holy. He's
all this. And yet, He became one of us
that He might save us. What a shepherd! No one has ever had a more loving,
caring shepherd than we have. No one has had a shepherd who
guides and guards like we have. As I said, at any given time,
all the time, He's guiding us. Even when we don't know it, by
His providence, by the providence of God, He is guiding our steps
when we can't see it. We can't even perceive it. He's
guiding. The steps of a good man is ordered
by the Lord. Who is a good man? Everyone in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone in Christ is a good
man. And he orders that man's steps.
Even when that man can't perceive it, his steps are ordered by
the Lord. And He guards and He protects His sheep at all times.
I want you to turn over to Job
chapter 1. In verse 8, And the Lord said unto
Satan, in Job chapter 1 verse 8, And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like
him in the earth? and an upright man, one that
fears God and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord
and said, Doth Job fear God for naught, for nothing? Hast thou
not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all
that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of
his hands, and his substance is increased in the land." But
he says here, Satan says this. Satan says, I can't touch him. Because you have put a hedge
about him, all that he has, all his substance. I cannot touch
him. You take that hedge away and
let me touch him and I'll show you who he is. I can bring him
down like I did first Adam. That same hedge, whatever it
is that God put around Job, is around every one of his sheep.
It's not around just the ones we think that are more important.
It's around every one of his sheep. There is a hedge put around
every one of God's people, and nothing can enter through that
except He permit it. And if He permits it, I assure
you, at the end of it will be a great blessing. It will be
a great blessing. And He's responsible. I said
this in a sermon not too long ago, that one of the great things
He gave that gives me comfort is that he's responsible for
me. The shepherd is responsible for
the sheep, is he not? He's responsible to bring every
one of them home. He takes a hundred out, a hundred
comes back. He's responsible. He's the surety of the sheep.
And he has guaranteed upon his own name that he's going to bring
every last one of them home. And He'll do it. He'll do it. He's responsible for the sheep.
And I'm telling you, there's no one in existence that handles
responsibility like He does. He never failed. He never failed
and never fails. Behold My servant. It says in
Isaiah 42, Behold My servant. He shall not fail. He'll bring every one of them
home. Every one. And He sees to their need. I
shall not want. Does the economy worry you? Is what going on right now, does
it worry you? Why? Well, I can tell you if
it does. I can tell you if it does me.
Why? Unbelief. But we have his word on here,
I shall not want. We shall not want any good thing.
Our shepherd will provide all that we need. You need wisdom,
he provides it. You need righteousness, he provides
it. You need sanctification, he provides
it. You need redemption, he provides
it. You need comfort, he provides it. You need cleansing, he provides
it. You need forgiveness, he provides
it. We don't provide any of it. He provides it. I shall not want. He knows where the green pastures
are. Look at this in verse two. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures. He knows where they are. He knows exactly what... I thought
about this today. He knows where and how to comfort
and feed His sheep out of His Word. He knows what I need. He knows what word I need to
calm my fears. He knows exactly where to take
me in the Word of God, give me a scripture or a portion of scripture,
and to calm me right down. Have you ever done that? Have
you ever taken the Word of God, opened it up and been reading,
and that portion of scripture has been like a medicine? It's
just calmed you down. And I'm glad He does this. He
makes me. We're a restless lot, aren't
we? We are a restless lot. We fret,
we worry, this and that. But from time to time, He makes
me settle down, be still, and know that I am God. But He has to make me be still.
He has to make me lie down in these green pastures. Settle
down with all the worry and all this is going on. Settle down.
Read His Word and find comfort. Find some comfort. Find some
real comfort in it. Some real comfort. He makes me to lie down in green
pastures. And He leadeth me. Thank God He's the one doing
the leading. If the blind lead the blind, they both fall in
the ditch. But if the Lord leads you, you're not going to fall
in the ditch. He leadeth me beside still waters.
By His Spirit, by His Word, and by His providence, He leads. He's Sheik. That's how He leads
us. What I'm doing right now, standing
here with the Word of God open, preaching to you, preaching the
Gospel to you, again Sunday, Wednesday. It's not just me standing here.
If it is, we're all in trouble. We're all a mess. But the Lord
leads through His Word, through the preaching of His Word, to
his pastor preaching. That's how he leads us. That's
how he guides us. That's how he counsels us. I
don't need to hold counseling sessions. I'd probably get it
just as wrong as you would. I really am, truthfully. The
older I get, the more I realize I don't know much. I mean, I
don't know much at all. I know how God saves sinners. And I know to point sinners to
Christ. And I know this. I know this by experience, as
well as by His Word. Sit under the gospel long enough,
and you'll get your answers. You'll get your answers. Just
wait. If you sit and you wait and you
listen, whatever it is, you'll get the answer. And you'll get
it through the preaching of the gospel. That's how He counsels
and feeds His sheep, through the gospel. So He leads by His Spirit, leads
by His Word, leads by His Providence. Pay attention to these things. Vicki and I was talking today.
She was talking about something. She said, well, you've got to
go with your gut feeling. I said, well, to me, it's not
my gut anymore. It's the Holy Spirit of God. I said, He's the
one leading this. I said, the world out there goes
with the gut feeling. And I knew what she meant, because
she got that terminology off me. But you and I are not led
by our gut, are we? The believer is led by the Holy
Spirit. Now listen. Pay attention to Him. Pay attention
to His Word. Pay attention to His Spirit.
Pay attention to Providence. That's how He guides us. That's
how He guides us and leads us. And he restoreth my soul. He brings it back. It was lost
in Adam, and I didn't do any better with it. I did not do
any better with it. And he brought it back. He's
restored it. Restored it back to favor with
God. Reconciled us. giving us life, peace, joy, understanding? I know we don't realize how few
people understand what you understand. The Son
of God hath come and given us what? An understanding of who
God is, who Jesus Christ is, in what we are and who we are.
He's given us that understanding. He's given us life, spiritual
life, the life of God in the soul. He's restored our soul. And he did it by his life, his
death, and his power. Not a cooperative effort on my
part and his part. He did it. He restored my soul. He brought me back. He died on
the cross. He shed His blood. He gave Himself
as a sacrifice. And He's given me life. He restores
my soul. And if He's done it, nobody else
can take it. Your life is hid with Christ
in God. And Satan and no one else can
touch your life. Can't do it. And daily, oh my, daily he restores
it back to spiritual health. Daily, he brings us back. Daily, he restores us. Daily,
he teaches us. Daily, he draws us. His compassions are new, what?
Every morning. They never fail. He never fails
to restore. He never fails to bring back.
He never fails to keep. He never fails. He never fails. And He leadeth me in the paths
of righteousness for His namesake. His paths, you can mark this
down, He didn't say they were easy. It doesn't say he leads
us in an easy, smooth path. It's not. But it's a right path. Whatever path he's taking me
down right now, however painful it might be, it is a right path. It's a right path. It's a path
of righteousness. And he does it for his namesake.
because of who He is and it's for His glory. Everything our Shepherd does
is for the good of His sheep and for His glory. Isn't that alright? It's alright,
isn't it? It's alright. And yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, Death is all around. You cannot
live on this earth and escape death. There's not a place on
this earth that something hasn't died. It's a graveyard. This
earth is a graveyard. Take the whole ball. It is one
huge graveyard. Something has died on every inch
of it. Something has. And death is something that everyone
dreads in this world except the believer. Except the believer. To the believer,
it's a shadow. It's a shadow. What can a shadow do to you? Absolutely nothing. I've never
seen on the news somebody got shot by a shadow or stabbed by
a shadow or robbed by a shadow. Nobody. A shadow can't touch
you. It can't hurt you. There's no
substance to it. He took the sting out of death, by his death. He took the sting. It's like,
you know, when a wasp stings you and it leaves a stinger in
you. The stinger went in him. Now, I'm not facing death immediately,
that I know of, unless I just got here. But I'm not dying of
something right now. Others' bodies have died. And I know when the time comes,
the Lord gives us dying grace. But we have nothing to fear.
Because we don't die. We go to be with the Lord, don't
we? We go to be with Christ. This body's dying, and it will
die, and you and I'll be glad to get rid of it one day. We
live long enough in it, we're going to be like, hey, we're
going to drop this thing off and get a new one. Yea, do I walk. Now walking denotes
calmness, doesn't it? It denotes calmness. One time my dad gave me a dollar. He said, if you walk down to,
we lived on a farm and there was a silo. Oh, it was a good
ways away from the house. We lived out in the country.
I mean, there was no street lights. It was dark. And I was, he said,
give me a dollar if I want to walk down there and back. He's
just going to see if I do it. Well, I did it. But I didn't
walk. I was scared out of my wits.
I was absolutely frightened out of my wits. I did not walk. When
I got down to where it was, I turned and as hard as I could run, I
ran back to the house. Just as hard as I could run.
I couldn't be more than 10, 12 years old, 10, 11 years old.
Walking denotes calmness. Walking denotes confidence. We are not trying to run from
things. We're walking through the valley that has a shadow
of death over it. But we're not afraid. We're not
wringing our hands. We're not scared. We're walking
by in confidence. You know what confidence is?
It's another word for faith. The just shall live by faith.
Faith and confidence are the same thing. Faith in God or confidence
in God. It's the same. He says here, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death. And you know how many were after
David. How many was after our Lord?
How calmly did He walk? Trusting in His Father. Well,
we have the same Father, you know. We have the same Father. The one that took care of Him
takes care of us. I will fear no evil. A lot of
it around us, isn't there? A lot of evil around us. If we
could see it, it probably wouldn't scare us. If we could actually
just see it, it would make us worse than we are as far as being
fearful. He says here, I will fear no
evil. Why? Are you oblivious to it? Do you
not know what's going on? Because thou art with me. That is the only reason, the
only reason not to fear evil. It's because the Lord's with
me. Because thou art with me. With Him we have nothing to fear.
Without Him, we have everything to fear, but with Him. Thou art with me. How real is Jesus Christ to you? Is He as real as your own existence? If He is, this psalm will be
a great comfort. If not, it will just be a good
psalm. Thou art with me. That's comforting to know that
the God of heaven and earth is always with me. Paul said in one place, he said,
everybody forsook me, but the Lord stood with me. He didn't
forsake me. I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. That's a promise. That's a promise. And thy rod and thy staff, they
comfort me." The child of God takes comfort in whatever the
shepherd uses to guide him. If he uses his rod to guide me,
it may not be comfortable at the time, but we find comfort even if he
uses his rod. If He uses His staff to reach
over and pull us back in line, we find comfort. Whatever our Lord uses to guide
us and to keep us in the path of righteousness, we find comfort
in. We find comfort. And Thou preparest
a table, a banquet of grace. A banquet of grace. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. He gave us His body. He sacrificed His body. He gave
us His blood. What a table. What a table. Thou preparest a table before
me. And He's there. He's there. He's the substance
of it. He's there. Thou nourish my head with oil."
The oil of gladness. But we know that oil in the scriptures
also represents the Holy Spirit sealed. This is something that
stands out to me as I stand here and preach week after week. I'm
preaching to and looking at a people that are literally sealed with
the Holy Spirit of God. God the Holy Spirit. You are
sealed with God's Spirit. And it doesn't get any better
than that. It does not get any better than that. He doesn't
visit with us. He stays with us. It's not a
visitation. No. This is a dwelling. He dwells in us. Stop and think
about that sometime. Stop and think about Almighty
God dwelling in you. Abiding in you. and you abiding
in Him. That's more than just believing
some doctrine, isn't it? That's more than just being a religion.
That's a real living union with a person. A real living union.
Oh, he says, My cup runneth over. In Christ our Shepherd we are
full and running over. We lack nothing. In Him you are,
as the Scripture says, you are complete. In Him. And surely,
truly, here's confidence. Do you have this confidence?
Do I have this confidence as we go through this life, as we
go through the trials of it, the heartaches of it? Truly,
truly, surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me. That's what's
on my trail. That's what's before and behind
me. That's what I'm hedged about with. I'm hedged about with the
goodness and mercy of God. You say, it sure don't feel like
it. Well, it's so, even when we can't feel it. It's still
so. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my earthly life. What, my soul,
what assurance? Well, I'll walk out of here the
happiest people on earth, even when it's hurting. Even when
it's hurting, and I mean to the point it raised tears. We still
should be a happy people because God's goodness and mercy is surrounding
us. It's surrounding us. Surely,
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and
I will. I will. Here's confidence. It's
not confidence in himself. It's not David having confidence
in himself. It's David having confidence in his shepherd. That the shepherd's going to
deliver. The shepherd's going to bring the sheep home. Because
of the shepherd, because I shall not want, I will. Because of who he is, what he
did, where he is now, I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. Oh, to die with that. To die with that. Someday I've
got to die. Unless the Lord just comes back
right now. But someday I have to die. And I want to die, and
I want you to die with this confidence. I will, because of my shepherd,
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Forever. I got kicked
out of the garden, but I'm not going to get kicked out of His
house. There's no kicking out of His house. That's forever. Adam got me kicked out. Christ
brought me in. I'm there forever. Can we lay
down with that tonight? Can we go to sleep with that
tonight? Can we really have that kind
of peace in our Shepherd? We ought to. If we don't, we
ought to. If I don't, shame on me. Because
He's able. He's able. What a Shepherd! What a Shepherd we have in the
Lord Jesus Christ. My, so what a Shepherd that we
have in Him.