I Shall Not Want

My subject today is, I Shall
Not Walk. And you know my text, Psalm 23,
one of all of God's people's favorite passages of scripture. I like to read it, I like to
hear it read. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not walk. Well, let's look at it. Take
your Bible and follow with me, will you? Psalm 23. The Lord
is my shepherd. Now, we need to camp right here
for a little while on the word Lord. on the word Lord, for all
that follows, he restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in paths
of righteousness, he leadeth me beside the still waters, my
cup runneth. All that follows depends upon
the person who is our shepherd. All that follows depends upon
the power of the person who is our shepherd. And all that follows
depends upon the purpose and the promise of him who is our
shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Our shepherd is Lord by the sovereign
decree of the Heavenly Father. It says in Philippians 2, verse
9, "...wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee shall bow in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, and
every tongue shall confess that he is Lord." to the glory of
God the Father. Who exalted him? Who gave him
a name above every name? Who decreed that every tongue
shall confess he is Lord and every knee shall bow in adoration
and reverence and worship before him, the Heavenly Father? So
the one who is our shepherd is the one who is Lord by sovereign
decree. And then he is our Lord by suffering
death. It tells us in Romans 14, 9,
"...for to this end," or for this cause, "...Jesus Christ
both died and rose again, that he might be Lord of the dead
and the living." That's why he came to the earth. That's why
he went to the cross. That's why he suffered the shame
and humiliation of Calvary's cross, that he might be Lord
of the dead and the living, of the saved and of the lost, of
the multitudes in heaven and the multitudes in hell, he is
sovereign, supreme Lord, not only by divine decree, but by
suffering death. And then he's our Lord. The shepherd
who is our Lord is our Lord by creative ownership. It says in
Colossians 3.16, for by him were all things created that are in
heaven and earth All things were created by him and for him. His Lordship is based on his
ownership. He is Lord of all things because
all things are his. He is the ruler of all things
because all things are his. Everything belongs to Christ.
One old preacher said that we heard on tape recently, he doesn't
have to put his signature on the paintings of nature, he's
the owner. He doesn't have to build a fence
around the metals. He's the owner. He doesn't have
to carve his initials on the mountain. He's the owner. He
doesn't have to put a brand on the cattle on a thousand hills.
He's the owner. He doesn't have to get a copyright
on the song that the birds sing. He's the owner. He doesn't have
to get a deed to the gold and silver mines of this world. He's
the owner. He doesn't have to raise a flag
over the nations. He's the owner. He doesn't have
to stake a claim on the universe. He's the owner. He doesn't have
to get a court order to open a grave. He's the owner. He doesn't
have to get a building permit to make a new heaven and a new
earth. He's the owner. O man, who art thou that replyest
against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Cannot I do
with my own what I will, saith the Lord? And our Savior said,
All authority is given unto me over all flesh, that I should
give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given me.
And before he sent his disciples to preach, he said, All authority
is given unto me in heaven and earth. All authority, supreme
power, is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and
preach the gospel to every creature. is Lord by sovereign decree. This one who is our shepherd
is Lord by sovereign decree, by suffering death. He's our
Lord by creative ownership. It all belongs to him because
he made it. He spoke the worlds out of nothing
by the word of his power. And then our shepherd is Lord
by crowning faith, by crowning faith. Romans 10, 9 and 10 says
this, shall confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord. And believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Yes,
he is our Lord, not only by sovereign decree, and not only by suffering
death, and not only by creative ownership, but by a willing,
loving, crowning faith. He said, you call me Lord, and
you say, well, for so I am. I like what Thomas said when
he fell at his feet. And he expressed his confidence
and faith, my Lord and my God. I like what the thief said from
the cross, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And I'll say this to you. And
I'll say the same thing to myself and to all who listen to me.
If Christ is not your Lord, he will not be your Savior. The
scripture calls him the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All
hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. O that with yonder sacred throng
we at his feet may fall, we'll join that everlasting song and
crown him Lord of all. So what we've got to say as we
go on through this psalm depends totally and completely upon who
this is that we say is our shepherd. Who is our shepherd? Well, the
Lord is our shepherd. The Lord is our shepherd. The
Lord is our shepherd, our great shepherd. Hebrews 13.20 says,
Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead that great
shepherd of the sheep. He is a great shepherd. He's
not just an ordinary shepherd. He is the great shepherd. that
brought again from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep through
the blood of the everlasting covenant. And then he's the chief
shepherd. 1 Peter 5 verse 4 says, And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
And then he's the good shepherd. In John 10, 11, he said, I am
the good shepherd, and the good shepherd giveth his life for
the sheep. David spoke positively about
this. Can you? I believe I can. The Lord is
my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Not the Lord might be my shepherd
or could be my shepherd. He is my shepherd. He's not my
shepherd right now. Not shall be. He is my shepherd. The Father made him so. And he
chose to be so. And he purchased me. And I've
received him as such. And because the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not walk. And that's the only reason. It's
not because of my faithfulness and my integrity and my works
and my service. I shall not walk because he is
my shepherd. That's why I shall not walk.
I may be the weakest of the sheep, but I shall not walk. I may be
the dumbest of the sheep, but I shall not walk. I may not have
all I wish, but I shall not walk. I may wander and stray from the
fold, but I shall not walk. I may grow old and feeble, but
I shall not walk. I may endure sickness and sorrow,
but I shall not walk. I may walk the valley of the
shadow of death, but I shall not walk. I may someday stand
in the judgment, but I shall not walk. The Lord, the Lord,
the Sovereign Lord, the Lord of heaven and earth, the Lord
who created all things, the Lord who owns all things, the Lord
is my shepherd, my great shepherd, my chief shepherd, my good shepherd,
my personal shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, and
therefore I shall not want. I shall not want. Now, I want
you to take your Bible there, and let's go line by line through
this 23rd Psalm. But remembering this, here's
the foundation. If the Lord is not your shepherd,
you can't claim these blessings. And I'm talking about the Lord
of Glory. I'm not just talking about any
shepherd or any Savior. I'm talking about the Lord. He
is our shepherd. And because He is our shepherd,
we shall not want. I shall not want for rest. He
maketh me to lie down in green pastures. What are these green
pastures? I shall not want for rest. He
maketh me to lie down in green pastures. What are these green
pastures? I'll tell you what they are.
These green pastures are the precious promises of God's Word. That's where God's people feed,
is in his Word. That's right. It says, "...as
newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may
grow thereby." We eat the Word of God. We feed upon the Word
of God. And it's the Word of God that
gives rest to our troubled soul. It's the Word of God that gives
joy. to our troubled souls. We feed on his word and we just
lie down in his word and we feed on it. We receive the word of
God and we grow. Take heed to the word of God
that you may grow thereby. It's the word of God that gives
us growth. We cease from our labors and
our works and enter into his rest. I find rest in the word
of God. I find confidence in the word
of God. I find assurance in the word
of God. I find all these things in his word. I shall not walk
for rest, he maketh me to lie down peacefully in green pastures. And I shall not walk for peace,
he leads me beside the still waters. The water of life quenches
my spiritual thirst. The water of the Spirit cleanses
and sanctifies me. The well of living water springs
up within me and sustains me. And these are quiet, still waters,
not troubled waters. He leadeth me beside the still
waters." We used to sing a song, the chorus went something like
this, blessed quietness, holy quietness, blessed assurance
to my soul. On the troubled sea, Jesus speaks
to me. And the waters, the waves, cease
to roll. It becomes peaceful waters. It
becomes quiet waters. It becomes still waters. He leadeth
me beside the still waters. He gives me peace. I shall not
walk. I shall not walk. The Lord is
my shepherd. The Supreme Sovereign Lord is
my shepherd. And I shall not walk for rest
because he leads me into the green pastures of his word. And
there are my answers. And there's my comfort, and there's
my joy, and there are the promises, and he leaves me beside still
waters. He calms the troubled waters. He makes them still. And then I shall not want for
forgiveness. He restoreth my soul. Oh yes,
all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And he's restored my soul. He's restored to me. everything
that I lost in Adam. You look at that scripture in
John 14, verse 6, in which our Lord said, I am the way, the
truth, and the light. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. And you'll find in that everything
we lost in Adam. What did we lose in the Garden
of Eden? Well, we lost the way to God. Adam was put out of the
Garden and the flaming swords barred his re-influence. Adam
lost not only the way to God, he lost the truth of God. He
believed a lie. And because he believed that
lie, he was made a lie himself. He became subject to guilt and
fear and weakness and hate and all these things. His life became
a lie. And then he lost the way, the
truth, and he lost his life. He died. He died spiritually. He lost all communion and fellowship
with the God with whom he used to walk and talk And now he lost
his life, spiritually and physically he later died. Now Christ, in
Christ we have all of this restored to us. I have restored the way
to God. I now as a child of God, as a
redeemed sinner, as a forgiven sinner, I can come boldly into
the presence of God. I can come back to Eden's garden.
I can come back to fellowship with God. I can come back to
real personal communion with God because Christ is my way. He's opened for me into his presence,
by his death, a new and living way. And the truth, Christ is
the truth. I am the way, I am the truth.
He's the truth of God. If you want to know how God can
be just and justify the ungodly, you'll find the answer in Christ.
If you want to know how God can be merciful and yet be righteous,
you'll find the answer in Christ. If you want to know how God saves
sinners, you'll find the answer in Christ. If you want to know
how sinners' sins are forgiven, you'll find the answer in Christ.
It's all in Christ. He is God's wisdom. He is God's
truth. That's where it is. And life?
We have restored to us eternal life. Christ said, He that liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Oh, we may someday sleep
and our bodies be put in the grave, but to be absent of the
body is to be present with the Lord, and someday even the body
is going to be raised. We have that life that Adam lost in the
Garden of Eden, restored in Christ. I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm
the life. It's all, he restoreth my soul. He restored me to sonship, he
restored me to fellowship, he restored me to the inheritance
which I lost. Adam was the king of this world.
Everything, God said, it's all yours. multiply and replenish
the earth and subdue the earth. It's all yours. And when he sinned,
he lost it all, but I've regained it and all things are yours in
Christ. He restores my soul. I shall not want for forgiveness
and I shall not want for holiness because the Lord is my shepherd.
He leads me in paths of righteousness. And my friends, it's not in my
nature to find the path of righteousness. Oh, I know they're all different
kind of standards and rules and ways that men point to today
and say, that's the way of righteousness, or that's the way of righteousness,
or that's the way of righteousness. It's their particular brand of
righteousness, but you'll find a loophole in it somewhere. You'll
find a rat hole in it somewhere. You'll find a frayed spot in
it somewhere. It's not in our nature to find
the way of righteousness. It's not in our nature to know
the way of righteousness. And it's not in our nature to
walk the path of righteousness unless He leads us. He leadeth me in the path of
righteousness. You know how He can lead me in
the path of righteousness? Because it's His path. It's His
path. It's His righteousness. And he's
already walked it, he made the path, he walked it perfectly,
and he leads me there. And without his constant presence,
and without his constant supply of grace, and without his constant
leadership, I'd lose my way. I walk with Christ, and I walk
in Christ. He leads me. Notice all of this,
the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not walk because the
Lord is my shepherd. makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness. You see the absence of my works? You see the absence of my doing? You see the absence of my initiative? It is Christ that does this for
me. I love him because he first loved
me. This is what I'm saying to you. This is what I'm saying
in a sentence. Salvations of the Lord. The whole
of the work whereby a poor, blackened, darkened, deadened sinner is
brought from a spiritual grave to be an heir of God is by the
power of God, by the grace of God, through the blood of Christ
and by the work of the Holy Spirit. It's a gift of God. I shall not
want for fellowship. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. Thou art with
me." Now, that's the reason, I'll fear no evil. Not because
I'm strong, not because I have courage, not because I can defeat
my enemies, not because I'm stronger than those about me. I'll fear
no evil because Thou art with me. I'm a dependent creature. I'm a helpless creature. It's
He. who hath restored my soul. It
is he who leads me in paths of righteousness, and I fear no
evil, because he is with me." So many people have confined
this to the day of death. Listen to me carefully. Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. A lot
of people confine this completely to the day of death, but I say
it's the entire journey of life. This valley through which we're
walking from the time we're born to the time we die is a valley
of the shadow of death. Everything about us has the mark
of death on it. Look at those trees out there
that are beginning to turn. They're dying. The grass is getting
brown. It's dying. The tomato vines,
they're dying. You see those gray hairs and
those wrinkles? Those absent teeth, those stooped
shoulders, you're dying. Everything about us has got the
mark of death. Everything. This is the valley
of death. Here on earth, everything has
the mark of death. And I'm walking through it. I'm
not in any hurry. You see, I'm walking through.
I'm waiting on the Lord. I'll go when it comes time. But
I'm walking through. This is not my home. I'm going
through. We're not stopping here, we're not camping here, we're
not driving our stakes here, we don't prepare to stay here,
we're sojourners, we're strangers, pilgrims passing through. I'm
walking through a valley of the shadow of death. Now, death in
its substance has been removed. Only the shadow remains. That's
right. Death can't hurt the child of God. The sting of death is
sin. And Christ has taken the sting
out of death. So it's just a shadow of death,
that's all. Shadow can't hurt you. Shadow of a gun can't kill
you. The shadow of a dog can't bite you. But it looks vicious,
doesn't it? It looks frightful. And I'll
fear no evil. He doesn't say there won't be
any evil. He says, I won't be afraid of evil. There'll be plenty
of evil about you. There'll be evil around you and
there'll even be evil within you through this valley of the
shadow of death. But David says, I'm not going
to be afraid. I'm not going to be afraid, and
the reason I'm not going to be afraid is the Lord is my shepherd
and he's with me and I'm not afraid. I shall not want for
fellowship, even though I'm walking through a valley of the shadow
of death, I'm walking through a famine infested land, I'm walking
through a terrible dry and parched desert, I'm walking through a
dark cave, but he's with me. through the sorrow and sickness
and toil and trouble and trials of life. He's with me. I'm not
alone. I'm not alone. I shall not want
for comfort. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. I know some people call this
the rod of correction and some call it the rod of numbering
through which the sheep passed, you know, under which the sheep
passed and the shepherd numbered it. But whatever it is, this
rod is the rod of His sovereignty and His gracious care. The shepherd
always carried the shepherd's rod. He had several uses for
it. He'd reach out and pull the little sheep back into the fold,
you know, catch them by the leg and pull them back when they
wandered away, or he'd use the rod and he'd pass under it. He'd
number the sheep as they passed under the rod. He'd give them
a direction to look and all, you know. But he would ward off
the wolves and the evil beast with his rod. But this rod of
sovereignty and gracious care and protection is the rod by
which he rules the flock and defends the flock and provides
for the flock. But you know his sovereignty
is my chief comfort. He said all things work together
for good to them who love God, who are his sheep, who are the
called according to his purpose. Everything, doesn't matter what
it is, it's going to work together for our good and for God's glory. And that comforts me. That comforts
me. I think I can say with Job, though
he slay me, I'll trust him. I'll trust the Lord because he's
my shepherd. And then I shall not want for
daily bread. He said, thou preparest a table before me in the presence
of mine enemies. No, the believer's not without
enemies. He wouldn't be like his Lord if he was. He said,
marvel not if the world hate you, it hated me. But God provides
our needs and he sets a table for us even in the presence of
our enemies. A lot of times when I write to
people who write to us I answer their letters and on the bottom
I'll put a verse of scripture. One of my favorites that I put
on letters occasionally is this, Philippians 4, 19, But my God
shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory through
Christ Jesus. Don't be overly anxious. He'll
supply your needs, not necessarily everything you think you ought
to have, your needs, according to his riches and glory through
Christ Jesus. You're not going to want He's
not going to let you want. He's not going to let you want
for daily bread. David said, I've been young and now I'm old
and I've never seen God's seed begging bread. Not the seed of
the Lord. He provides for his people. I
shall not want for daily bread. I shall not want for joy. My
cup runneth over. My cup runneth over. I shall
not want for anything in this life. Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life. And then I shall
not want for anything in the life to come, for I shall dwell
in the house of the Lord forever." The Lord is my shepherd. Is the
Lord your shepherd? Is the Lord of glory, the one
who is Lord by sovereign decree, the one who is Lord by suffering
death, the one who is Lord by creative power, the creative
right, the one who is Lord by crowning faith, can you say,
he is my shepherd? Not have you had a religious
experience, not have you joined the church, not have you walked
the aisle, not do you have your name on some church roll book,
but have you had a living encounter with the Lord of glory? Is he
your shepherd? Have you trusted in him and rested
in him? Have you, John said, received
him as your Lord and as your Savior? Have you received him
intelligently and willingly and lovingly? You have embraced him
and said, Lord, I'm yours. I'm yours, my family. My home,
my job, everything, I belong to you, I surrender completely,
I submit. One old Puritan preacher used
to say that that word receive, Christ, means to submit to Christ.
Submit to Christ. The Lord is my shepherd. Well,
I'll tell you this, if the Lord Jesus Christ is your shepherd,
if you can honestly say, he is my shepherd, I have submitted
to him, I have received him, he is the Lord of my life, then
you shall never You shall never want for rest. You shall never
want for peace. You shall never want for comfort.
You shall never want for fellowship. You shall never want for forgiveness.
You shall never want for righteousness. You shall never want for anything
in this life nor in the life to come. Surely, goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will,
no question about it, I will dwell in the house of the Lord.

I Shall Not Want

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

I Shall Not Want

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

More from Henry Mahan

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Henry Mahan

Books by Henry Mahan

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book