Well, good morning again, saints. I thank the Lord for this opportunity again to share about the Lord as our Great Shepherd.
Please turn to John 10, beginning with verse 1.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, 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 hath put forth all His own, 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.
Jesus therefore said unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
All that 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 go out, and shall find pasture.
The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd layeth down His life for the sheep.
He that is a hireling, and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, beholdeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth; and the wolf snatcheth them, and scattereth them:
He fleeth because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
I am the Good Shepherd; and I know Mine own, and Mine own know Me,
even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
Now, Isaiah 53:6:
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.
And Psalm 23, of course:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He guideth 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 hast anointed my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and lovingkindness shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Finally, Ephesians 3, beginning 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 have a word of prayer.
Lord, how we thank You so much for our time today, our time of worship, and that time at the table where You have brought us together to remember You. Thank You, Lord, that You are our Great Shepherd.
And Lord, You have done all things for us, Lord, for Your name’s sake—that is, because of Who You are, Lord. We pray that, as we continue to share in the psalm, You would reveal more of Your love for us.
Lord, be my enabling. I pray that You would guide our time now by Your Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
We did not get very far last week.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
And that is where we stopped. But, saints, this is so rich.
Just to review very quickly: indeed, the Lord is my Shepherd. What a proclamation, what a joyous thing for us to be able to say, and to know Him in fullness.
That is my burden: that, as we come together and consider this word, in knowing more about what a shepherd did back then, we truly would be able to comprehend more of His love for us. The picture of a shepherd then was truly one of a life laid down for the sheep.
And as the shepherd did so much for the sheep, a while back the Lord just put something on my heart. You know, it is so easy to trust the Lord for our souls, but is it easy to trust the Lord with the day-by-day things? Those little things that we know we should be giving to Him, that we should be surrendering to Him?
What the Lord touched my heart with was this: yes, indeed, we can give all of those things to the Lord. Yes, we can trust Him, for His love for us is as that shepherd—undying, ever vigilant over us, ever caring for us.
So that is what the Lord had on my heart: this burden to share that we would know what a shepherd did, that we also, saints, would know that we indeed are sheep, and that as sheep of the flock, we are so much like those sheep.
We are so dependent upon the Lord, so fickle, so in need of someone to guide us. Praise God, He will do that for us.
So, we talked last week, as I said, about the Lord being my Shepherd, and what a wonderful declaration that is. “I shall not want” means that He will indeed be our everything and make full provision for us.
“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.” We talked about just how precious a sight that is for the shepherd to see: the sheep at peace.
They would not lie down if there were fear in their midst. If there were friction within the flock, they would not lie down. If they were tormented or hungry, they would not lie down.
And we talked about how the Lord deals with each one of those things in our lives, as well as with the sheep.
One thing that is precious, which I overlooked last week in terms of making me lie down in green pastures, was the picture of the shepherd.
We know in Scripture that the Lord says He is the gate. But, saints, sometimes back in those days, in the hill country, the sheep were gathered at night in rocky areas outlined with rocks. The shepherd would drive the sheep in there by night and would actually lie down across that opening.
And what is that a picture of? It shows how the Lord laid down His life to save those sheep from the predators that would be in their midst.
So what a wonderful picture that is—just another illustration in this psalm of the extent to which the Lord simply is the gate, is the way, and is our Protector.
So that is the review. And today, rather, than tonight, we come to: “He leadeth me beside still waters.”
So that is where we start today.
We know that, for us as well as for sheep, water determines vitality, strength, and vigor. Without proper amounts of water, the sheep will become weak and impoverished.
Without water, if sheep continue to be thirsty, they become restless, and they will do anything to seek out water. They will drink any kind of water they can get when they are thirsty.
If they are not led to good water, sheep do not have good sense, and they will drink polluted water.
I can remember my mother telling me about our dog when I was a kid. I was worried about her drinking out of mud puddles. My mother said, “Don’t worry. God has given animals a sense that they won’t drink anything that is polluted.”
Well, according to Keller in this book, sheep do not know any better, and they will drink things that will make them sick.
So if they drink from potholes filled with parasites, pollution, or whatever the case might be, bad things can happen to the sheep. Germs can get in. The sheep can become wasted away, and they can get disease.
So that is the picture of sheep needing clear water, clean water. And we know that in those days there were three main sources of water for the flock: dew on the grass, deep wells, and springs or streams.
The dew on the grass gives us a wonderful picture of how the shepherd is out well before dawn with the sheep, making sure that the fields are clear, that there are no predators there, and that the sheep can graze safely on grass filled with dew.
The grass combined with the water is such a picture of wonderful contentment. The sheep do not have to seek any more water because of the dew that is there. So they can eat, lie down in peace, ruminate, and just be peaceful.
And as was pointed out, one of the shepherd’s goals is to have the sheep gain weight. They can do that because they are not agitated and can just be at peace.
Well, what do we know about dew? Late in the morning it disappears. The sun comes up and burns the dew off the grasses.
So as a picture to us, we know how the Lord blesses us when we seek Him early. Is that not a precious sight—how He desires to feed us in that morning time?
So, saints, that is one thing that we should really pray about in terms of our walk with the Lord: to be able to spend that time with Him.
The second source was from wells. We know that wells were pretty deep back then, and the amount of work it took for the shepherd to draw water from those wells was huge.
Can you imagine bucket after bucket after bucket, drawing enough water to make a flock content? But that speaks, again, of the shepherd’s labor of love for us.
We know that the sheep also drank from streams, and this is where the shepherd really had to be very vigilant over the sheep.
Again, if they could sense water along the way, and if the path was muddy or filled with little potholes containing water polluted by the animals, the shepherd had to lead the sheep. He had to move them along so they would not stop to drink that impure water.
But he had to keep them moving, leading them toward those fresh streams, so that life-giving, pure water—rather than water that could cause sickness—would be the water the sheep could reach.
So that work called for real, true diligence on the shepherd’s part: not just leading, but looking back over the flock to make sure that none had stopped along the way to take the easy way out, to take a shortcut, and in so doing drink polluted water and become sick.
Well, the parallel to us is very simple: saints, we take shortcuts, do we not? We try to do things the easy way.
The scary thing is that we may enter into things thinking, “Hmm, this cannot possibly hurt me. This looks so nice on the outside, so pretty on the outside. It cannot possibly hurt me.”
But before we know it, we have kind of gotten in over our head. We have been tempted, like the sheep, to taste something that was impure, and sure enough, we get into trouble.
We see a parallel in James 1:14-15:
But each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.
Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death.
It started with that temptation to take the easy way.
And as we consider shepherding as a company, another parallel is seen in Hebrews 3:13:
But exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called To-day; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
So we see how easy it is to enter into sin, and then we see what sin does. It deceives us, and it makes our hearts hard toward the Lord.
But thank the Lord, He has provided a way if we keep our eyes on the Shepherd.
Verse 3: “He restoreth my soul.”
Keller pointed out that this is the story of the cast sheep, or the cast-down sheep. It is a precious part of this book.
A cast sheep is basically one that has fallen down and cannot get up again. It has rolled over on its back.
If you can visualize it, the sheep cannot right itself. The sheep is lying there on its back. It may have lain down and been asleep, perhaps in a little depression in the ground. The sheep rolls over, and before you know it, its center of gravity has shifted.
Now the sheep’s feet are in the air, and the sheep is kind of pitiful, okay? It does not have the strength to right itself.
The sheep will flail around and become panicked, trying and trying and trying to get back up. But the way sheep are made, they just cannot right themselves.
If the weather is very hot, the sheep will die in a matter of hours simply because it is cast down.
If it is cooler weather, the picture is not much prettier. The death can linger for a few days, because unless the sheep gets help, it is still not in a position to right itself. So it dies a painful death anyway.
That is one reason sheep can become cast down: they just roll over and cannot get up because they are, in this case, kind of bottom-heavy upside down—top-heavy, if you will.
Other reasons are that sheep have long woolen coats. Those coats get heavy when wet, and that adds more weight. Again, because of the spindly legs sheep have, they cannot right themselves under the weight of their coats.
Wool is heavy when it is wet, right? Can you imagine trying to do that if you are a sheep? It is just impossible.
Sheep can also become cast when they are carrying lambs. Ewes that are pregnant can become cast, and that requires even more diligence on the shepherd’s part. If the shepherd loses that sheep, he has lost the lambs as well.
So that was a special case in which shepherds had to be ever diligent.
Again, if you can visualize it, there is constant vigilance on the shepherd’s part, constant care, and constant awareness of what the sheep are doing. He looks over the flock to see that they are all accounted for.
If they are not, then the shepherd would drop what he was doing, if you will, and go find that cast sheep.
When he finds the cast sheep, he has to right it, but he cannot just plop it up on its feet. The shepherd has to massage the sheep’s legs so that circulation will come back to the limbs and the sheep will be able to support itself.
Gradually, through the shepherd’s work, the sheep is made ready to bear its own weight again before it can finally walk again.
What are the implications for us?
Well, if sheep can fall so easily, saints, and we are sheep, can we not fall easily as well?
The Lord has made provision. Look in 1 John 1:9:
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That is one way the Lord restores us. He is ever faithful, ever ready to hear those prayers of confession, and He does that because He loves us.
So, as we have heard many times, we just need to keep short accounts with the Lord. When the Lord convicts us of sin, confess it, be forgiven, and be restored.
A beautiful illustration in Scripture is the way the Lord restored Peter. So let us take a few minutes to consider that together.
We know that Peter denied the Lord three times. He was convicted of what he had done, and he went out and wept bitterly.
But thank God, the story did not end there with Peter. The Lord met him and restored our dear brother.
I think it is so wonderful that Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, described the way the Lord reached out to Peter. Speaking of the Lord, he said:
That He was buried; and that He hath been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures;
and that He appeared to Cephas; then to the twelve.
The Lord had that special place in His heart for Peter. He knew that brother needed that special restoration.
In Luke 24, we are also told about those who were on the road to Emmaus. After they had had that time with the Lord, they said, “Was not our heart burning within us?”
After that section, it says:
And they rose up that very hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,
saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
So it was known that the Lord reached out to Peter and had that special time with him, as a way of restoring that brother from all that he felt after denying the Lord.
Then we know the story of when the disciples had gone fishing. I am going to read from Darby’s translation of John 21. Again, this is that special time the Lord had with Peter.
When therefore they had dined, Jesus says to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these?
He says to Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I am attached to Thee.
He says to him, Feed My lambs.He says to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?
He says to Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I am attached to Thee.
He says to him, Shepherd My sheep.He says to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, art thou attached to Me?
Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, Art thou attached to Me?
And he said to Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I am attached to Thee.
Jesus says to him, Feed My sheep.
So not only was that special time given between the Lord and Peter, but we see the Lord’s shepherd heart—not only for Peter, reaching out to one who needed restoration, but also for the work that Peter would do for the flock.
What a precious picture of the Lord restoring our soul.
We also see in the parable of the lost sheep how we were cast down and the Lord found us.
In Matthew 18, we have a precious picture, saints, of the way the Lord worked. Matthew 18:11:
For the Son of man came to save that which was lost.
How think ye? if any man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go unto the mountains, and seek that which goeth astray?
And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth over it more than over the ninety and nine which have not gone astray.
Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
I think it is important to consider that, when this was written and the Lord went after that lost sheep, it was not like the sheep was hiding somewhere in the corner of a nice green pasture.
The shepherd had to go and seek that sheep out. It could have fallen into a real deep depression, into ruts where it was hidden, over the side of the pasture toward a riverbank, or into briars and brambles, as sheep were wont to do.
So, in thinking about that lost sheep, think about how the Lord found you.
When I think about how the Lord worked in my life to bring me to Himself, it is just amazing. I think all of us can testify to the Lord’s love.
I first heard about the Lord when I was, I believe, in the eighth grade. It was not until I was in college that I gave my life to the Lord. But looking back on that time, praise God, He never let me go.
He did not give up. And I am sure that each one of us can say with rejoicing hearts how the Lord did not give up on me, and on you as well.
What a precious picture that is of the Lord’s love. Forgive me; I cannot see now for some reason.
But precious is our Great Shepherd, who seeks those lost sheep.
He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
As our brother points out in the book, sheep are notorious creatures of habit.
Left alone, they will graze until the grass is completely gone from the pasture.
Then the sheep will dig down, paw down, and get the roots out of the pasture. They will even eat the roots, so that they actually destroy the pastureland.
By grazing over and over in the same spots, with no grass left, the sheep would pollute the ground. If you can visualize a flock that is not under the attentive care of a good shepherd, but is left to graze in that condition, the sheep would walk through their own waste.
That would lead to the sheep becoming more disease-ridden and filled with parasites. So here again, without the constant care of the shepherd, the land would become ruined and the sheep would become thin and wasted.
The shepherd, therefore, had to move the flock continually. He had to be aware of how much was being grazed and lead the sheep to another grazing area.
It was not just a matter of picking up the flock and moving them down the street. It was not that easy.
New areas had to be found, and once found, the shepherd had to go into those areas and make sure there were no poisonous plants that could harm the sheep.
So it is that aspect of going before the flock that was pointed out in the book. Again, it is a precious picture of how the Lord goes before us.
But without that shepherd’s care, the sheep would just sit there and stubbornly eat those roots and so on.
When we think about the parallel to ourselves, we are prone to falling into our old habits as well.
We know that the pull of our old nature is very strong, and we cling to our old ways sometimes in spite of ourselves. We know better, but we also know Romans 6.
In Romans 6, we read:
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein?
Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection;
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin;
for he that hath died is justified from sin.
So the Lord’s work in our habits, folks—thank God—the work He does is a continual work. We have been set free from the power of sin over us.
Verse 11 in that same chapter says:
Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof:
neither present your members unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
So the Lord indeed has done it all in terms of releasing us from sin and releasing us from those habits. Even though our flesh would continue in sin, God’s grace will abound for us. Folks, we can stand on that. Thank the Lord for that.
I had another illustration. Chip and Scott used to listen to Don Francisco. I do not know if many of you know Don Francisco, but he had a song called “Adam, Where Are You?”
The song initially tells the story of Adam and Eve in the garden. Basically, it speaks of Adam and Eve being in sin and being prisoners. I would like to read you that last lyric. God is speaking to Adam: