He's thankful that he's got the
next two weeks to work on his desk, so he won't be going out
and climbing no hills or nothing. And he's not going to miss any
school, so he's tickled about that. I saw Perry yesterday at
the grocery store, and he's looking great. I asked him if he had
started anything yet, and he said no. He said that's still
out there a little bit away to go. They haven't put a pick line
in or anything, so he hasn't started on that. But it will
be a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. and he'll be having
that, so remember him in your prayers and seek the Lord's help
for him. Deb's feeling some better. Been a nasty little head cold
she's had, sinus thing. Her eyes swell up and she had
fluid in one of them, in the sack, and she said, I can't go
out like this. And now she's got a sty on one
of her eyes, so bless her heart, so she's having a good time with
it. But remember her in your prayers too. Now let's begin
our worship service with hymn number 442. Praise Him, praise
Him, Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. 442. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd Jesus will guard
his children in his arms. He carries them all day long. Praise him, praise him, tell
of his excellent greatness. Praise him, praise him, ever
in joyful song. Let's pitch that a little higher.
That's a little low for me. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing o'er... Oh, I'm sorry. I started the
whole song over again. Let's start. Verse two. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound his praises, Jesus who
bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep,
and strong. Praise him, praise him, tell
of his excellent greatness. Praise him, praise him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus,
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals, loud with hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet
and priest and king. Christ is coming over the world
victorious, power and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise Him,
praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise
Him, ever in joyful song. Hymn number 477. 477 at Calvary. Years I spent in
vanity and pride, Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing
not it was for me He died on Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty and calvary. By God's word at last my sin
I learned. Then I trembled at the law I'd
spun. Till my guilty soul imploring
turned to Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. Now I give to Jesus everything. Now I gladly own him as my king. Now my raptured soul can only
sing of Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. Oh, the love that drew salvation's
plan. Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God
did spend at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to Genesis, the 49th chapter. I'm going to read part
of one verse tonight. Verse 24, the last phrase. From thence is the shepherd the
stone of Israel. Let us pray. Our Father, we are
so thankful for this Blessed, blessed word that teaches us
continually of the glories of our savior and our king and the
great shepherd of the sheep, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we praise you that you
have not left yourself without a witness, but you have given this book
to us Within these pages, from cover to cover, there's beautiful
illustrations, types and pictures of our Lord
Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, and as He is revealed in the
New Testament, in the Epistles and the Gospels. And as the Epistles say, He's
coming again. We do thank you. We do praise him for his excellent greatness. Father, we ask for those who
are sick and going through trials, those who've lost loved ones,
those who are about to travel, we will ask you to watch over
them. Remember especially Melvin as he's recovering from this
foot surgery. Perry, as he's preparing for these chemotherapy
and radiation treatments. My wife Debbie, as she's recovering
from this sinus infection. Stan, as he's recovering from
this surgery. Pray, Lord, you'd be with each one of them, watch
over them, strengthen them, and bring them back to a good measure
of health. We pray for ourselves tonight, Father, as we gather
here, that you might be pleased to open up your word to us. Give
us a glimpse of our Savior. allow us please to touch the
hem of his garment that virtue might flow to us we might rejoice
in his complete salvation up for us and my praise your holy name
we ask it in his precious name for his glory amen sometimes when you're studying
the scriptures the believers sometimes he gets stymied with
things he looks at things and can't figure out what they are
he knows that whatever the passage is to some in some way shape
or form it considers the Lord Jesus Christ and his work and
his church he knows that sometimes the scriptures don't seem to
open up to you this is not the case with this text however This
short phrase, from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel,
is a plain and potent parenthetical expression declaring the Christ
of God. From thence, it says, what is
from where? As from the mighty God of Jacob
is the shepherd and the stone of Israel. How often did our
Lord say that the Father had sent Him, or that He was of God,
or was God? These titles, the Shepherd and
the Stone, belong to Christ throughout this blessed book, and are defining
terms of His person and His work. The concept of Shepherd is throughout
this book, and almost exclusively, save for a few instances, it
points to the Lord Jesus Christ. If we would just consider the
word shepherd tonight, we'd find ourselves in a doctrinal cornucopia. Time and time again, our Lord
is presented that way. The Word of God makes much of
Christ as the shepherd of his flock. As to pedigree, his human
lineage, he came from the line of a shepherd. the shepherd who
was the sweet poet and psalmist of Israel, and the king whom
the Lord measured all other kings by. Time and time again we read
in the Old Testament when our Lord said that a king did ill
or did not do ill, did well, he would say, like my servant
David, like my servant David. Our Lord Jesus Christ is of the
house of David. In Ezekiel 34 verse 23 it says,
And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed
them, even my servant David. He shall feed them, and he shall
be their shepherd. He shall be their shepherd. That
lineage of David was important. We find it written in the book
of Luke in chapter 1. that the throne of David was
to be inhabited by the Lord Jesus Christ, and that means not the
actual throne of David, but the kingdom of God's Israel will
be held by Jesus Christ. In Luke chapter 1 verse 31 it
says, And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring
forth a son, and shall call his name Jesus. He shall be great,
and shall be called the Son of the Highest, The Lord God shall
give him the throne of David, and he shall reign over the house
of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. When Isaiah was telling the people
of Israel, Zion, the church, to behold their God in chapter
40 of Isaiah, the true God to be beheld is described this way. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. and gather them in his arms and
carry them in his bosom. Behold your God, not just the
king. This is your God, our God, carries
his sheep in his bosom. As to his wondrous day of death
on the cross of Calvary, in that three-hour period of darkness
when the sun was draped and no human eye could behold, the God
of justice laid stripes on our iniquities that had been laid
on the Lord Jesus Christ. In some of the most gloriously
descriptive language of Scripture, that great transaction is proclaimed
in Zechariah, chapter 13. Zechariah, chapter 13, verse
7, it says, Awake, O sword! Awake, O sword! This is the sword
of divine justice. This is the sword that will answer
the issue of sin. This is the sword of the Lord.
Awake, O sword, against who? My shepherd. Awake, O sword,
against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, saith
the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered. and I will turn my hand upon
the little ones. And when our Lord told his disciples
that they would be offended because of him, he quoted that verse
of scripture in the word of God in Matthew chapter 26. As to
the declaration of the doctrine of electing grace, we love the
doctrine of election and the doctrine of electing grace. The
shepherd is the one who makes the distinction in this election.
It says in Matthew chapter 25 and verse 31, it says, When the
Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels
with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. And
before Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. That's divine election and who
decides the shepherd. The shepherd is the one who divides
the sheep from the goats. As to the doctrine of particular
redemption or limited atonement, the shepherd designates those
for whom he died. In John chapter 10, he said,
I lay down my life for the sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep."
As to the fact that he came into this world to die and no one
but he had the power of life and death, he said, no man takes
my life. I lay it down and I have power
to take it up again. He said that as the good shepherd
in John chapter 10. As to the sure salvation of his
elect out of every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, the shepherd
said that he must bring them into the fold. He said in John
chapter 10, Other sheep have I, which are not of this fold,
them also I must bring, I must bring, and there will be one
fold and one shepherd, one shepherd, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
As to the effectual call of the gospel, our Lord said this, My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. He said that in John chapter
10 and verse 27. He also said, I give to them
eternal life, which is the doctrine of the preservation of the saints.
He will give them a life that never ends. They will be his
forever. What about reprobation? Reprobation,
as to reprobation, our great Jeopardy said those who believe
not, those who would never believe him, Why didn't they? He says
you believe not in John chapter 10 and verse 26 because you're
not of my sheep. You're not of my sheep. Those
who will die and perish in the end and spend eternity separated
from God in a hot and high fiery hell. Those will be there because
they weren't his sheep. They weren't his sheep. All his
sheep are going to get eternal life. He said my sheep hear my
voice. But he looked at those who had religion, had a righteousness
of their own, had a merit they believed that would stand them
in a right standing before God. He said, you don't believe me.
He said, the reason you don't believe me is because you're
not my sheep. That's pretty clear. That's pretty
clear. Who said that? The good shepherd. The Good Shepherd said that.
As to the doctrine of imputation, a cardinal doctrine in the scripture,
that belongs to the shepherd. That belongs to the shepherd
and his sheep. Over in Isaiah chapter 53, a very familiar portion
of scripture when it talks about our sins being imputed to Christ.
It says in Isaiah chapter 53, in verse 5, but he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was not wounded for his own
because he had none. He was the perfect, holy, blameless, sinless
Lamb of God. He had no sin and knew no sin
and did no sin, but he's borne our griefs. He's bruised for
our iniquities. The chastisement due us. to bring
us to peace was upon Him and not us. And with His stripes
we are healed. All we like what? Sheep. That's the language of the shepherd
and the sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray. We turned everyone to his own
way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. of us all. That's the doctrine
of imputation. It belongs to the shepherd. It
belongs to the shepherd. And as to the shepherd's intent
and purpose and will, he according to his own words will not stop
searching until he finds every one of his sheep. When the Pharisees
made mockery of him for eating with sinners and sitting down
and fellowshipping with sinners in Luke chapter 15, he said this
parable. It says, Then drew near to him,
in verse one, the publicans and the sinners to hear him. What
kind of people are those? The publicans were the worst
sinners, and sinners were like second in line. But the publicans
were Jews who were tax collectors for Rome who took a piece of
the action for themselves. And they were hated. And if you
wanted to say something bad about somebody, among the Jewish people. You call them a publican. That's
just as bad as you can get in their language. And these publicans
and sinners came out to hear the Lord Jesus Christ. What an
amazing thing. Sinners and publicans gathered
to Him. You know, the Pharisees people
didn't gather to them. They saw them come around the
corner and they'd run. And they'd hide over there. You
gonna tell me how wrong I am and all the bad things I've done?
And that's what they did. Our Lord said, they'll tell you
what to do, but they won't lift one finger to help you do anything.
Called them open sepulchers and full of dead men's bones. These
Pharisees, they said, in verse 2, and the Pharisees and the
scribes, they murmured. They murmured under their breath. They were saying, whispering
to each other. They murmured. Spurgeon said, a murmur is a
sound that any beast can make. And the Pharisees murmured. when
they saw him sitting with these sinners and these publicans.
And he said, they said, this man receiveth sinners and eats
with them. You imagine that, they said.
Look at that spectacle. Here they were in their beautiful
robes, dressed to the nines, full of religion. They broadened
the ribbons on the bottom of their robes and made them wider,
that blue ribbon, so they'd say they're closer to God than anybody
else. they had phylacteries little boxes that they had bible verses
written on that they had memorized and wore them they walked around
in these robes pristine and holy and righteous and everybody said
don't mess with them these are holy men these are holy men and
our lord said to them what man of you Now, remember, here's
the situation. They're standing here, looking
at him. There he is, sitting down with these sinners, receiving
them and eating with them and fellowshipping with them. And
they're standing back in awe of this horrible spectacle. And he looks at them and he says,
you fellows, you got a hundred sheep in your
fold. one of them gets lost he said what would you do if
one of them was lost wouldn't you leave the ninety and nine
that were in the fold safe in the fold and go out and find
the one lost one and the way he distinguished between the
pharisees and these sinners that were sitting beside him he said
the ninety and nine who need no repentance. They're safe.
They believe they're right with God. There's no thing. He said,
I'd leave that ninety and nine who need no repentance and I'd
go out in the wilderness, he said, and go after that which
is lost until he find it. Until he find it. And when he
had found it, he lay it upon his shoulders rejoicing and when
he cometh home, he calls together his friends and they were saying,
look at this. Look what I found. Look who I found. He said, Rejoice
with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. That's
the language of the shepherd. The language of the shepherd. He won't stop searching until
he finds them. You see, Jesus Christ will not lose one for
whom he can. He will not. I know people like
to sing sad songs about you. Mama's going to miss you because
you didn't make it to heaven. Your mom ain't going to miss you if
she's in heaven. She ain't going to care. In fact, she's going
to praise God for his righteous judgment of all those that sinned
against him, according to Revelation. When Babylon falls, the saints
are going to rejoice in Jesus Christ and say salvation belongs
to Him. Holy and righteous is His name.
They'll praise God. They'll praise God. Our Lord
will not lose one for whom He came. We don't serve a Jesus who tried
to save somebody and couldn't do it. That Jesus is not found
in this book anywhere in the pages of this book. We worship
a Christ who came to do a job, who left heaven and laid aside
His glory in the ever-present praise of the angels and came
down to live among the wicked, vile creatures of the earth who
didn't want anything to do with him, and to gather to himself
the refuse of humanity, the worst of the lot, and call them his
own, and go to a cross and die in their room and in their stead
and in their place so they wouldn't have to die. pay the sin debt
they owe, and may become and be made to be their righteousness,
wisdom, sanctification, and redemption, to redeem them back to God, to
reconcile them to God by the blood of His cross. When God
said, Oh, wake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man
who is my fellow, and he didn't lose one. He said that. And he
said that in answer to unbelief, just like he said these words
in John 10 to answer to unbelief, telling those Pharisees, you
don't believe because you're not my sheep. In another place, they
didn't believe him. In John chapter 6, or John chapter
5, they didn't believe him. He said, I know you don't believe
me. I know you don't believe me. People get all upset about
that. Oh, we want everybody to believe. Well, everybody's not
going to believe. In fact, I don't have anything
to do with anybody, whether they believe or they don't. All I
can tell them is the truth. That's all I can do. That's as
far as I can go. That's my only job and my only institution,
to set forth the gospel of Jesus Christ. But to those who don't
believe, they say, well, we don't believe you're the man that come
down from heaven. You're Joseph's son. We've known you since you
was a boy walking around Nazareth. We've known you all along. You're
not anybody. He said, I know you don't believe
me. all that the father giveth me
shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will not cast
out for I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the
will of him that sent me and this is my father's will which
is sent me that of all that he's given me I should lose nothing
but raise him up in the last day shepherd's intent and purpose
and will according to his own words will not stop searching
until he finds every one of his sheep. You know what that is
to sinners and publicans and the people religion don't want
to fool around with? Good news. That's the gospel
good news. and as proof that he is under
shepherds, which the word pastor means, as proof that they love
him, the great shepherd commanded them to do what? Three times he said to Simon
Peter, do you love me? Simon Peter said, yes, I love
you. He said, feed my sheep. And he
asked him again, Simon Peter, do you love me? more than these,
and he was probably talking about the fishing equipment because
he had decided to quit his gospel preaching business and go back
in the fishing business. He loved me more than these.
Peter says, yeah, you know I love you, Lord. Feed my lambs. Finally, he says, Peter, do you
love me? Peter says, Lord, you know everything. You know all
things. You know I love you. Feed my sheep. That's the language
of the shepherd. the language of the shepherd. John chapter 10 and verse 11,
our Lord said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. Hebrews 13, 20 says, Now the
God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus
Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of
the everlasting covenant, first peter two twenty five says you
were as sheep going astray but are now returning to the shepherd
the chief shepherd and the bishop of your souls and first peter five four says
and when the chief shepherd shall appear you shall receive a crown
of glory that fadeth not away from stem to stern your relationship
to Jesus Christ and mine is the relationship of a shepherd and
his sheep now Jacob spoke these words concerning Joseph the mighty God of Jacob from
thence comes the shepherd and what did the shepherd write out
on the hillside as he was watching the sheep of his father's flock.
He wrote, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. from thence is the Shepherd. Father bless us to understand
and we will pray in Christ. Amen.