to turning your Bibles back to
Luke 12 as we consider seriously our Lord's exhortation to His
disciples. As Rick was reading the text
of Scripture, what portion that captured my thoughts for a moment,
not that it wasn't something that I haven't been contemplating
all week long, but the portion of Scripture where our Master
tells His disciples Watch because you do not know what hour your
master will come. And I hope to explain some of
that a bit today. But here's what I will not let
you know is that Brother Tim was given grace to watch all
the way to the moment that the Lord took him home. And I heard
some of you gasp. And I hope that gasp was simply
a gasp of reminder that God is being God when he takes someone
home. I know we talk about God, but
I don't necessarily believe we always view him as God until
he does a God-like thing. And when he does a God-like thing,
then the natural response on the part of the creature like
us is to gasp for breath. But the reality is, is that The
Lord has done his good pleasure with him. And whenever he snatches
home any one of his elect, he has done his good pleasure. And
all that we might be so ready and prepared in our souls that
when we hear that which is common to the tune of 500,000 people
every day, and particularly when God takes home one of his precious
ones, more than just a gasp of air, It should be a joy of relief
and thanksgiving that God would take one of his away from this
difficult life into the presence of bliss so that he or she or
they might enter into their inheritance more fully. All that our thoughts
would be to think God's thoughts after him when the believer dies. There is a sorrow. Don't get
me wrong. There is a reflection. There
is a need for us to be sober when God is God in the context
of death because we live in a culture that does not believe in God.
I don't know why they should have every reason to believe
in God and not in themselves, but they've got it backwards,
don't they? And yet God is sovereign every day. He proves himself
to be God every day. Do you know God was God this
morning when he woke you up? He was God this morning. Do you
know you didn't have to get up this morning? Did you know that
and so here we are week in and week out and join What we call
the normalcy principle and it appears that you know God kind
of winds this thing up and we just go about life and in function
on sort of an autocratic system, but nothing could be further
from the truth. We all live move and have our
being in God and And the only reason we're in our right mind
is by the grace of God. God is being God when he allows
the world to revolve every day in a normalcy principle, letting
us know an attribute of God, which is called mercy. It's only
mercy that you are alive today, only mercy that you're in your
right mind today. But God one day is going to snatch
you up too. One day God is going to call
you. He's going to come in the first or the second or the third
watch the fourth watch and call you to and guess what you won't
be able to negotiate that call Nor will anyone be with you when
that occurs God will have been God your time will have been
up and now you have to stand before your Maker now, how does
that make you feel? One of the reasons we come to
church is not to build or reinforce a facade of A worldview but to
strip and tear down false facades and try to deal with reality
as much as possible Because the whole of the world when you leave
the doors of a true gospel Bible preaching teaching church is
out there to aid in a bet your delusion your deception a false
notion of how this world operates only biblical truth Prepares
you for reality Only biblical truth prepares you for reality. I want you, therefore, to follow
me in your outline. This will help us get through
our four points today as we contemplate what our dear Savior is doing
with his disciples and by way of his admonition to them, we
might also make some application to ourselves. When you think
about how our Lord dealt with his disciples all through his
ministry, one thing you can know is that the Lord Jesus was open
and he was honest and he was thorough with his disciples about
what it means to follow him. When Jesus spoke to his disciples,
he never once played down the challenge of true discipleship. If you read your Bible carefully,
he made it abundantly clear that to follow Christ would mean to
entail or to incur or to be confronted with difficulties. If you're
going to follow Christ, he says, I want you to know that the way
that I am going is a difficult way. It's filled with challenges. It's filled with troubles. It's
filled with difficulties and it's filled with distractions.
Those of you who have been walking with the Lord a minute, am I
not telling the truth? Walking with Christ has its challenges. He never once told us that to
walk with him means that somehow you find this secret key into
a secret revelation given to you by some secret prophet or
prophetess that allows you to enter into the abundance of his
grace and kingdom that is without some kind of affliction and trouble. Nowhere in the Word of God does
it even remotely imply that you can have your journey, your excursion,
your course of life with Christ without trouble. Trouble is simply
part of the process. We've been talking about process
for a long time here at Grace because I really do want the
people of God to be able to embrace and settle it in their hearts.
Settle it in your heart. You're going to have troubles
with your bills. You're going to have trouble
in your families. You're going to have trouble in your relationships. You're going to have trouble
in your body. You're going to have troubles in your mind. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? You're just going to have difficulties.
You've got to settle that. You will not find any sort of
state of nirvana or some utopian realm into which you can escape
these troubles. The believer is made, he's made
to deal with troubles. So a good shepherd, you know
what a good shepherd will tell his people? He will tell his
people, now I know where I'm going and you're going with me,
but I'll need to let you know that the way I'm going is full
of difficulties. I just want you to know that
now, because right now you're confident as you start off with
me and you're ready to follow me, the Lord Jesus is saying
to his disciples, but fellas, I need to let you know that life
is difficult following Christ. In fact, the Bible tells us in
the world you shall have tribulation in the world tribulation but
be of good cheer i have overcome the world and it also tells us
in the book of acts through much difficulty do we enter into the
kingdom of god you guys got that through much difficulty do we
enter into the kingdom of god so there are two things that
i want to coupled together as thoughts that I want to prime
our minds with and help us to understand with regards to following
the Lord Jesus Christ. He opens up our text in verse
32a this way. Fear not, little flock, for it
is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Do you see that? Fear not, little
flock, for it is your father's Good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. Now, this is where I want us
to meditate. This is the whole of our cogitation today. That
one verse, that one imperative in command, that one proposal
by the master to his disciples. Now, obviously, when he says
to us, and he says it both in the old and the new, you can't
read hardly anywhere in the scriptures where God shows up, where he
does not but first have to tell us not to what? Fear. You can't
hardly read anywhere in scripture where the true and the living
God reveals himself to his people where he doesn't have to first
settle us down in this area of phobias. That's our Greek word
there, phobia. Phobias from the term we get
in psychology about all kinds of fears that people deal with. We're born into this world with
fears. They say we're in the womb wrapped
up with fears. We have fears of enclosure, fears
of height, fears of darkness, fears of noises, fears of falling. We're full of fears. And yet
God says, do not fear. Now, the reason he says that,
Saints, is because Fear has the capacity to paralyze you. That's what the idea of phobia
is. It paralyzes you. It thwarts your progress. It hinders your capacity to make
decisions. It hinders your ability to progress
or move forward in your walk with God. The phobia that God
warns about all the time is a fear that is rooted in unbelief. Fact
the last book of the Bible revelation chapter 22 tells us those people
who have found themselves Disqualified from the kingdom the list has
a list of eight Behaviors eight characteristics at the top of
that list watch this now is fear but the fearful and the unbelieving
and the abominable, and the liar, and the whoremonger, and those
that love and make lies, watch this, shall not inherit the kingdom. Now that's a serious, serious
statement, isn't it? Because as I said, fear is part
of our natural, physical, and psychological makeup. We are
compassed about with all kinds of fears. But our master said,
do not fear. Now that statement is really
built upon a series of things that he said in the same chapter,
going all the way back to verse 22, all the way up to our text,
where he told his disciples in verse 22, he said these words,
listen, fellas, please learn not to take thought for your
life. That's verse 22. He said unto
them, therefore, I said unto you, take no thought for your
life, what you shall eat, neither for the body, what you shall
put on. Now, come on, saints. Here, the
Lord is telling his disciples, don't get wrapped up in, don't
be anxious about, don't get carried away with physical life, how
I'm gonna live, how I'm going to eat, how I'm going to survive.
And yet, that is the fundamental preoccupation with this whole
world, you and me too. what I'm going to eat, where
I'm going to live, how I'm going to survive, how I'm going to
obtain a job, maintain a job, be able to pay my medical bills.
All of these cares of life are the main staple that basically
preoccupies our whole media, our whole industry of sales and
advertisement. You and I are compassed about
with a world full of worries. Am I telling the truth? And the
reality is, if you and I are not grounded, really grounded
in a knowledge and relationship with Christ, you are tossed to
and fro by those same cares. You're tossed to and fro by the
politics of this world. Some of you think you are really
alive because you have a handle on politics. Politics is full
of trouble. And some of you think you are
really sharp because you have some knowledge of economics. Economics are full of trouble.
And some of you think you're a clairvoyant or got great insight
because you have some knowledge of globalism and how the world
operates. Listen, let me tell you something.
We've been fighting wars ever since Cain and Abel. Wars are
not new. And can I help you just in case
you think there's a day on the arrival where there will be a
cessation of wars? Wars will never cease till Jesus
breaks the silence barrier, rips the clouds apart, and the Prince
of Peace comes to establish his kingdom. Wars will never cease. Do you understand we will always
have famines somewhere in the world? Famines will always be
in our world because famines are a byproduct of the inequity
of our hearts as human beings on a sociological level. We suffer
famines because we don't care for each other properly. And
God's judgment is poured out on nations when there is a lopsided
control factor taking place. When dog eat dog rules. When
one group wants to eat up another group. When one tribe wants to
dominate another tribe. When one person wants to oppress
another person. And they are actually given the
power to do it. What we experience in that kind
of inequity is famine. famine is merely the consequence
of rejecting God's Word this is why when you read in your
Bible Revelation chapter 6 you don't have to go there Revelation
6 verses 1 through 4 we have four horsemen there they're called
the four horsemen of the apocalypse the white horse the red horse
the black horses speckled and bay horse all four of those horses
are Ride through human history Simultaneously all the time they
correspond with Christ's words in Matthew chapter 24 Go ye into
all the world preach the gospel to every creature Let everyone
hear the testimony of Christ But let me let you know that
while you are going forth into the different ethnos or people
groups of the world They're going to be wars taking place at the
same time While you are preaching the gospel to these different
ethnic groups, you're going to be dealing with famines, pestilences,
diverse earthquakes, and all kinds of ecological troubles.
Mark what I'm saying. Because these things are taking
place, it doesn't stop our call to prioritize the preaching of
the gospel. You preach the gospel in the
midst of all this. You're going to have wars. You're
going to have famines. You're going to have lots of
death. I have now increased my number as I have learned more
acutely because I study history and politics and things of that
nature. We had almost a half a million people a day dying
on planet Earth. That's a lot of people. Brother
Tim joined another 499,000 people today. He didn't check out of here by
himself, or a whole bunch of people checked out. And guess
what? Before this 24-hour cycle is over, a whole bunch more.
And it might be you, and it might be me. The question is, where
are our priorities, particularly if we call ourselves Christians?
And our Lord is speaking to the disciples, and He says, I want
you guys to get a handle on how it is that you are going to make
your excursion through this world. And he says in verse 22, do not
take thought in some of your translations. You know what the
word is? Don't be anxious. Isn't that right? Be anxious,
not for your life. An interesting word. It's not
the same word for fear in verse 32. It's an interesting word
from which we get the colloquialism or the phraseology. Um, He's
hanging in the air. He's hanging in suspension. He's
kind of stuck between two opinions. It's a verb that basically means
to be raised up and stuck in the middle of the air. In fact,
we get our root word meteor from that. It's saying don't allow
the cares of this life to put you in suspended animation where
you get stuck trying to figure out how to do life. when life
is too big for you. There are people who do that.
They get stuck in these places. I'll give you the metaphor if
it's not coming. You know, I don't like to ride them. I'm too old
for them. But when I go to the amusement park with Trinity,
I stay on the ground and pay for her to ride these things.
Cause my, my physical constitution is more adapt to now being on
the ground. Okay. But as she rides the Ferris
wheels and all these other fast gadgets that are going about,
it's just great to her. And it is fascinating to me too,
from the ground. But what they do, and I remember
this years ago with the Ferris wheels, those big Ferris wheels,
they'll get you going all the way to the top and then they'll
stop. you're hanging there that's exactly
the verb don't get stopped at the top of the Ferris wheel where
you're hanging over all these issues and making no progress
in your life that's good isn't it don't get stuck at the top
of the Ferris wheel okay you can see some things But what's
the point of seeing things if it's gonna paralyze you in your
life? You know it's better to not know
some things than to know too much and get stuck in what you
know. Isn't much better. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
is telling his disciples, fellas, listen very carefully. The vast
majority of the world are going to actually be paralyzed when
it comes to the will of God, because they're going to be so
immersed in the cares of this life that they won't even get
out of the starting gate. Don't you allow the cares of
this life to distract you? Saints, are you hearing me? The
cares of this life, the anxieties and the worries, and the doubts. That's the duplicity that comes
into our mind. And the troubles, they will distract
you. They will allure you. They will
draw you away. They will take you in. They will
cause you to change your value system. You will find yourself,
if you're not careful, loving the world. This is what our master
is saying to the disciples. He said, fellas, listen, don't
worry about what you're going to eat. Don't worry about your
clothing. Don't worry about anything because
your father knows. Isn't that his basic premise? Your father, which is in heaven,
knows. Now, I know you have heard this exhortation many times,
but I want the point to be driven home into your head because really
what I want to talk about today is the pleasure of the father. Fear not, little flock. It is your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. These are the words of our master.
And what those words teach us is that internally there's often
on our part doubt of that very intent. Internally we fear and
we doubt whether or not God is going to do what God said he
would do in terms of taking care of me and providing for me and
meeting my needs. Can I get an honest person? I
told you honest people ain't going to hell. So our master
is addressing this issue of what often preoccupies all of us and
keeps us bowed down in repentance and remorse that we don't believe
God enough to know that he'll come through. And so the disciples
are being told here in our opening text, do not fear, don't be trapped. by that paralyzing phobia that
is rooted in unbelief which is also rooted in a lack of the
love of God being perfected in our hearts. Isn't that the way
1 John chapter 4 puts it? He says, love casts out all fear. Perfect love casts out fear because
fear has torment. There is a punishing nature to
this kind of phobia when you allow it to dictate how you think.
and it will extricate you from the love of God in Christ that
is designed to comfort you and lead you through your journey.
Can I get a witness? There is a phobia that will separate
you from the blessings of God's purpose in your life and you
won't have that sensible confidence that God is actually accomplishing
his will in your life. So let's work through our text.
There are four points. We have just opened the door
to one. Do not fear. Do not fear. Do not fear. Point number two, little flock. Do you see that? Little flock. I wanna deal with that first
part before we deal with the last part. He says, do not fear
little flock. What is he saying? He's saying,
I know that you are small in your own eyes. I know exactly
what your condition is. I know your status perfectly.
I'm not one of those leaders or shepherds that have grandiose
ideas about your constitution and your makeup that's actually
outside of the scope of reality. Now watch what I'm saying now.
This shepherd knows you perfectly. And he knows that in relationship
to this world, we are small in our own eyes. He knows that we
have a very clear sense of our own inadequacies. He understands
the vulnerability of the sheep when they look at how the world
is going about its business and doing what it does so competently,
so boldly, so braggadociosly, so over the top with a sense
of we will triumph. And here the people of God are
every day struggling. Struggling. Struggling. And then to make things a little
bit worse, particularly in a more subjective personal level with
regards to you individually, you don't have a whole lot of
people in your circle with you. You kind of almost doing this
thing on your own. Am I telling the truth? No, no,
no. Be sure you have loved ones and
some brothers and sisters in Christ, because God gives us
a brother here, a sister there. Isn't that right? He gives us
a believer here, a believer there. But because of the weakness of
our Constitution, watch this now, that ain't enough. And so we are small in our own
eyes. And we are really indeed small.
The word is micron from which we get the term micro. Anything
that's micro is small. He says, fear not micro flock. You little flock. Now, first
of all, don't fear. Don't be paralyzed. Don't be
trapped by the system of the world that will have you hanging
in suspense, in the midst of the air, unable to do the will
of God. Don't be distracted by this world
system just because you're small, because what you would be actually
saying in yourself is this, how can I, being so small, so inadequate,
so weak, so helpless in myself, accomplish anything for the glory
of God? How can I do that? And then you might even extrapolate
that to the church. You will look at the church of
the living God and whatever your view is of the church of the
living God, mark this, it's smaller than God's view. Whatever your
view of the church of the living God is, it's always smaller than
God's view. And yet God is very glad, very
proud, very confident to deal with little flocks. You know
what he said to Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 7 as he was bringing
them through the wilderness? And actually what you and I are
dealing with is what is called a wilderness paradigm. Can I
talk to you for a minute? We are in what is called a wilderness
paradigm. The Lord Jesus Christ is talking to his flock in this
context the same way that Moses had to deal with his flock in
the Old Testament context. Remember, the New Testament is
the Old Testament revealed. The Old Testament is the New
Testament concealed. There is a parallelism between
the two. As they went through the wilderness,
we're going through the wilderness now. We're making our excursion
through the wilderness. That's why things are so harrowing
and troublesome for you. Listen, you're not in the promised
land yet, just in case you thought you were. Please! you're making
your way through the wilderness and there are scorpions and vipers
and snakes and not a whole lot of provision to be had by this
world and God would have it that way because you see the language
flock is intentional on God's part he says fear not little
flock see he's now taking on the role of a shepherd And I
wanna talk to you about that. And a shepherd is obligated to
take care of his flock. Now, sometimes I know again in
this American westernized cultural mentality that we have, that
we as Christians are so atomized and we think so individualistically
that we don't really operate on the spectrum of a flock, but
Christ does. God does couple weeks ago. I
wrote an article in our pastors commentary called the us factor
How many of you guys ready don't do that because you'll disappoint
me again It's called the us factor The s factor if you read your
New Testament Bible carefully and allow the Lord Jesus Christ
words to rise up above and Manifest themselves more prodigiously
you will find that Christ used the word us frequently Lord teach
us how to pray He said, when you pray, pray this way, our
father, not your father, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed
be your name. Your kingdom come. I'm getting
ready to get into that. Your will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Give us, not me, us, our daily
bread. Forgive us. Lead us. Deliver us. Did you get it now? Because in the mind of God, he
has a body that he is leading collectively. Now, when we get
a handle on that, we are to derive a certain comfort from that.
We're not really in this thing all by ourselves. We're not really
in this all by ourselves, but we can get isolated, can't we? And start thinking so myopically
that this is all about me and my struggles and my difficulty.
Am I boring you? Fear not, little flock. for it
is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom point
number two fear not little flock you have a great shepherd oh what a blessing you don't
have to fear not because you're not small you are he told israel
when i chose you i chose you because you were not the greatest
among the nations are the largest in fact you were the smallest
you were few in number Deuteronomy 7. And I chose you that way so
that I could manifest my greatness in your life. See, God works
with few more frequently than he does with many. There will
be seldom your reading and working through the scriptures where
you will find God needing or wanting the large multitudes. There's a sense in which God
has designed it that he will accomplish his purpose in this
world through a few. And that's primarily because
he has designated a people group for whom he has called them and
chose them that he might manifest his glory to them. Stay with
me for a moment. Stay with me for a moment. The
journey and walk of the believer with Christ is a journey and
walk where in Christ is pleased to manifest himself to them as
a good shepherd, as a great shepherd, as the chief shepherd, as a faith
Shepherd are you guys hearing me and a faithful Shepherd who
is good who is great who is kind and gentle and knowledgeable
Will make sure that the sheep understand that the journey that
there are is secure It's a trying journey. It's a difficult journey.
It's a challenging journey, but it's a secure journey And the
security does not lie in the sheep. It lies in the Shepherd
Are you hearing what I'm saying? It lies in the shepherd. See,
the sheep naturally are timid. The sheep naturally are withdrawn.
The sheep are naturally sort of fear-driven because sheep
are one of those few animals in the world that do not have
what are called adaptability skills. Other animals can adapt. She can't. Boy, you messed up,
aren't you? Now watch this now. He calls
us sheep because we can't adapt. Sheep don't have any ability
to defend themselves, ward off anything. They catch diseases
easy. They die easy. Worst thing that can happen to
a sheep is for it to get separated from the flock and from its shepherd.
It has no adaptability skills. Are you guys hearing me? And
we see this in the spiritual dimension so frequently. where
people forget that they're sheep. And then they try to actually
negotiate this world with their own human skills and powers,
and they get into so much trouble. Sometimes they never recover.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Fear not, little flock. You have
a great shepherd. Have you guys figured that out?
And when I hear the Lord says, fear not little flock, the first
thing that comes to my mind is Psalm 23. Have you been there
in a while? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not walk. I shall not desire or need or
be lacking in anything because he leads me, he guides me, he
makes me, he restores my soul. Isn't that amazing? Not only does He lead me into
paths of righteousness for His namesake, I want you to get this
word. I want to help you now. He leads me into the paths. See,
one of the problems with the people of God is we're not being
led. Because we don't understand that the relationship between
the people of God and the shepherd is a relationship between sheep
and shepherd. Part of your problem and mine is that we have ceased
to be led by God. Now, if you don't get led, you
won't be fed. You wonder why you're starving,
it's because you're not being led. You wonder why you're fearful,
it's because you're not being led. You wonder why you're troubled
and indecisive, it's because you're not being led. Sheep must
be led. Am I making some sense? Go with
me in your Bible to Isaiah 63. See if the Lord will speak to
you today in this message. Isaiah chapter 63. Our Lord is
doing what He often does with His people. He chides them and
disciplines them. We learned this last night over
and over again. If you're the Lord, He's going
to chastise you. Isn't that right? All whom the Lord loves, He corrects. And so it's a fundamental experience
between us and the Lord where he's teaching us. Discipleship
is learning. We're going to be corrected.
We're going to be admonished. And we are reading in Isaiah
chapter 63. There's just a few verses here that I want to focus
in on. The Lord has opened up the text once again, admonishing
Israel for a history and legacy of not trusting God. That's the
legacy they left. They didn't trust God. And as
a consequence, God was vexed. and they vexed his Holy Spirit. Now, I told you before, a person
that's vexed is a person that has interest in you. Listen,
if I don't know you and I don't like you, I'm not vexed in you.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now, if I vex the Lord, if I
grieve the Lord, it's because I have a relationship with him.
My children will grieve me sometimes. Don't your kids grieve you sometimes?
Your spouse will grieve you sometime and be sure you grieve them too.
But this here is a byproduct of love because there's an interest
in that person. And so our Lord Jehovah says,
they vexed my spirit, but, and this is how good God is, I remember
the days of old. I remember when they were in
Egypt under the hard bondage of Pharaoh and they were crying
out in their affliction in their trouble and I heard them and
I delivered them. I brought them out of Egypt with
my own outstretched arm and mighty hand. I delivered them with my
servant Moses did I deliver them and he led them through the waters. Now listen to what the text says
in verse 11. Then he remembered the days of
old Moses and his people saying, where is he that brought them
up out of the sea? Do you see that? Saints, listen,
stop right there. Mark the metaphor now. Where
is he that brought them up? Not out of the land, out of the
sea. What a God. Now, can you imagine
the trouble we were in when we found ourselves in the sea? But
can you imagine the joy that we had when we found ourselves
being delivered out of the sea by a good shepherd? Where is
he that led them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his
flock? Where is he that put his Holy
Spirit within him? Every true authentic shepherd
must have the Spirit of God. Watch this now, that led them
by the right way. led them by the hand of Moses
with his glorious arm dividing the water before them and to
make himself an everlasting name watch this now I'm getting ready
to get into this do you see why God will take you through the
sea do you do you see why he will take you through the sea
he'll take you through the sea so that he can get for himself
glory through the nations as he delivers his elect out of
impossible situations This is precisely how he did it and why
he did it. I like it the way one of the
minor prophets put it. He says, God led us out to bring
us in. Stay there for a moment. Is God
leading you out of darkness? Is he leading you out of ignorance?
Is he leading you out of fear? Is he leading you out of your
bondage to sin? Is he leading you out of ignorance
of his glory? Is God leading you out? He's
leading you out to lead you in. Now the same God that has the
power to bring you out has the power to bring you in. That's
good stuff. Now watch this. It means that
our course is secure. We simply have to deal with the
process. Can you imagine a bunch of sheep,
a million and a half of them passing through the Red Sea?
First of all, they have been delivered on a mighty awesome
night called Passover, where God destroys the firstborn of
the greatest nation in the world, having protected his elect, telling
them, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And in the morning,
hurry up and get out, which is what our Lord uses when he says,
gird up your loins, have your lamps lit, be ready, be ready. This here is what we call a neo-Exodus
paradigm in our text, be ready to go. And so here God calls
them out and they're walking out of Egypt, not running, walking. God is glorious, isn't he? And
they're headed now to their journey in the wilderness, but they meet
with a wall of water called the Red Sea. That's what we find
recorded in the book of Exodus, all the complaining and the fear.
Are you hearing me? Oh, God, let us out to destroy
us here in the wilderness. You're laughing, but you know,
you talk like that. You're laughing, but you know,
you talk like that. Because you fail to realize that a sheep
we're being led. We're being led that's the operative
term through these four verses He says over in verse 12 that
led them by his right hand verse 13 that led them through the
deep Do you see that verse 14 and as a beast that goes down
into the valley the Spirit of God calls him to rest So did
you what's the word lead? your people to make yourself
a glorious name Listen to me children of God what Christ is
saying to the disciples in that first century and by application
He's saying to the whole church is he must lead us and Therefore
we must be what led now. I want to help you by way of
application here. This is extremely important right now God means
for some of us and yet all of us to run into walls he means
for us to come up against obstacles and There are times in our excursion,
our journey through this celestial or this spiritual wilderness
that we must hit walls. We must come up against mountains
and be stopped in our tracks. God intentionally does that.
Do you have situations in your life where you are stuck? Where
you have in your own mind, watch this now, no way out. You are
laboring, you are toiling, you are stretching every resource
that you have, but you are stuck right there. The wall is so high,
you can't see over it. It's so wide, you can't go around
it. You're stuck right here. Stuck. Do you know what we call
that? Ignorance. You missed that. It's called ignorance. It's the
place where God must bring you so that you can ask yourself,
how am I making this journey with God? Is it by sight or by
faith? See, faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things what? See, when a man
or a woman is walking by faith, you know what they're doing?
They're being led. They're being led. And their confidence is
not in their knowledge of the terrain or the journey or the
geography. Their confidence is in the one
that's leading them. And sometimes God has to run
you up against walls. He has to put mountains that
are so massive in front of you that it stops you in your tracks.
And when you stop in your track, you know what you come to find
out? I'm a dumb sheep. Well, you should have knew that
from the start. But see, you fail to remember that as sheep,
we must be led. We must be led by the Spirit
of God. We can't lead this thing. We can't negotiate this thing.
We can't govern this thing. We have no foresight. And when
God puts you in these straits and in these difficulties, He
shuts you and I up to this one reality that we must now look
to Christ. Are you with me so far? Watch
this. As a sheep, Stuck between a rock and a hard place that
which is in front of you is just intellectually speaking impossible
That which is behind you is destructive. I'm not going back that way,
but I have no way forward You know what you're called to do
when you are stuck like that. You are to look to your shepherd
Now watch this now. Your job is to look towards your
shepherd, not your problem. See, this is what Jesus is saying
in our text. Fear not, little flock. Look to your shepherd.
And if you were to look to your shepherd at the time that you
are facing that wall, that mountain, that massive sea, do you know
what you would find? You would find a great shepherd
standing there in front of you with a rod in his hand. Do you
understand that? It's called a rod of power. a
rod of authority, a rod of dominion, a rod of sovereignty, a rod of
purpose. God has given his shepherd, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the rod to control the universe. He has
the ability to move mountains. He can remove any obstacle, but
he allows them to rise up so you can look to him. And when
you look, guess what? He's not even looking at your
problem. Guess where he's looking? At
you. When you look up, he's looking at you. And all he's waiting
for is that one unique and necessary request that must come from the
heart of faith that's walking with Christ. I want to help you
with that. When you get stuck in your problems, when you get
trapped by your difficulties, the only thing that the sheep
can say to the master is, show me your glory. Show me your glory. Show me your glory. Are you hearing
me? Show me your glory. Here I am
on the brink of an impossible situation. I have no answers. I'm exhausted of all my resources. All I can do now is wait for
you to manifest your glory. Are you hearing me? Lord, show
me your glory. See, even the shepherd Moses
understood this 40 days out, two months out of their departure
from Egypt, he was called up into the mountain to receive
the Ten Commandments. While he's receiving the law
of God, the idolatrous people of God are at the bottom of the
hill having a drunken party, worshiping idols. God says, get
down off that hill and kill everybody that dares to say a golden calf
brought them out of Egypt. Moses had to kill up a bunch
of people and he went back to God because he had a revelation
of God's glory that he had never seen. Can I tell you what that
is? God is holy. God is holy. See, this generation
can't tolerate that kind of God. He is a God that will kill the
rebel. And see, this wasn't in Moses'
vocabulary, because Moses was struggling with Egyptian theology,
too, just like we do today. God is love. But when God says,
separate the rebels from the righteous and those of you who
want to hang out with the rebels, you go over there too. And then
Joshua, you and the Levites take all your swords and kill them
by the thousands. And when Moses saw that God meant
business, he fell on his face because there was something about
God that he had not seen before, that God is holy. God is holy. And he said, look, OK, I got
it now. I got it now. Listen, I'm only
two months into this journey. Lord. I don't know how long this
journey gonna last. I Have no idea. I had no idea. It would be 40 years. It's only
been two months this I know That the people you gave me are a
stiff-neck people Filled with hearts of rebellion against me,
but that's not the real bad story What I just found out is that
you are holy and will not put up with sin What that means to
me is we're not going to make it. See, that was a revelation that
was given to Moses. He understood that if there wasn't something
radically changed in the relationship between the people of God, between
God and His holiness and the people of God and their sinfulness,
there was no sense in Moses taking up another day with these people.
He said, Lord, please show me your glory. Show me how you can
take a sinful people with a propensity to rebel against you on every
hand in light of your perfect holiness and righteousness, which
you have just demonstrated and still fulfill your promise to
lead them into the promised land. Show me how you're going to do
that. Are you hearing me? Show me how you can take an impossible
situation like that and actually accomplish your purpose. And
that's where God puts you. And that's where he puts me frequently. And the only question, our only
request that we can make of God is to show us his glory. See,
when I talk about God showing us his glory, I'm not just talking
about the abstract stuff, about his nature and ontology, all
that's beautiful. I'm talking about the glory of
God in being able to make a way out of no way, to deliver a person
out of a situation that was absolutely impossible, to be able to demonstrate
that there is a reward to faith by the man or the woman that
diligently seeks God, that knows how to stop on a dime and wait
on God and say, God, You've got to manifest your glory in this
one. Because the only thing that can resolve this problem is a
manifestation of your glory. And see, when the soul cries
out for that kind of revelation, you know what he does? He raises
his hands. And he says, look closely. There's
a hole piercing through one of my hands. Do you get that? With one hand
he has a rod, with the other hand he has a pierced hole where
light flashes through it. Of which he says to you, do you
remember? Do you remember how I brought you out of Egypt? Do
you remember how I destroyed the firstborn? Do you remember
how I destroyed Pharaoh and his horsemen in the Red Sea? Do you
remember? Look even closer and you'll notice
something on my hands. According to the prophet Isaiah
chapter 49, I have your name engraved on my hand. I am your shepherd. I am the
one leading you out to lead you in. Do you hear me? See, what I'm saying is, when
we get stuck, we must once again look to Christ, our great shepherd,
and notice that he has already made provision for our deliverance. We have to wait on him. We have to wait on him. See,
our deliverance is rooted in our knowledge of our savior,
our knowledge of what he did to accomplish our eternal redemption,
our knowledge of what he did to raise us from the dead, to
call us by his grace, to quicken us by his spirit, to fill us
with a knowledge of him who is immutable and unchangeable, can't
lie, can't fail, won't change, can be trusted. Are you hearing
me? He's gonna remind you of the
accomplishments of his work on Calvary, by which he now conquered
death and hell. And he's gonna tell you, now
if I've conquered death and hell, how can you question whether
or not I can overcome this thing? Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? See, now I want you to follow this now. I know you guys
here at Grace know this often, but I want to make sure that
we understand the, the application and the practical nature of understanding
the gospel. The practical nature of understanding
the gospel is that when we understand the cross work of Christ, we
understand that that is the greatest obstacle in the universe that
was against our soul. If God accomplished the deliverance
of our soul from hell and death, Can he not overcome our temporary
afflictions and troubles? That come and go. That come and
go. That come and go. See, you get
a chance to ask the question, once again, do I believe the
gospel? Do I believe the gospel? Do I believe the finished work
of Christ? Do I believe the God that hung
there, died, was buried, raised again, sits in glory on his throne,
sovereignly controlling the universe? Do I believe that? Do I believe that God is leading
me, leading us like a good shepherd? Do I believe that? Point number
three in your outline. Dependence on Christ an essential
sheep quality. Do you guys see that? Dependence
upon Christ is an essential sheep quality. I want to drive the
point home. Very frequently the difficulties
we are in is to ask us the question, am I depending on him? Is he
my shepherd? Is he leading me? Or am I negotiating
this journey myself? Are you guys paying attention
to me? Dependence upon the the shepherd is an essential sheep
quality because he's already told us That the world will be
full of troubles go back to your text. I want you to get this
I'm quoting now Acts chapter 26 verse 29 concerning it in
in that text Paul is speaking to the church of the Living God.
In fact, it's Acts chapter 20. He says that we are to take care
of the flock, watch over the flock which God has purchased
with his own hands, with his own blood rather. Take care of
the flock of God. And here's what he says, you
who are called the flock of God, you need to know that you are
going to have troubles, watch this now, inside and out. Troubles in the world and troubles
in the church. troubles among brethren, and
troubles among those who are open rebels against the glory
of God. You are also going to have trouble
in your own life. Trouble is part of the process
by which you and I are called to depend on God. I wanna bring us to our last
point and meditate on this for just a few minutes. When he says,
fear not, don't be paralyzed by, the anxieties of the world.
Let them be paralyzed. Don't you be paralyzed. Little
flock. I understand your condition.
I understand your state. There's nothing about you by
which you should have any confidence. I want you to not fear for this
one reason. It is your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. Are you with me? It's your father's
good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Point number four in
your outline. His pleasure is to give you the
kingdom. Now let's work with that for
just a moment. It's not real easy to see in your text what
that means. You might be inclined to think
that this is God's purpose for you down the line. That somehow you would enter
into the kingdom of God enjoy the kingdom of God and there
is no doubt that within the context of what our Lord has said in
verses 32 through 40 that there is a futuristic element to the
kingdom but the verb form in which Christ uses the term it
is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom is in
what we call the present verb form It is your father's good
pleasure for you to experience the kingdom. It's in a passive
mode. In other words, the kingdom of
God is here. It's God's pleasure for you to
experience it. It's God's desire for you to
know it. And the kingdom of God can be
broken up into four categories that will help us with this.
The first manifestation of the kingdom of God was manifested
by the political nation of Israel in the Old Testament when he
called out Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he made the twelve
tribes into a kingdom. That was, in the Old Testament
sense, the kingdom of God. How do we know? They had kings. God was present in the king as
the authority and sovereign over the universe represented in his
Old Testament church called Israel. They were the kingdom of God. They were a kingdom of priests
and they were a kingdom of royalty and they were to serve the true
and the living God in the land of Palestine as a light to the
world that Jehovah alone is God and that to get to God you've
got to come to Jerusalem. They were the political kingdom,
a religio-political kingdom. The second kingdom that emerges
up out of that kingdom is part of the prophetic element of that
kingdom called the messianic promise, which means when Messiah
came, the kingdom of God was ushered in in a messianic way. This is why John the Baptist
and this is why Jesus could say the kingdom of God is at hand. Are you guys hearing me? Because
the political kingdom had been demolished, having done two things,
having sinned so grievously against the old covenant that God had
to fulfill his covenant by breaking up the kingdom, breaking up the
12 tribes, but it had also terminated its chronological purpose in
that the seed that was promised came through Mary. So once Christ
came, the political kingdom is no more necessary. Messiah is
preaching for three and a half years. Guess what he's preaching?
The kingdom of God. He's preaching the mysteries
of the kingdom. He's preaching the power of the kingdom. He's
manifesting the power of the kingdom in healing the sick and
raising the dead and opening the eyes of the blind. Messiah
is here. The king of the kingdom is here. And then he draws 12 disciples
to nurture them and prepare them for the next stage of the manifestation
of the kingdom. And that is the transfer of the
kingdom from the stewardship of Israel. As Matthew 21 says,
the kingdom of God is taken from you and given to another bearing
the fruits thereof. Do you know what that kingdom
is called? The church of the living God. the church of the
living God, which is the steward of the kingdom of God. We now
occupy and possess, watch this now, the authority and power
of the kingdom as given to us by Christ. He sits on his throne
in glory and he governs the world, making manifest his glory through
the church. Are you guys hearing me so far?
The disciples experienced that dynamic as Christ brought them
along with him, began to manifest his glory to them, and then gave
them the power to go out and to preach, and to heal, and to
cast out devils, and to manifest the reality that Christ was present. He told them, in a little while
I am leaving you, but I'll come back again. And he was speaking
to the ministry of the third person that would be poured out
on that nucleus church, the little flock that we are talking about.
Are you guys hearing me? See, hear what Jesus is saying.
This is totally my father's pleasure. This is his will. The term good
pleasure there is used three times in that English phraseology
here in Luke, once in Philippians, and then again in Ephesians.
In Ephesians, it speaks of the good pleasure of his will that
God has purposed in Christ that we should be objects of grace. That's God's good pleasure. Isn't
that good? The second time he uses that
phrase is in Philippians chapter 2, verse 12 and 13, where he
says this. Watch this now. Work out your
salvation. fear and trembling for it is
God's good pleasure to work in you and to will in you his good
pleasure in other words not only is God wanting to give you his
good pleasure he's working it out in your life for it is God
who worketh in you and the will and to do of his good pleasure. Are you hearing me? Let me say
it again. It is God who worketh in you the will and the doing
of his good pleasure. Now all of a sudden this situation
now is brought in a little closer proximity because it's not only
that God is giving you the kingdom, but he's manifesting the kingdom
through you. It is God who worketh in us the will and to do of His
what? Good pleasure. The term good
pleasure there is a compound word whose prefix is what we
often use when we use the word good, uo, from which we get the
term eulogy, and docio, from which we get the term to decree
or to appoint or to manifest or to give or to bestow. And
it's this. that in the mind of God He has
chosen to do us good in giving us His glory and His kingdom
and His eternal purpose of grace in Christ. This is the exhortation. Watch this, children of God.
Here you are struggling and fearing and doubting. And God all along
has been pouring out His grace in your life, in the forgiveness
of your sins, in the justification of your soul, in the clothing
you in His righteousness, in the filling you with His Spirit,
in the waking you up every day in your right mind, in the gracing
you to love the Word of God, in the ability for you to go
to the throne of grace, and ask for help in time of need. And
when you go there, you get it. And you're asking the question,
does God love me? He's bestowing His good pleasure
on you every day of your life. Now watch this, and He's leading
you. He's leading you, child of God. Will you hear me? He's
leading you. Every day, our salvation is closer
than when we first began. When a brother or sister who
is in Christ wakes up in the morning, just say, I'm closer.
I'm closer. I'm closer because God is leading
me. God is leading me. God is leading
me. And his pleasure, his well intention,
his absolute good purpose towards you and me. is to bring us into
a full manifestation of the kingdom. Now, I said it started as a political
kingdom. It certainly did. It moved into
a messianic kingdom. We saw that with the coming of
Christ in that little window of three and a half years ministry.
And then it breaks out into God's spiritual kingdom called the
church. I don't care what people say. Listen, don't listen to
these nuts who say the kingdom of God is not here. The kingdom
of God is here. My goodness, can I help you with
that? Listen, I've told people this more than once and it needs
to be understood. We got a room full of folks.
And y'all all are not black like me. And y'all all didn't grow
up where I grew up. Some of us grew up in the most
diverse places in the world. The most opposite that any person
can imagine. Prior to the grace of God coming
into our life, are you ready? You and I were enemies. I hated
you and you hated me. We were hostile adversaries.
Prior to the grace of God, had I caught you on the street, I
would have ripped you off. I would have taken advantage
of you. Apart from the grace of God, because of the power
that some of you had, by virtue of your own ethnic background
and the way things worked out, if you'd have caught me, you'd
have took advantage of me. You'd have ripped me off. You'd
have defrauded me. Am I making some sense? And the
vast majority of us in our foolishness of thinking our own ethnic group
is somehow superior to others. Do you understand how vain that
thinking is? Like the Italians, you know,
they just hot. But then the Italians got problems
among themselves. Because if you're not a Southern
Italian, then you ain't much. Because you got your dark Italians
and your light Italians, they fighting among themselves. Am
I making some sense? Watch this. Only the kingdom of God. can take people from every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue, and bring them together authentically,
and genuinely, and sincerely, and sacrificially by the grace
of God, and make us one in Christ. Only the kingdom of God. Only
the kingdom of God can do that. See, the cost is too great for
us to make this thing happen by our own strength. You don't
have it in you to love me like that. And I don't have it in
me to love you like that. I'm not going down for you after
the flesh like that. And you're not going down for
me. But we can go down together because of him who loved us and
gave himself for us. Listen, don't tell me the kingdom
of God is not present. The kingdom of God is fully present.
It only has one more stage to go. Are you hearing me? There's
only one more stage to go. After we have enjoyed this gospel
age where the Spirit of God is hunting down sinners in the patience
with which only God has patience We have only one more stage to
go after this gospel age where the Spirit of God is patiently
Filling the earth with the message of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ in touching rebel sinners when he wills, where
he wills, how he wills, and brings them into the body of Christ.
And he finally brings the last one in. He will come and change
these vile bodies so that they shall be made like unto his glorious
spiritual body. And we will enter into the fullness
of unity for which he prayed in John 17. Are you hearing me? Father, I will, not that he or
she, but they, them, us, be with them where they are, that they
might know our love, that they might know our unity, that they
might experience our glory, the glory that I had with you before
the world began. That's the next stage of events. in human history. Between then
and now the people of God individually and collectively as the body
of Christ must be led. Will you hear me? You must be
led. You must be led. We have a chief
shepherd who works through his under shepherds to teach you
the truth of the Gospel. And then we have the Great Shepherd
by virtue of the Spirit of God who works in our heart to lead
the sheep all the way to glory. Do you believe that He will get
you there? Do you believe that He will get
you there? Listen to me. Listen to me. His own glory is
at stake. If God fails to bring in one
for whom Christ died, the whole of the demonic world will be
able to say he failed. Now, will you hear me? God cannot
fail. God cannot fail. He cannot fail. He cannot fail. He cannot fail. We got to be led,
amen.