The Sufficient Shepherd

I think we're all set. Okay, good. All right. I feel like I'm being investigated with one of these things.

All right. Well, I am privileged to be here. I do thank you for having me and for inviting me to come and preach to you.

It's always an honor for me to preach the Word of God, and I am thankful to have my family with me.

We've talked, Rebecca and I, my sister, of getting her a sign to go over her head that she is my sister and not my wife.

Because oftentimes a lot of people mistake her for that when my wife's not around, and so we're so thankful to be here.

It is a privilege to be a part of a church that preaches God's Word, big or small, in the city or in the country, and you are in a church,

I believe, treasures the gospel of Christ and the Word of God and holds it in high regard, and for that you are greatly blessed.

It is always good to be in a church that loves the Word and loves God and is sure to revere

Him and worship Him in spirit and in truth. So let's do that together this morning as we listen to the

Word preached, because this is worship, and we are continuing in worshiping our God as we listen to His Word and are fed from Him.

Our text this morning is Psalm 23, so if you'd open your Bibles with me to Psalm 23, I'd greatly appreciate that.

We're going to be looking at this entire Psalm I'll try to preach all of this in one sitting.

There's much in this Psalm, and I have titled the message this morning, if there is a title to it,

The Sufficient Shepherd. So Psalm 23 verses 1 through 6.

Yahweh is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You have anointed my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely, goodness and loving -kindness will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever.

Let us pray. Our great God and Heavenly Father, Lord, You are the one we've come to worship today, and it is from Your Word we expect to be fed.

We ask in humility that You would do the work of Your Word in our hearts.

That the lost would be saved, and those who are saved would be transformed further into the image of Your Son.

We come today in awe of You. We come today appreciating and worshiping the sufficiency of You as our shepherd.

You fulfill our every need that You provide for us, not only materially, but ultimately spiritually.

You satisfy our every longing, and Father, You are true to Your Word. You will not only shepherd us in this life, but You will shepherd us to eternity, and You will dwell with us and tabernacle

Yourself with us forever. So we come now to Your Word as we would come to a table to be fed.

We come expecting. We come anxious. We come hungry. We come in humility.

Lord, we come with open eyes and open ears. Lord, maybe those who are here today who have ears that are shut, eyes that are shut, still dead in their trespasses and sin, we pray that the

Spirit would breathe life into them, and that today for the first time they would hear the voice of the

Good Shepherd, and that You would call them into Your fold. We ask all of these things in the name of Christ, our

Savior, our Redeemer, and our Great Shepherd. Amen. Well, we come to this psalm, and this psalm in many cases needs no introduction, but I'm going to try to introduce it to you anyways, or maybe we could say reintroduce it to you.

Unlike other psalms, we come to this one, and there's no sense of timing that is given to this specific psalm.

We don't know exactly when David wrote this psalm, but what we can generally gather from this psalm is the notion that David had just perhaps been delivered from a tumultuous time in his life, and with his pen,

David characterizes his Savior, his God, by a profession that he was well acquainted with, that is a shepherd.

So this psalm is commonly termed the Shepherd's psalm for that reason.

Now the placement of this psalm is interesting. David's Shepherd's psalm was placed immediately following the great 22nd psalm, which has also been coined as the psalm of the cross.

It's a psalm that vividly and prophetically depicts a very detailed scene of Calvary.

It provides the very words that Christ will speak from the cross, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, my

God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It previews the casting of lots for his robe.

It shows the piercing of his hands and his feet, and the promise of a seed as a reward of his suffering.

And I believe that it is no coincidence that those who compiled the book of psalms would place the psalm of God's guidance and care immediately following the psalm of Christ's passion and suffering.

It is a fitting place, for we could never know the joy of God's care had he not bruised his son in our place.

And Spurgeon, I believe, said it best. He said that we must by experience know the value of the blood shedding and see the sword awakened against the shepherd before we shall be able to truly know the sweetness of the

Good Shepherd's care. And so we see this psalm placed providentially by God in this position.

But not only that, we see the direction of this psalm. And I'll be honest too, often Psalm 23 is seen merely as a deathbed psalm.

That it is a psalm that is read in the last moments of life. And surely it is appropriate to be read in the last moments of a believer's life.

But what you will notice when you become well acquainted with this psalm is that this psalm is a

Swiss army knife of a psalm. And what do I mean? Well, it's a psalm for every occasion, and it's a psalm for every believer.

It's a psalm for tribulation, and it's a psalm for triumph. It is a psalm for the simple, and it's a psalm for the scholar.

It is a psalm for the persecuted, and it's a psalm for the prosperous. It is a psalm for the sorrowful, and it is a psalm for the satisfied.

It is a 365 day psalm. It is a weekend psalm, and it is a weekday psalm.

It is a psalm that elevates the soul in the valley, and it is a psalm that grounds the soul on the mountaintop.

It is a balm of healing to the suffering, just as it is a bruise of humility to the self -sufficient.

It contains nuggets of truth that even a child can grasp, while boasting a treasure trove of unsearchable riches for the maturest of saints.

Psalm 23 is a psalm that we must all make ourselves dear friends with.

So today, I want to introduce, or reintroduce to you, this dear friend of mine in Psalm 23.

The overarching theme of this psalm is the sufficiency of the Lord, our shepherd.

That all of our needs are adequately satisfied and exceeded in the shepherd that is

God. So that is the title of the message, The Sufficient Shepherd. Now let's begin with the verse from which all of this psalm flows, starting with four words.

And by the way, from these four words, volumes can be and have been written.

And from these four words, we see almost a gem with countless facets. That with each discovered face, more splendor shines from it.

And those four words in verse one are, Yahweh is my shepherd.

Yahweh is my shepherd. Now Yahweh, the Lord, the eternal God of heaven and earth.

The covenant God of His people. The creator of all things. The sustainer of all things.

The triune God of Israel. The one from which all things sustain and flow.

Understand this, my friend. Understand this, believer. David could not say, I shall not want or I lack nothing if he did not have the

Lord as his shepherd. There are no green pastures. There are no still waters without the good shepherd.

There is no one else who can offer what our shepherd king offers.

In fact, we could reverse this whole psalm. Making anything else or anyone else our shepherd.

And it would go something like this. The world is my shepherd. I always want. It leads me to wander in desert land.

It leads me beside dried up brooks. It ravages my soul. It leads me in paths of wickedness for its namesake.

And yea, though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear every evil for you have abandoned me.

You are rotting. Your staff abuses me. You prepare me as meat on the table of my enemies.

You have covered my head with shame. My cup is barren. Surely darkness and misery shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I will make my abode in hell forever. Such is life with anything but the

Lord as our shepherd. So all of this starts and ends with God.

All of our joy. All of our sustenance. All of our victory. All of our satisfaction begins and ends with God our shepherd.

And you see that we can only be cared for in this way by the one who is God. Only God could care for us this way.

Only the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills can dispense to us whatever we need. Only the eternal

God can give us eternal life. Only a holy God can rescue us from the slavery of sin.

Only a loving God would make us heirs of heaven. And only a just God would punish his son in our place so that we might go free.

So it is of utmost importance that the Lord Yahweh is our shepherd.

But I want you to notice what David says here. He does not say Yahweh is our shepherd.

Do you see that? He says that Yahweh is what? My shepherd.

It is my shepherd. David writes this entire psalm with this reality in view.

My. Yahweh is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. My soul.

You see that it's my, me, I. Not that this is a self -centered psalm by any means.

Not that David is writing this out of the narcissism of his own heart. But that David is seeing

Yahweh not just as a general shepherd, but as a personal shepherd. As a shepherd that cares for him.

He's not just a general shepherd to a general people, my friends. He's not an impersonal shepherd who only exhibits corporal relationship and care for his people.

He's a personal shepherd who is intimately involved in the lives in each of his sheep.

From the greatest to the least. And he cares for you and I as if we were his only sheep.

What I want you to do with this psalm as we study it this morning, if you are a believer, is to take this psalm as personally as you can.

That all the shepherd does for David, he does for you. He does for you.

That the me in this psalm is universally applicable to all who are in Christ Jesus.

The chief shepherd. But then we come to this heart swelling word. We saw Yahweh is my, and then we have the word here, shepherd.

A heart swelling word, isn't it? He's my shepherd. He's my shepherd.

What David's getting at by describing God as shepherd is the reality that he is his caretaker.

That God is his provider. His protector. His keeper. That God is his tender shepherd.

But this is not just metaphor here that David is referring to. In fact, David would have kept this in mind, and anyone in Israel who read this would have kept this in mind, that there is scriptural meaning in this description of the

Lord. For centuries in Israel, God had been compared to a shepherd. In fact, as early as Genesis, in Genesis 48, 14, as Jacob blessed his son

Joseph, he calls Yahweh the God who has been my shepherd throughout my life to this day.

A chapter later, Jacob, in speaking to his sons, calls God the shepherd, the stone of Israel.

So you have to understand this. When David says Yahweh is my shepherd, he is saying that Israel's shepherd is also my shepherd.

Meaning Jacob's shepherd. Joseph's shepherd. Moses' shepherd.

Joshua's shepherd. Ruth's shepherd is my shepherd. And my friends, we can be sure of this for ourselves, that if you are in Christ, Israel's shepherd is your shepherd too.

That the shepherd who called out Abraham and kept his word throughout every generation to Jacob, and Joseph, and Moses, and Joshua, and Samuel, and David, and Solomon, and Esther, and Zerubbabel, and Nehemiah, and the prophets, that the shepherd who parted the

Red Sea for his nation, that the shepherd who provided manna from heaven to his people, that the shepherd who delivered his chosen from a wicked empire, that the shepherd who has uprooted kings and kingdoms for his children's sake is the same shepherd who looks after your soul.

He's your shepherd too. He's your shepherd too. But there's one more thing that is implied by this description of God being our shepherd.

For while it does describe who God is, it also by default, guess what? Describes us. But what is that?

What does it say about us? Well, if God is our shepherd just by deduction, what does that mean we are?

Sheep. Yes. Sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray.

We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. We are but sheep.

Frankly, you know what that means? We are ignorant, helpless, strengthless, short -sighted, stubborn, cowardly, frail sheep.

Mark this my friends. Before we can enjoy all of the sweet truths that come in this psalm, we must come into this treasure trove through a door that can only be entered from the position of our knees.

Yes. We have to crawl through this door. That we cannot drink from this cup of bountiful riches in this psalm until we recognize just how desperately thirsty we are.

We are but meager, weak, hopeless sheep. But we have not been left to ourselves in darkness and despair for we have a shepherd who has rescued us.

A shepherd who is the Lord our God. And it is with this amazing description that David draws the inevitable reality that because Yahweh is my shepherd,

I shall not want. Yes. I shall not want.

Meaning, I lack nothing, I need nothing else. I have all that I need.

And not only that, but the tense here given is future. That I will never want, it could say.

I will not want. I will never lack. I will never be missing anything with the

Lord being my shepherd. So my friend, if the Lord is your shepherd, you will never suffer any lacking.

For your shepherd is not only the one who provides physical bread, he himself is spiritually the bread of life.

And he not only leads us to still waters, he puts springs of living waters within us.

He not only provides temporary safety in this life, he has secured for us eternal safety in this life and the life to come.

Romans 8 .32, he who indeed did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all.

How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? And so it is not what you have that suffices your soul, it is who you have.

It is who you have. Child may not have a dime of his own in a bank account, yet if he has a wealthy and kind father, he will never go without.

Because his father not only has the means to take care of him, he has the longing to do so.

And he is not only able, but he is willing to take care of his sheep. And my friends, your shepherd has the means, he has the desire.

And so it is not what you own that keeps you from lacking. It is not a list of assets that keep you from lacking.

It is not the people that you know that keep you from lacking. It is the shepherd of your soul that keeps you satisfied.

That as long as the good and chief shepherd is my shepherd, I will never lack.

Are you here today and you suffer physical and spiritual lacking? How long will you hold your cup under the broken spigot of this world?

This world cannot satisfy your soul. Even all the money and treasure of this world can never fulfill your longing, your desire.

Any man, any occupation, any object, any system of ideas, any material possession cannot fulfill your soul, cannot bring your soul to satisfaction.

But the shepherd who is the Lord, the shepherd who is the door to the fold of his sustenance and safety, he totally, and I dare say utterly, satisfies.

Psalm 34, 9 and 10 says, O fear Yahweh, you his saints, for there is no want, no lacking to those who fear him.

The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they who inquire of Yahweh shall not be in want of any good thing.

So David has profoundly established for us that the Lord is a personal, sufficient, all -inclusive shepherd.

But he does not say this without elaborating. And what follows the storefront, we could call, of this psalm in verse one is an expansion of the subject.

And so we're going to divide this psalm into two parts. We'll see the shepherd's sufficiency in his provision, and then we'll see the shepherd's sufficiency in his presence.

So we see the shepherd's sufficiency in his provision in verses one through three. And the first kind of provision we'll see is earthly provision.

Earthly provision, that while our shepherd takes care of all of our spiritual needs, this does not mean he overlooks our earthly needs.

And so verse two, it says, He makes me to lie down.

In essence, what this is saying is that he brings us to a place where we can find emotional and physical rest.

Yes. Rejuvenation. That while others in this world are stirring about and worry, he makes us, by his grace, to lie down.

That we can rest. That we can be at rest and be nourished while the rest of the world rushes.

We can rest, even though we have needs, even though right now you might be feeling as if you're going without, you can rest because your shepherd is looking after you and will be sure to meet all of your needs and be sure to provide all that you lack.

And wherever we lay our heads, we can be sure that if it's with our shepherd, we have, notice next in verse two, he makes us to lie down in green pastures.

Green pastures, meaning they're not dead, sun -dried, burnt, brown pastures.

They are plentiful pastures. That he owns a cattle on a thousand hills. That the earth is the

Lord's in the fullness thereof. He has all that we need and he intimately meets those needs as he wills.

And so with the shepherd, we are at rest because there is plentiful, bountiful sustenance for his sheep.

That God is able and willing to meet all of our needs. But God not only makes us to rest in bountiful pastures, notice it says, he leads me beside quiet waters.

Beside quiet waters. Now notice the fact that it is quiet waters that he leads us besides.

Not rustling, raging waters. Now you understand that sheep are timid creatures, right?

And rustling, raging waters would easily frighten a sheep and they would not be able to be nourished the way that they should be if they were scared.

And the Lord knows that we eat the best when our hearts are at rest. And he leads us beside quiet water, still water, so that we can eat and be provided for.

That he would give to us all that we need and we can have a calm assurance even in the worst of times.

My friends, some of you who know God as your shepherd have been through tumultuous times in your life and have been able to sleep through the night because you knew who your shepherd was.

And could it be, my friends, that sometimes we lose sleep in anxiety and fear because we have forgotten who our shepherd is?

Be still. In the Hebrew in that psalm, it literally is cease from striving.

Be still and know what? That I am God. You and I need to be reminded of who our shepherd is.

And so often you and I can play God and say, well, I know what I need and if I were

God, I'd give this to me right now. My friend, you're not

God. And God who cares so much for your soul will give you what you need when you need it.

And that is not going to be everything you think you need at every time you think you need it.

He looks after us. He cares for us and he will provide for us.

Do you find yourself without rest? Do you find yourself troubled in your soul? Do your physical needs occupy your thoughts and your cares?

I'd like you to turn just briefly to Matthew 6, if you would. To Matthew 6 verse 25.

Perhaps this consumes you. Perhaps you're here today and you say, Nick, I cannot get away from this.

My needs have consumed my life and I'm not satisfied in my soul.

My thirst has not been quenched. I'm a needy person today. Well, my friends, read with me verses 25 through 33 of Matthew chapter 6.

It says, for this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink nor for your body as to what you will put on.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air that they do not sow nor reap nor gather into barns.

And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

And who of you being worried can add a single cubit of life to his span?

And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow.

They do not toil nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

But if God so clothed the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?

Do not worry then, saying, what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear for clothing?

For all these things the Gentiles, meaning the pagans, the heathen, eagerly seek.

For your heavenly father knows that you need all these things. Notice, notice, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

And all these things will be added to you.

So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Jesus here is preaching his famous sermon on the mount. And rather than exhorting his listeners to spend the whole of their lives anxiously seeking food and clothing, that instead they should seek his kingdom, which is the realm of salvation.

Seeking him, seeking salvation, satisfaction in him. And that those who are brought into his kingdom, those who are brought into his fold are freely given all of these things.

We might say to an orphan that his need is not so much food and a house and clothing, it's a parent who could provide all of those things for him.

And my friends, if you're here today and you lack spiritually and you are worried about all the material things of this earth and that material concern consumes you, my friend, your prime motive, your ultimate aim should be to find

God, to seek him, not for material items that he can give to you, but for who he is as a shepherd of your soul.

And my friends, all of these things that you need will be added to you. They will be given to you. He will look after you, everything that we need, everything that we need.

Now, we need to make a little bit of a note here because sometimes we think of this and we say, well, right now

I've got bills due or right now I've got food shortage in the fridge. And doesn't

God say in his word, didn't Paul say that my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches?

I think sometimes we have a misunderstanding of that verse. Do you understand that verse, my friends, means he will give you all you need to do his will.

It does not always mean that there's plenty. It does not always mean that every single insufficiency we might have in this life that we think needs to be fulfilled will be filled.

It means that he meets our needs to do his will.

My friends, if God hasn't given it to you yet, you don't need it. God will give you what you need.

And oftentimes instead of giving you sustenance, he gives grace. So we must not confuse this.

And by the way, we should also notice all of the material and financial we need can easily be provided to us by the one who will save us if we come to him.

He says in Matthew, come unto me, all you who are heavy laden, I will give you rest.

I will give you rest. My friends, if you are here today and you do not know the

Savior, you do not know the shepherd, he calls to you to come. Come to him.

He will give you rest. He will look after you. So have you not come through the door of his fold?

Have you not come? You will never be at rest until you know him. Have you come through the door?

Are you in Christ today? Then how can you not be at rest? Have you forgotten your shepherd?

This is my father's world. There is nothing that is not at his disposal to meet your needs.

So we have a shepherd, a sufficient shepherd who is willing and able to meet our earthly needs. But not only that, there's a shift.

He does provide for us our needs, but now the shift goes from more so material to our spiritual.

That he spiritually provides for us. He moves from the emotional material sustenance provided by a shepherd to the sustenance

God provides for him, David, spiritually. Verse 3, it says, he, I love this, he restores my soul.

The word there in Hebrew, it could also be said he converts my soul.

That he, in essence, turns my soul over. That before Christ, I was like a sheep on my back.

Stuck, helpless in muck, sin, in depravity, in slavery to my wickedness.

And I was, by the way, quite comfortable like that. But he sought me out and he turned me away from the filth and treachery of the world.

He turned me to himself, to his kingdom, to his truth.

He converts my soul. Richard Baker said, what good were a sheep to have green pastures with a black soul?

And what good is material provision when my soul is bound for death? And just like God is not satisfied to leave us at the mercy of physical hunger, he will not leave his sheep at the mercy of spiritual hunger.

He restores our soul. He converts our soul. But he not only puts us back on our feet and converts us from our wicked ways, he actually sets our feet to walk his righteous ways.

It says that he guides me in the paths of righteousness.

I must make a note of this. I want you to notice a word that is repeated four times between verses two and three.

He. He converts my soul. He leads me.

It is him that does this. And it is him alone. Our sufficiency, my friends, you have to understand this both materially and spiritually.

Our sufficiency, all of it, is of the Lord our shepherd. Not 99 %

God and 1 % us. Our sufficiency is all or nothing. All God.

Nothing else. That our boast is only Christ and Christ alone.

Our song is in Christ alone. That this is why the reformers would say solus

Christus. That it is in Christ alone. We are made joint heirs with him for all of the riches in heaven.

And that every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above the father of lights. So David says he guides me in the paths of righteousness.

In other words, we could say it like this. He is my personal guide down the narrow way.

That he guides us in his truth. In his holiness. That he guides us away from sinfulness.

That he keeps us on righteous paths. Right paths. That he is the one who has set us on the right path.

So that he is not only the one who has saved us and converts us, but he is the one who sanctifies us.

Who makes us holy. You could never walk that path on your own. You would never choose that path on your own.

But the shepherd has shown you this path. He has set you on this path. He has shown you a better life than the life on the broadway.

On the path of wickedness. And David is making it abundantly clear that even his righteous deeds are because of the shepherd.

All of our righteousness is as filthy rags. If it's mine, it's no good. But through him.

Through him. I have righteousness. Not on my own. But of Christ our great shepherd.

But why? Let's be real this morning. We've seen how weak and lowly we are.

We see how meager we are. We see how frail we are as she. We see how wicked we are inherently.

Why does he do all of this for us? Well he loves us for sure.

But why does he love us? Why does he do all of this for us? Why does he provide for us? Why does he guide us?

Why does he care for us? Sustain us both earthly and spiritually? Here's one more point of humility.

Just in case you began to think he's done all of this for you. Because you were the brightest and noblest of sheep.

David tells us why he does all of this. Especially leading us in righteousness. It says, notice, for his name's sake.

Yes. He saves you, feeds you, guides you, sustains you.

Why? So that he can make an open display of his glory through you.

His mercy, his goodness, his grace, his sovereign power. All of this is to the glory of his name.

Hear Paul's words from 1 Timothy 1. It is a trustworthy saying and deserving full acceptance.

That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom

I'm foremost. Yet for this reason I was shown mercy.

For what reason Paul? So that in me as the foremost, Christ Jesus might demonstrate all his patience.

As an example for those who are going to believe on him for eternal life.

Now unto the king of the ages. Immortal, invisible, the only.

God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. And so we see that God's saving us, providing for us, guiding us, shepherding us, caring for us.

All of this is for his name's sake. You know what that should mean? His motive should be our motive.

Soling Deo Gloria. All of life for all of Christ and the glory of God.

That whatsoever we do, whether we eat or drink, we do all to the glory of God. That's his goal.

That's my goal. That's why he saves us. And should we not with all that he's done for us?

With all that Christ has bestowed upon us? With all that Christ has done in the cross and in his intercession, his resurrection?

With all that God has given us in Christ? May we take it all and turn it for a life of praise.

A life obsessed with glorifying him. That if he stooped so low to meet our needs, can we not lift his name high?

So David focused first on the sufficiency of his shepherd with all of his sustenance, his provision.

But now with the second half of this psalm in view, he shifts to the sufficiency of the shepherd in his presence.

Both his preserving presence and his perpetual presence. So notice his preserving presence in verse four.

That even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

So now David moves, did you notice, from speaking indirectly of the shepherd to speaking directly to the shepherd.

He was talking, the Lord is my shepherd, describing the Lord almost to an audience. But now he's speaking directly to the shepherd.

That I will fear no evil because you are with me. Your rod, your staff comfort me.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. What's this?

This valley of the shadow of death, it paints a portrait of a low road that is overshadowed by high places.

Making it ideal for lurking thieves in biblical times and robbers and murderers.

We might see it as an equivalent of a dark alley in the wrong side of town. It's a place where death is on the prowl.

It is a place of fear and turmoil. It's a place of much threatening.

Yet David in this place, this dark place says, I will not fear.

Spurgeon notes, it's not that there is no evil, but that he will fear no evil.

And with that goes all the prosperity gospels curriculum. If you follow

God, you'll never know a hard time again. There's not a solitary example of that in scripture.

In fact, Jesus did not promise we would live a life free of hardship.

In fact, he made a completely antithetical promise that we would suffer for his sake if we lived godly.

You see, my friends, it's not that we will never know evil. It's that in the midst of evil, we will not fear.

Why? Because he's with me. Because he's with you.

Because he's with you. I mean, how do you get to this place where you can walk the most treacherous ground where death abounds and fear no evil?

How can David say what he says in Psalm 3, 6 when he was exiled from his own kingdom by his own son and says that I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people?

Easy. You're with me. That's his answer. Because God is with me. Because he's with me.

David could walk through the most oppressive, most vile, most dangerous, most horrific places and he could do so without fear for the soul and supreme purpose that God is with him.

Would you turn just a few pages in Psalms to Psalm 27? Just read the first four verses.

Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strong defense of my life.

Whom shall I dread? When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries, and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.

The hosts encamp against me, my heart will not fear. The war arrives against me. In this

I trust. You would read in Psalm 118, 6, it says Yahweh is for me,

I will not fear. What can man do to me? In Isaiah 41, 10.

Do not fear. These are the words of your God. Do not fear, for I am with you.

Do not look anxiously about you, for I am your God. I will make you mighty.

Surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with my righteous hand. When Paul feared coming persecution in the city of Corinth and Acts, chapter 18, verses 9 and 10,

God appears to him in a vision, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, Do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and do not be silent.

Why? For I am with you. For I am with you. This is one of the most assuring truths that you can hold to.

This is our ballast of courage, that if you are in Christ, God is with you.

Especially this time of year, as we are reminded with Emmanuel. God with us.

If we are God's people, and we are in Christ, God is with you, my friends.

He is with you, and he will never leave you, nor forsake you. So we do not fear.

Not because our lives will be free of evil, but that even through the evil that threatens us, he is with us.

And while man can kill the body, he cannot kill the soul. And while death will come for all of us, death has lost its sting.

So then we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. And his presence with just one man makes him a majority over a numberless army.

So if God be for us, who can stand against us? If God is with us.

Question, how dare we fear? How dare we fear?

We do not fear. David says that even though I walk through the valley, the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

But not only because of God's general presence, but also because of a specific benefit of his presence.

Notice, thy rod, or your rod, and your staff, they comfort me.

What is this? Picture his protection and his guidance. A rod was used to fend off enemies, and a staff was used to guide and keep sheep corralled in the fold.

So God's presence in the most dangerous of places brings comfort because of the protection of his rod and the guidance of his staff.

This means that he will not let me fall prey to the enemy, that he will crush the brow of wolves and serpents, that he will not let my feet slip off of the path.

That before I can wander off of a precipice, that before my feet can fall in a pit, his staff, with a crook in the end, will hook me back into safety.

Jude 24, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling. There is great comfort in his presence because he keeps us safe, not only from our enemies, but frankly, from ourselves.

From ourselves. That we are secure in his watch. That he will not lose sight of his sheep.

In fact, when you read John 10, the pinnacle passage of shepherd passages, where Christ paints himself as the good shepherd, he says,

I must get my sheep. I must bring them in. And what does he say?

To ensure that he will do as the Father had tasked him to do. In order to get them,

I will lay down my life for the sheep.

My friends, if Christ shed his blood for you, how could we think that God would lose something purchased with the blood of his son?

He bought you. You are his and he will not lose you.

He will keep you. But David does not just want to leave a vague picture of this in our minds.

This present and comfort of God in earthly evil places is even further illustrated.

And he does so by shifting the illustration here. We go from the shepherding theme to the theme of a host holding a dinner or a feast at a house.

In verse five, it says that you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Again, remember that there's no absence of trouble. The enemies are there. That even with enemies surrounding the house, so to speak, he prepares a table before us and they can't get in.

They can only watch through the windows as we feast on the goodness of God.

It says to prepare a table that paints this imagery of a feast where there's all of this food and all of this drink, that it's a rich, full harvest of food being set on a table.

And it's a table that is set right before the enemy's eyes. It's often been said, going back to the shepherd illustration, that a shepherd with his sheep would protect his sheep by taking some oil and putting oil around the hole where snakes would come out of and bite and victimize sheep.

And he would do that so that when the serpent would come out of that hole, it would render him immobile. He would not be able to move and attack the sheep.

So that the sheep would literally be able to eat right in front of his enemy. And that is what

Christ so often does for us. He keeps us and prepares this lavish feast before us, even with enemies surrounding us.

And the idea that it's a lavish feast is depicted when it says that you have anointed my head with oil, my cup overflows.

What's this? Well, when people in the ancient Middle East hosted a guest for a meal, they would oftentimes anoint their guests with an aromatic oil.

In fact, you'd see this in Luke 7. The woman with the alabaster box does this with Jesus' feet.

This is something that you would do to an honored guest. The idea here is that our shepherd lays out for us this abundant and actually exquisite feast.

That he lavishes us and entrusts us with pleasantries. That he anoints our head with this sweet smelling oil, the oil of his favor.

And he fills our cup to its fullest extent and more. That there is an overflow to this feast.

All while our enemies surround us, that in his presence, here's what this is. There is, don't miss this, grace upon grace.

That it is a feast of grace. That he has given an overflow of grace.

A sufficiency of grace. An aroma of grace, so to speak.

That with enemies surrounding, with evil overshadowing, grace makes his strength perfect in our weakness.

Grace gives us joy and hardship. That grace sustains us and nourishes us.

That he has lavished us with grace. Even in the harshest places.

Even in the worst of situations. Even surrounded by the fiercest of enemies. There is a bountiful, full, rich flow of grace and peace and joy.

That the shepherd's presence brings. You read this in John 1. That with Christ, there is grace for grace.

There is sufficient grace. Do you remember Paul talking about that in 2 Corinthians 12? Where he says,

I had a thorn in the flesh and I begged God to take it from me.

And what did Christ say to him? My grace is sufficient. Paul turns and says, then most gladly will

I glory in my infirmities. Why? So that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

He lavishes us with his grace. So not only do we see his sufficient presence that preserves us in darkest times and places, but his sufficiency is realized in his lastly perpetual presence.

That his presence and all that the sufficient shepherd is to us is promised to be a perpetual, unending possession.

Verse 6, surely, surely, without a doubt, notice, goodness and loving kindness will pursue me.

Goodness, that's welfare, benefit, blessing. The blessing of God. Loving kindness, it's also in other translations, mercy.

It's God's loyal love. His steadfast love. His covenant love.

That they are both goodness and loving kindness, goodness and mercy. They are personified attributes of God.

That as if they are sheepdogs that faithfully stay with us along the way. And it's, he says that they will pursue us.

They will follow after us. They will chase after us. That they will run after us. Think about this, my friends.

That God's goodness and mercy is rushing after us. Every day.

He says all the days of my life. It means that there is not a day, there's not a moment, not a second believer.

When God's goodness and mercy is not chasing after you in full stride. This is the same confidence

Paul displayed in 2 Timothy 4. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed.

And will save me unto his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever, amen. So though we are skittish, and though we are fickle, and though we are feeble, and though we are wretched, he's faithful.

And he races after us to keep us, to preserve us every single day.

You know what this means, my friends? Let's be practical here. If you woke up today, then you woke up today with mercy hot on your heels.

Yes. That if you are a believer, and your heart is beating today, his loving kindness, his goodness is right on your six.

And when your heart ceases to beat, and the valley of the shadow of death turns into a confrontation with the grave, goodness and loving kindness will follow you thereto.

And will usher you into the presence of God forever. And all of this, all of this glorious talk of God's preserving presence is tied up in the wonderful last phrase of this psalm.

Notice, and it's a conjunction, meaning it's conjoined to the previous phrase, I will dwell in the house of Yahweh.

How long? Forever. Forever. My friends, it's right for us to believe this is talking about heaven, but it's also right for us to believe this is talking about today.

That we dwell in his house today. We dwell with him today.

Now, not in the full sense that we know of as we'll read in Revelation, where God will tabernacle with his people forever, but in this sense.

That he prepares this table for us every day. That we have a seat at his table every day.

That we dwell with him every day. That we gather as his body to worship him every single

Lord's day. That we gather in his house. That we are welcome in his house, in his pasture.

This is a promise, hear me, this is what this is about. This is a promise of his perpetual presence, and it is a promise of perpetual fellowship.

It's communion with God. That we right now, we right now own the heavenly father as our father.

That that is not just something to be fully realized in eternity, but right now it can be realized. It's the reality of every single believer.

That he is our father, and that we can have communion with God. That we have an open line to God.

That we can come boldly to the throne room of grace, and give all of our prayers to him, and supplication to him, and bring all of our anxieties to him.

We will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That table that he sets, that's our table. It's the table that's given to us through the finished work of Christ.

So as we close, the picture being painted by David in this psalm is not a picture of a carefree, problem -free, cakewalk of a life.

There is evil in this psalm. And there are enemies in this psalm. There are dire situations in this psalm.

David's not trying to paint a rosy, romanticized, hot pink picture of life with the

Lord as our shepherd. What he's trying to get across here, and he does so effectively by the inspiration of the

Spirit, is that in the midst of all the turmoil, in the midst of all the tragedy, and in the midst of the danger, there is a shepherd.

A sweet, sweet shepherd, who rather than takes all of that away in this life, he gives joy in spite of it.

And peace in the midst of it. And grace in the heat of it. He sustains us with his provision, both earthly and spiritual.

He perpetually preserves us with his presence. He's an all -sufficient shepherd.

He is the sufficient shepherd. And he can only guarantee all of this to us. I'm done, but I must close with this.

He can only guarantee all of this to us through his Son, the Good Shepherd.

My friends, you might be here today, and you do not know the Good Shepherd. You must know, before you know the

Good Shepherd, you must know who you are. You see, God, who is creator of all things, heaven and earth, and sustainer of all things, created you and I in his image to glorify him with our lives.

But the reality is that with all that he's given us, we've taken that and spent the life that he has so graciously given to us, and we've spent it for us.

And we've spent it sinfully. We've spent it in our own rebellion. And how do we know that? Well, God has given us a law that reflects his character, so that we might glorify him according to who he is.

And we could see the law in the Ten Commandments, that instead of reflecting the character and nature of God in our day -to -day lives, and reflecting his glory back to him, instead, we've shattered the image he stamped on us through sin.

And this is because our first father, Adam, fell in sin. And since then, every man who is born has been born in guilt and in sin.

And we, when we're born, we love sin. We run to sin. So rather than spending the life that God has graciously given to us for his glory, we sin against him with it.

We violate his law. We spurn his daily mercy. Even today, if you are alive here today, and your heart is still beating,

God has not yet poured out his wrath on you when you deserved it.

He has graciously given you another day when he could have swallowed you into the earth. You are still alive and still here by his mercy alone.

But right now, the wrath of God abides over you like a dark cloud. And one day, the cloud will break, and God will rightly so pour out his wrath on you for your rebellion against him.

And so what God did was he sent his son, Jesus Christ, who is

God, the second person of the Godhead. And he came, and he was born as a man and took on flesh so that he might fulfill all of the law.

He lived a righteous life. He knew no sin, had no sin, and he was nailed to a cross.

Why? To die in the place of sinners. The wages of sin, my friend, is death.

The payment for sin is death. And if your sin would be paid for, someone has to die for it.

And so Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, was cursed on that tree for me and for all of his people and all those who would repent and believe the gospel so that we might go free.

And he who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Not only did he die, but to prove that his payment was sufficient for our sin, on the third day, he rose again, triumphant over the grave and over sin.

And Christ then ascended to the right hand of the Father where right now he prays for his own people.

And today, if you are here today and you do not know the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, my friend, the call goes out to you.

Repent and believe this gospel. Renounce your life of sin and follow the

Good Shepherd all the days of your life. In his fold, there is joy and peace and satisfaction.

In his fold, you have freedom to worship him. In his fold, you have freedom from sin and the slavery of this world.

Turn to Christ today. See him on the cross. See him bleeding and dying, rising again at the right hand of the

Father. Believe in him as God. Believe in him as your substitute and you will be saved.

Trust in him today. Trust in him today. If you come to him, he will in no wise cast you out.

And you too can know the Good Shepherd. You too will know the very thing

David speaks of here in Psalm 23. And the sufficient shepherd will be your shepherd.

Are you here today and are you a believer? Have you forgotten who your shepherd is? Oftentimes this time of year, somehow when we are trying to celebrate the birth of Christ, we complicate that by getting caught up in so many things that actually deviate our attention away from Christ.

And we get caught up in a lot of stress. We got holiday parties and busy schedules and credit card debts because we felt the need to spend all of this money.

And there's things racking up. And this year you might be in despair because this year someone special or dear is not around anymore.

And that this time is difficult. And rather than thinking on the shepherd, we've done everything but that.

And our attention has been on everything else in this world. My friends, I call your eyes back to your shepherd. Look back to your shepherd who cares for you, who loves you.

Goodness and mercy follows you and will keep you. You will not be lost. You will not be lost.

He looks after you. He loves you. Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

So we lift our eyes to Christ this morning, our good shepherd. Let's pray. Father, I in no way can do justice to the psalm that was preached this morning.

I feel as if I am a child trying to express complex things, things that are too wonderful for language.

Father, you've graciously allowed me to preach your word. And I pray that it was not in vanity.

I pray that if there are those here today who were not born again, that today by your spirit, you regenerated their hearts to see their need for you, to see you as their savior, and that they would trust in you and turn to you in faith.

They repent of their sin, follow you, submit their lives to you. Father, I pray for those who are here who are believers.

We have a title to everything in this psalm. Yet how often, Father, do we stray from all that we have in you?

We become so discontent by comparison. We become so distracted by the things of this earth.

Even in our prosperity, we become confused and we get lost in the materialism of our culture.

God, draw our eyes back on you, our shepherd. Help us to see our sufficiency in you.

We love you, Father. We worship you. There's no other response we can give to what we've seen in your word, other than worship.

So we exalt your name and we exalt the name of your son who made all of this inheritance for us through his finished work on the cross and his resurrection.

He keeps us even now. We praise the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, three in one and one in three, our

God. Unto the King, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever.