As we begin this time this morning, saints, I wonder if we could turn to several Scriptures.
The first one is John 10, starting with verse 1. We will be reading John 10:1-15.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.
But He that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
To Him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear His voice: and He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice.
And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which He spake unto them.
Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.
But he that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
The hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine.
As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep.
Over in Isaiah 53, we have this wonderful reminder:
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned every one to his own way;
And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Now, if we could read Psalm 23.
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.
Yea, 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 for ever.
And then one more, please, in Ephesians 3, starting with verse 17.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, how we thank You this morning for a time of worship, Lord, for a time of remembering You as our Savior. Lord, we thank You that You have indeed laid down Your life for each one of us.
So, Lord, now as we consider Your Word further, we do pray, Lord, that You would continue to speak to us. Lord, reveal what is on Your heart concerning this precious Word: You as our Good Shepherd. Be my enabling, Lord. I ask this in Thy precious name. Amen.
Well, saints, this passage of the Good Shepherd, this psalm, has been on my heart for a long time. And thank the Lord, in recent ministries we have mentioned Psalm 23 several times.
The Lord quickened this to me again recently, especially when Jeffrey was sharing a few weeks ago. He told us, essentially, that Psalm 22 was for the past. We see how our Lord suffered and what He endured on the cross.
Psalm 24, he said, was for the future. We see the Lord in His glory. And Psalm 23, he said, was for the present.
So when I heard that, I said, “Lord, please give me the courage to be obedient to You.” And I believe this started years ago, saints.
I was acquainted with this book, and now we have this book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, by Philip Keller. So praise God.
I talked with Jerry about it. “You know, Jerry, I have had this burden on my heart for a while, and I would like to share some that is in that book. I would like to expand on what our brother has begun, and would like to share some more in terms of what the Lord has shown me concerning these truths over the past few years, as they have applied in my life.”
And I pray that the Lord can use them as we consider shepherding, saints; as we consider ourselves as sheep; and as we consider the love that He has for us as our Good Shepherd.
One of the first things that appealed to me about this book was the realization that, being a city boy, I had no clue what a shepherd did. And I think that is maybe the case for many of us.
But I knew a shepherd was one who was very special, one who would lay down his life for the sheep. It takes a special person to be a shepherd in the natural.
And thank the Lord, the illustrations in this book, I believe, really help us to see to what extent the Lord will go for each one of us, to what extent the Lord has laid His life down for us, and to what extent the Lord has gone before us and what He does to keep us in His loving care. That is what is on my heart.
One of the blessings to me about this book, and really not knowing what a shepherd did, was that I was reminded by other illustrations that we see in the Bible. When we read them at the outset, we do not really understand the fullness of what the Lord intends unless we dig a little bit deeper.
Take, for example, the camel and the eye of the needle in Matthew. What on earth— a camel going through the eye of a needle? I can remember being puzzled about that as a child.
We can consider Matthew 5, when the Lord says, “Whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him twain.” Well, what on earth does that mean? What is it about our walk with the Lord? What is it about showing love to others that makes that so important?
And one of my favorites as a child comes from the Old Testament, where the relationship with our enemies is described, and showing them love is described as heaping burning coals on his head. I just really could not picture what that meant.
But thank the Lord, He has revealed these things to us. And I thank the Lord that, in better understanding the shepherd and what he did back in those days—the natural shepherd—I believe the Lord is described as our Shepherd for many reasons. One of them, saints, is to really let us comprehend His continual watchfulness over us, His care for us, and His life laid down for us.
Another precious thing about this book is that it shows us about sheep. We read in Isaiah that indeed we are all like sheep and have gone astray. So, knowing more about sheep is important, because in order for the Lord to be our great Shepherd, we have to be His sheep.
One of the things that was on my heart was that song that we sang, and that is the knowledge that sheep are completely dependent on their shepherd.
And so often, as our brother Keene said, our flesh is so strong. We are so reluctant to give the Lord our all. We have a tendency to rely on our own strength.
We have been told for years that, here in America, we just raise ourselves up by our own bootstraps and just go right on again. So, in coming to the Lord, He has to free us from that mentality. And thank the Lord, He does that.
This notion, then, of being a good sheep for the Good Shepherd is something that the Lord has really helped me to understand more in terms of my duty to Him. Thank the Lord for that.
So I would like to say from the beginning that, first of all, as we have spent the first hour together, we know that the Lord’s salvation for us is just beyond belief in terms of His love.
This aspect of the Lord being our Shepherd is just one aspect of His love. I do not want in any way for that to overshadow our first hour together and all that the Lord has accomplished for us in His salvation, His plan of salvation for us.
So let us turn to John again, chapter 10. Just a couple of verses out of what we have already read, starting with verse 9.
I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
This speaks of all that the Lord has done for us in terms of eternal salvation. He has paid that ultimate price for us. His body was broken and His blood was shed for us. And thank the Lord for that.
This reality is something that we have ever before us. The Lord even knows, as His sheep, that we need to be reminded of giving thanks for that. So the Lord tells us, as often as we come and gather together, we do remember the Lord’s death.
So thank God, each time we come together on the Lord’s Day, we have that opportunity. He knows us as His sheep.
If we could turn to Hebrews 13, two verses starting with verse 20.
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
So again, we thank the Lord that He has made that covenant with us. We no longer serve sin, and that is His finished work by what He has done on the cross for us. We spent this first hour, praise the Lord, recognizing what He has done for us.
Now, what I would like to do is have us all read Psalm 23 before we get any further in our time together.
And as we read it, saints, let us really consider the truth in each one of these words, each one of these phrases. Could we read this together, please?
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.
Yea, 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 for ever.
So, as we begin this study, the first several verses are actually the sheep talking, if you can visualize that for a second.
And what a declaration. What a wonderful thing to be able to say: “The Lord is my Shepherd.” The Lord, and all that He is, is my Shepherd.
Let us turn to Colossians 1, verse 15, speaking of Christ, just to again reflect what it means to say, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation:
for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him.
And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body, the church: Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.
For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fulness dwell;
and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.
And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, yet now hath He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him:
if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard.
All that the Lord has done, all that He is, and the sheep can declare, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Is not that a precious thought? That is just a wonderful declaration. So powerful, saints, and so wonderful are those words.
You can say this first phrase, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and you can put an emphasis on each one of those words. It has just a little bit different meaning, and it adds so much richness to our understanding.
The Lord is my Shepherd. The Lord above all—the Lord Who is King of kings, Who has given us all, Who is seated at the right hand of God—the Lord is my Shepherd.
The Lord is my Shepherd. Again, how precious that is. That One Who is from the beginning and will be for evermore, He is my Shepherd.
We can think about yesterday, saints, and say, “The Lord was my Shepherd.” We can think of tomorrow, and say, “The Lord will be my Shepherd.” But is it not wonderful that each day we can make that declaration, in the present tense: “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
He will not let us go. He knows us by name. He will keep us. What a wonderful thing to consider.
The Lord is my Shepherd. What a precious knowing in our hearts. He is your Shepherd too, but He is also mine. He knows me by name, as He knows you by name—even the very number of hairs on our head.
So, how precious a thought that is. That speaks of possession. That speaks of the security that we have in Who the Lord is.
Finally, we can say, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Again, saints, when we consider that word shepherd, who is it that can make that declaration? It is the sheep.
For a sheep to make that declaration, and to show that contentment and happiness and that kind of ownership, there has to be some mark on the sheep to show which shepherd it belongs to.
Now, in the old days, we know that the shepherd had a knife, and he would make a mark on the ear of the sheep. So that if sheep flocks came together, the shepherd would be able to identify which sheep belonged to which shepherd because of that special mark.
Nowadays, the sheep have little things like pierced earrings, metal tags, that again are used to identify which sheep belong to which shepherd.
Well, saints, let us consider how that matches us. What is our mark of ownership for the Lord?
Well, I think the parallel is clear: the bondservant. A slave in a Hebrew household would have his earlobe pierced with an awl, and that goes back to Exodus 21.
And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
then his master shall bring him unto God, and shall bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever.
Does the Lord have that mark on our lives, saints? Are we those bondservants for Him?
As I said earlier, the Lord knows us. He knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. But thank the Lord, He does not give up on us.
In John 10:3, we read that the sheep hear His voice, and He calleth His own by name, and He leadeth them out.
So, saints, that picture of the bondservant and the sheep speaks to my heart about the constraining love that the Lord has for us.
Are we so constrained to live our lives, to act each day in ways that truly show that we are worthy to be called the Lord’s?
That song that we sang is hard: “Can we truly surrender all? Do we have that capacity?” The answer is no. In our flesh, we do not.
But thank God, by His grace, He does enable us to get to know Him more and more each day. As we continue to seek after Him, saints, He gives us that knowing in our hearts of Who He is, and that He will forever keep us in His care. Thank God for that.
Well, we are not even through the first verse. The next phrase says, “I shall not want.”
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
Considering the sheep again, for the sheep to make that declaration, we need to see them as being completely content in the master’s care.
What would this involve for the sheep to be content? It involves such work on the part of the shepherd. Twenty-four hours a day, basically, the shepherd is on duty to the sheep: to provide them with good food to graze on and clean water to drink from.
Think of what the shepherd had to do to tend to his sheep. In pasturing, he also had to provide places, or find places, where there would be shelter from storms and protection from enemies. Protective measures had to be taken to prevent disease from spreading in the flock.
So one of the special things that that truth shows us is that He is ever diligent to care for us, ever vigilant over us, in terms of us being able to declare, “I shall not want.”
We have to understand what it meant for the shepherd to be able to make such provision. As I said, tremendous sacrifices.
But the shepherd’s reward in the old days was to see the sheep contented and well fed and safe, and even thriving under his care. That was a great delight to the shepherds of old.
As Keller points out, the shepherd would often be up early, early in the morning to check the flock, to see if there was any that had become ill or needed attention during the night. If there was any danger in their midst, anything that the shepherd could do to keep them from harm is what the shepherd did.
So again, as we see the picture of our Lord, Psalm 121 is so precious:
He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
And in Psalm 121:5-8:
The Lord is thy keeper:
The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep thee from all evil;
He will keep thy soul.
The Lord will keep thy going out and thy coming in
From this time forth and for evermore.
So we see that provision. The question is, are we content in that provision? Is our boast truly, “I shall not want”?
That is a matter for us to consider. It really and truly is, because we have so much, saints, that pulls on us.
If we turn to Mark, the Lord was aware of that when He spoke to His disciples about the rich young ruler, in Mark 10, starting with verse 17.
And as He was going forth into the way, there ran one to Him, and kneeled to Him, and asked Him, Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou Me good? None is good save one, even God.
Thou knowest the commandments, Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor thy father and mother.
And he said unto Him, Teacher, all these things have I observed from my youth.
And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.
Take up the cross and follow Me.
We have heard so many messages, saints, on being consecrated to the Lord and laying our lives down, truly keeping those short lists, if you will, asking the Lord for forgiveness, and not having our eyes on worldly things.
So again, thank the Lord, it is illustrated that as we do that, yes, the Lord will keep us. He is so faithful and wonderful to do that.
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
What a picture of perfect contentment that we see in terms of the sheep being under the shepherd’s care and lying down in those green pastures that the shepherd has sought out.
Our brother points out in the book that sheep cannot be made to lie down. It is not their nature. Sheep cannot be made to lie down unless four conditions are met.
Think about these as we consider how the Lord works in our lives:
So we see in those four conditions that the sheep must be free from fear, free from aggravation, and free from hunger.
Let us consider the shepherd of old. The shepherd has to provide release from anxieties and fears. We have a picture of what David did as a shepherd when he rescued his sheep from a lion and a bear.
Sheep are defenseless creatures, saints. They have no way to defend themselves. They are so skittish, it is pointed out, that they will even bolt and run in blind fear if a rabbit jumps out in front of them. They are that skittish.
A little rabbit can stampede a whole flock. So all the sheep know how to do when they are in danger is to run.
That is the sheep side. What about our side? Thank God, He gives us peace. He takes away our fears.
Second Timothy 1:7 says:
For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline.
In Ezekiel, we see another picture talking about the Shepherd:
I will feed My flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.
I will seek that which was lost, and will bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick.
So again, we see that aspect of the Shepherd’s care. And saints, one of the most precious parts of Scripture, I believe, is when we see the Lord telling others, “Fear not.” How precious that is.
In Matthew 28:7-10, this is when the Lord had risen and the women were there. The angel said:
Go quickly, and tell His disciples, He is risen from the dead; and lo, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you.
And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.
And behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and took hold of His feet, and worshipped Him.
Then said Jesus unto them, Fear not.
If we look over in Matthew 9, we see another instance, in verse 22. This is the story about the woman who had the issue of blood. She wanted to touch the hem of His garment, and she did that in a very public place.
And behold, a woman, who had an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the border of His garment:
for she said within herself, If I do but touch His garment, I shall be made whole.
But Jesus turning and seeing her said, Daughter, be of good cheer; thy faith hath made thee whole.
Again, the Shepherd’s great concern for that woman, showing such love that she would not fear, that indeed she would be comforted in Him.
Turn over to Matthew 14, verse 27, one of my favorite illustrations. The Lord was walking on the water.
Now, when you think in the natural, that must have been pretty disconcerting to the disciples, to the point where Scripture says they thought it was a ghost that they saw walking on the water. And it says they cried out in fear.
But straightway, in verse 27, Jesus spake unto them, saying:
Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.
So the Lord knew their hearts. He knew they needed that assurance that they would not have to be afraid.
And then one more, saints, over in John. John 20, when the Lord appeared this time to Thomas, in verse 26.
And after eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
Then He goes on and tells Thomas to reach his hand and put his finger into His wounds.
Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God.
Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
So Thomas was not upbraided for his unbelief, but he was loved by the Lord. He was assured of the Lord’s love for him. And as He appeared to them, He said, “Be not afraid.”
That is another precious picture of the Lord’s love for us.
So this speaks of being contented. We have a few more points to cover.
I mentioned freedom from tension. Sheep have this kind of pecking order in the flock. Sheep will be fearful of an older one. If an older one wants where a younger sheep is lying down, the sheep will head-butt the other one to make it move out of his way.
They will fight over a soft spot to lie down. They might fight over a shady spot to lie down in. But it is interesting: when the shepherd is in their presence, they will not do that. That is when they realize that he is the one who provides that contentment.
We see that in our brother Paul:
I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.
You know, one of the things I remember from my childhood would be different commercials that would come on television. The commercials basically were saying, “If you get this, then you will be happy. If you get this…” You remember those?
One of the things that I have considered over the years is how those commercials were intent to kind of lay out the good life. Indeed, if you can recall, some of those words were, “Be the first on your block to have so-and-so.”
You know, “keeping up with the Joneses” was a phrase that I remember. But saints, where is that in the body of Christ? Does that speak of the contentment that we need to have with Him?
Let us look over in Philippians 3, verse 7.
Howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.
Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ,
and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith:
that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death.
So we see our brother Paul, with all that the Lord had done in his life, striving to know the Lord. He was ever striving to be content in the Lord. “That I may know Him”—saints, that is what matters.
We also see that for the sheep to be at rest and to be content, they have to be free from aggravation and torment.
Well, as is pointed out in the book, sheep can be driven to distraction. They can be tormented in many ways. I mentioned the jostling for position. They can also be tormented by flies, bugs, ticks, and things like that.
They shake their heads to get rid of them. They stomp their feet. They run. They hide in the bushes to be freed from what torments them.
So, when the shepherd sees this going on, what does he do? He anoints their heads.
The shepherd had to make a certain kind of mixture of medicines or such, and then put that all over their heads. He had to make sure that the place where they grazed even had sheltered areas where they could find relief from the heat and so on.
So, as we see the shepherd making that provision that the sheep not be tormented, our provision in the Lord is that precious indwelling of His Holy Spirit. Thank God that He has that within us that gives us peace.
I also mentioned that sheep would not rest if they were hungry.
Now, in the days of the shepherd of old, we are told that the areas around Palestine and Bethlehem were not full of lush green pastures. It was up to the shepherd to clear the land. It was up to the shepherd to clear the brush from thorny briars and stumps and things like that.
It was even up to the shepherd to irrigate the field so that the sheep could have lush grass to graze on. So, do you picture the shepherd ever working for the sheep, ever mindful of their needs?
And our picture, so far as us is concerned, I would just like to read a quote from Keller’s book:
For the child of God, the Old Testament account of Israel moving from Egypt into the promised land is a picture of us moving from sin into the life of overcoming victory. We are promised such a life. It has been provided for us and is made possible by the unrelenting effort of Christ on our behalf.
How He works to clear the life of rocks of stony unbelief; how He tries to tear out the roots of bitterness. He attempts to break up the hard, proud human heart that is set like sun-dried clay. He then sows the seed of His own precious Word, which, if given half a chance to grow, will produce rich crops of contentment and peace.
He waters this with the dews and the rain of His own presence by the Holy Spirit. He tends and cares and cultivates the life, longing to see it become rich and green and productive. It is all indicative of the unrelenting energy and industry of an owner who wishes to see his sheep satisfied and well fed.
In all this, note my Shepherd’s desire to see my best interest served. His concern for my care is beyond my comprehension.
Really, let me read that again: “His concern for my care is beyond my comprehension.”
Our brother Atack last week sent a follow-up email from his message to us. He was quoting T. Austin-Sparks and speaking of the current time:
We must hold nothing back that will count for the Lord and His interests. You would be surprised how the Lord would come through if you give Him a chance.
So, saints, just in those two verses, that part right there, I think that is enough for this morning. Lord willing, I will continue to share from this.
But let me leave you with this thought: the Shepherd’s care for us is something that is ever, ever going on, ever before us.
He will just never let us go. He works for us all the time.
Our response should be, as in that song, “I surrender all.”
I have become convicted of the words of some of the songs that we sing, and that one in particular. Do we, as His sheep, surrender all to Him, knowing of His great love for us?
I do not say that in a condemning way, saints, but it is a way that the Lord could help us to yet yield our lives to Him, because He cares for us so deeply.
Let us pray.
Lord, how we thank You for this picture of You as our great Shepherd. Lord, for this picture of what it is that sheep are like. And Lord, we are so much like sheep.
Lord, we pray that as we are prone to not being at rest, prone to those things that show fear, and prone to those things that are just so much not like what we should be, we ask that You would strengthen us in Your ways.
Lord, do help us to appreciate Your work as a Good Shepherd on our behalf. And help us, Lord, to know how much we need to yield to You as our Good Shepherd.
We ask this in Thy precious name, Lord Jesus. Amen.