You know this world is full of preachers, but just a few were chosen. Stay tuned for Treasured Heritage, a preaching program spotlighting those servants who have gone on to glory. Isaiah 5417 says, this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And now, Treasured Heritage. I would like for you to take the Word of God, please, and turn with me to the Psalms, to what is often referred to as the pearl of all the Psalms, Psalm 23. And we'll begin reading in just a moment in Psalm 23 and verse 1. Over 1,000 times in the Bible, God refers to shepherd, sheep, or lambs, and He uses that wonderful picture to work in our hearts to explain to us His great love as a tender shepherd. The Bible says in Psalm 23 beginning with verse 1, 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 forever. I don't know that you need to underline this expression that I use as the subject of this message because it is, if there's any passage from the Bible world-renowned, it is world-renowned. It is, the Lord is my shepherd. Three thousand years ago, God used David as a human penman to pen these words. I don't think we know definitively whether he did this as a young man or an old man looking back on his life, a young man looking forward into his life. But we believe that, of course, as the psalm states, that this is the psalm of David. And this amazing statement brings us to the exact place we need to be. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I want you to turn with me as you hold your place here to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. There's so much talk about what's wrong in the world, and I'm going to show you exactly what God says is at the heart of everything that's wrong in this world. And if we don't deal with this heart issue, we can't have anything else made right. Isaiah 53 begins, who hath believed I report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." And here is the heart of every vile thing in this world. All we like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. Did you ever think about how vile and unimaginably evil my way is and your way is? If you want to know how evil, how awful, how vile our way is, think of what Christ suffered on the cross. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He desires, more than we could ever imagine, He desires to be our shepherd. He bled and died for our sins so that He might have the opportunity to be our shepherd. He came to this earth and became a man without ceasing to be God in order to be our shepherd. The Bible says the Lord is our shepherd. I want you to hear that, young man. I want you to hear that, young lady. I want you to hear that with your heart, mother, father. The Lord is our shepherd. I hope you can say that. The Lord is my shepherd. Turn with the New Testament just a moment, would you please? In the New Testament account given in the Gospel according to Matthew chapter 9, In Matthew chapter 9, beginning with verse 35, the Bible says, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad. Notice, please, the closing part of verse 36, as sheep having no shepherd. a sheep having no shepherd. This is what moved the heart of God. He saw the people as sheep having no shepherd. Again and again, God uses this particular analogy for us. Notice, please, if you turn to the gospel according to Mark, the sixth chapter. Beginning with verse 32, the Bible says, and they departed into a desert place by ship privately. And the people saw them departing, and many knew him, and ran afoot out of all cities, and out went them, and came together unto him. And in verse 34 of Mark, chapter 6, the Bible says of Jesus, and Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep, not having a shepherd. That's what moves the heart of God. The psalmist out there with his sheep, tending the flock, thinking as a young man, he's a shepherd. He has responsibilities as a shepherd. The sheep are dependent upon the shepherd. The sheep don't worry and fret. That's all left to the shepherd. The sheep don't determine where they're going to graze and what areas they're going to. That's left to the choosing of the shepherd. When the sheep are brought back into the fold in the evening and they will be taken out early the next day, they don't spend sleepless hours during the night in the sheepfold wondering where they're going to be going the next morning. The shepherd has made all those decisions for them and he will lead them. Is the Lord your shepherd? If you return with me please to the 23rd Psalm, I want you to notice that there's a trilogy of Psalms. Three Psalms here together about the shepherd. Psalm 22, Psalm 23, and Psalm 24. Each of them gives us a different view of the shepherd. Same shepherd, but a different view. In Psalm 22, we see the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. And the Bible says, when the psalm begins, he cries out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Immediately, that takes us to the cross and we recognize the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. He goes on to say, oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season, and I'm not silent. This vivid picture of Calvary is given to us in the 22nd Psalm of the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what it cost the Lord Jesus to be our shepherd, our good shepherd. If it's not too much trouble, I want you to go back with me to the New Testament, to the gospel according to John chapter 10. And here the Lord speaks again about the sheep and the shepherd. In John chapter 10, beginning with verse 1, he says, 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 sheep 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 remember always that our shepherd goes before us. If you're going into a difficult place, if you're going to a difficult meeting, if you anticipate there's some degree of difficulty for what you have to face, I want you to know if you're a child of God, the Lord goes before you. We don't need to worry and fret. He says in verse 5, 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. Psalm 22 tells us the good shepherd. Psalm 23 says the Lord is my shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Why does he do that? He does that to pay for the penalty of our sin. Remember the word of God says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Why did God lay on him the iniquity of us all? When Christ went to the cross, why does the Bible say, He became sin for us, He who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He became sin for us. And when He became sin for us, as God dealt with sin and judged sin, He judged sin in the body of His own Son, the Lord Jesus. And the wrath of God struck the Son of God as God gave His only begotten Son to pay for the penalty of our sin. Sin's penalty's been paid. You and I may say to a Christian when that Christian gets into some sin he or she shouldn't get into, we may say, you're gonna pay for that. But the truth of the matter, that's not the way it should be said because all sin has forever been paid for by the blood of Jesus. According to Hebrews chapter 12, we're going to be disciplined and chastened but the payment is death and hell and Jesus suffered our death and hell for us. And so Christ the Lord is my shepherd and my good shepherd has paid the penalty for my sin He gave his life for me He gave his life for you And I'll tell you what gets to going on in these lives of ours We become so preoccupied with our desires and what we want in the way we want it We forget a high price The Good Shepherd paid for our sin debt. The penalty has been paid. He saves us. When you say, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, what are we talking about? Saves us. God says, all have sinned to come short of the glory of God and the wage of sin is death. That means we've all sinned, we all pay. Everyone. There's no sinning without a debt to be paid. And you and I could try to pay the debt by dying and going to hell forever, but we'd never get it paid for. But Jesus Christ came to this earth to bleed and die for us to pay that debt, and that debt He did pay. And we ought never forget our debt's been paid. And when we say the Lord is my shepherd, when we say the Lord is my shepherd, Remember that He is our Good Shepherd and He has paid our sin penalty. The penalty has been paid. He saves us from the penalty of our sin. How many of you know you've been saved from the penalty of your sin? Jesus paid your penalty and you've trusted Him as your Savior. What kind of life should we live because of that? A life of gratitude? A life telling others about Him? No doubt about it. He is not only the good shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd and my good shepherd. The Lord is my great shepherd. He's the great shepherd who ever liveth to make intercession for me. The Lord is my shepherd. While we're in the New Testament, I want you to turn to the book of Hebrews just for a moment, would you please? Our great shepherd. And what does he do as a great shepherd? The Word of God says in Hebrews chapter 13, speaking of our Savior, in verse 18 and following, pray for us, for we trust we shall have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly. Christian life is not just about the fact that our penalty has been paid. We've been saved from sin's penalty. What about the power sin has? The devil makes it awfully attractive and the flesh responds willingly to that attractive offer. The world and its whole system is against God. There are so many people who say, I just love the world so much, I can't be a follower of Jesus. I want to go with the world and enjoy the world and do the things of the world. And the world and the flesh and the devil are quite able to make it so attractive. The front entrance the opening, so attractive. And there is such pleasure in sin for a season. You go in, I go in, and we think we become the masters and sin becomes the slave. But it's not long until sin becomes the master and we become the slaves. You see Samson lying in Delilah's lap, enjoying the caresses of those soft hands, listening to her enchanting, enticing words. Look at him with his eyes burned out, grinding like an animal at a gristmill. Look at him. Oh how I thank God that God came to him and I believe he received forgiveness and was blessed and used of God. But he paid a high price. God help us. There's power in sin. Do you know, the fear of God helps us have an awareness of the power of sin. We continue here. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 9 but I beseech you the rather do this that I may be restored to you the sooner 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 forever and ever. Amen. If you look back at the 23rd Psalm And we read it, 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 forever." God here is talking about the Lord as my shepherd. He is my shepherd. He is not only my good shepherd, He is my great shepherd, whoever liveth to make intercession for me, giving me victory over the power of sin. You and I live such defeated lives, but we don't have to. The victory has already been won. When Christ bled and died, He was victorious, not defeated, He was victorious. He came out of the grave on the third day alive evermore. And He says, I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive evermore. And He has the keys to death, hell, and the grave. He's the conquering Christ. He conquered it all. He defeated the devil's power. Satan may come to us with temptation. The world may come to us with temptation. The flesh, of course, is the enemy within that comes to us with temptation. But our Lord Jesus Christ is the victor over the world, the flesh, and the devil. And He lives in us, and greater is He that's in us than He that's in the world. We have access to Him to have the victory over the power of sin. Just looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, will deliver us in the moment of temptation. He's not only, as I say, the Lord is my shepherd, the Lord is my good shepherd. He gave His life to save me from the penalty of sin. He ever liveth as my great shepherd. delivering me from the power of sin. You say, oh, you don't realize the temptation I've had. You don't realize what comes to me during the day. You don't realize where I work and what all goes on. You don't realize the women who pass through and the men who pass through and the sexual innuendos that are made. You can't imagine the filthy garbage that comes across the median and so on it goes. Let me tell you, none of that is greater than God. None of it. None of it. God didn't leave us here like helpless, weak, defeated creatures just to whine around about why the devil has his way in our lives. He is greater. God is greater. The Great Shepherd is greater. No foe, no foe is greater than our God. And we have Him. And this trite kind of expressionless, meaningless way, we may say, the Lord is my shepherd. No friend, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I shall not want in the day when I meet God because my sin is hanging over me because that debt has been paid by the Good Shepherd who gave His life. I shall not want in the day of temptation when sin brings all its armory against me because my Savior will deliver me. Now I don't always trust Him as I should and neither do you, but we have Him available and we have access to Him through His precious blood to help us in that moment of weakness. The Lord is my shepherd. He is my good shepherd, my great shepherd. He is my chief shepherd. He is the Chief Shepherd. I want you to write that down. As the Good Shepherd, He delivers us from the penalty of sin. He saves us from the penalty of sin. As the Great Shepherd, He saves us from the power of sin. And as the Chief Shepherd, He will save us from the presence of sin. No doubt about it. Look in Psalm 24. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and they that dwell therein For he hath founded upon the seas and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord's, or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, O Jacob, Selah. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory. Questions repeated, who is this King of Glory? Our Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, defeated death, held in the grave, went through the suffering of Calvary, bore the billows of God's wrath, was buried in a borrowed tomb and came forth from the grave alive forevermore. Spent 40 days with the disciples and ascended, He ascended to heaven. and was received in glory as the conqueror of death, hell, and the grave. But He's coming again. He's coming again. He's coming for His own. And when He comes, He comes for us. And praise God for that. And we're victors, we're conquerors in Him. He'll deliver us someday from the very presence of sin. Peter was chided by the Lord in the 21st chapter of John when Jesus said, lovest thou me more than these? And he was told, commanded actually by the Lord, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. And in 1 Peter chapter five, if you'd like to turn there, Peter's speaking about that very thing. And the Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 1, The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Peter saw the Lord transfigured in the glorious likeness. He shall come in some day. And in verse 2 of 1 Peter 5, the Bible says, Feed the flock of God which is among you. taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind." I want you to notice, God encourages the pastor to take the oversight thereof. He's to lead. He's to lead. He doesn't lead as a dictator, but he leads. And God has assigned that responsibility to me. And by God's grace, I intend to continue to do it. Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, he shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. The chief shepherd, he's coming, he's coming. Do you live, do I live like the Lord is coming? I think when we just say, the Lord is my shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd, we just sort of pass over all of this. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Five of the psalmist write, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, Jehovah, Jehovah-Jireh, the God who provides, the God who sees and provides on Mount Moriah. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I shall not want because the Lord, my shepherd, who is my good shepherd, has saved me from the penalty of sin. The Lord who is my shepherd, my great shepherd, saves me from the power of sin. The Lord is my shepherd, my chief shepherd. He shall save me from the very presence of sin. The Lord is my shepherd. Listen, beloved, there's no excuse for us. to live these lame, drifting, wandering, wild lives that so many professing Christians live. Do you know why? Because we have a shepherd. That's the thing, we have a shepherd. And when we have done what we should not have done, we have taken our eyes off our shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. He is my constant companion. I follow Him. The Lord is my shepherd. I haven't lived a long life. I think I've lived a full life. I've given all of my adult life to the Lord's work, all of it, absolutely all of it. I've watched my friends retire from the military after 20 years. I've watched my friends of a lifetime retire from their businesses after 30 or 40 years. I've watched it. And this past week, God gave me the greatest blessing of my entire life. God gave me the greatest blessing of my entire life. I could never have bought it. I could never have paid for it. I could never have earned it. There was a time in my life when I would never have dreamed it would have been considered to be the greatest blessing of my life. And I hope they'll be greater someday, but to this point in time, God gave me the greatest blessing of my life. My wife and I were gathered in our home. We don't have a house, we have a home. My mother-in-law was there. My oldest son, his wife, and two children were there. My youngest son, his wife, and four children were there. We were all in one room. We were saying goodbye to my youngest son, his wife, and four children. And I said, let's all come in here in the room together. And I read from Proverbs chapter three, verse four, The verse that talks about finding favor with God and man, and I said, let us pray that God will give Matt and his family favor, and he'll have favor with God and man. In other words, this thing cannot be figured out, we do this and this is gonna happen. It'll have to be God giving favor. And then I said, and this was at Evelyn's prompting, let's all pray, every one of us. There sat Rhonda, and beside her, Luke, and Justin, and Andrew, and Madison, and Nick, and Allie, and Evelyn, Christy, my mother-in-law, and Matt, Shan, and myself. And I said, let's just start here, and we'll pray all around the room. Everyone pray out loud. And I'll close the prayer. And they each prayed. And they prayed earnestly and sincerely. They prayed fervently, each of them. The children prayed, the baby prayed, the oldest prayed, they all prayed. And God was with us in that room. That was my family. And I thought, there are people who would give millions and millions of dollars to have what I have here this day in this room. It meant more to me than all the world, than all the world. And there's one thing, one thing every one of us had in common. All believers, we all had the same Shepherd. And He was there with us. I'm not trying to teach you some Bible lesson and say to you, Now do you understand Psalm 22 is about this and Psalm 23 is about this and Psalm 24 is about this? Do you understand this little alliterative idea I've given you that we're saved from the penalty of sin and being saved from the power of sin and shall be saved in the presence of sin? That's not what I'm after. I want to say this. This is what I'm after. Is the Lord your shepherd? Can you imagine one sheep in this world lost in some rocky crevice, in some terrible wilderness, finally bleeding out and crying out until there's no life left and all alone? Finally, dying all alone. all alone. I'm saying, if we're here and they're there, wherever, the Lord is my shepherd. Each of those children can say, the Lord is my shepherd. Their parents can say, the Lord is my shepherd. Now I'm going to tell you something. You and I, I hope to God you hear what I'm about to say. You and I better get rid of about 90% of the garbage we've called valuable and get down to where the Christian life is supposed to be lived. Dr. John Phillips, died recently, the greatest Bible teacher alive. His son and his grandson were in the room with him when he was dying. The grandson, I was told, kept saying to his granddaddy, Granddaddy, I love you, I admire you, I thank God for you. All kinds of kind, loving things. And Dr. Phillips, who had not spoken, was laying there dying. And he started rousing a bit and they could tell he was trying to say something to respond to this grandson's voice. They knew he wanted to say something. And the father and the grandson got down right in the face of Dr. John Phillips, the great Bible teacher, dying. He was dying. They got right down in his face and bent their ears right to his mouth. And Dr. Phillips got strength to say one last word, one last word to his grandson. He said, prepare. Prepare! In other words, live all of your life for this moment. The Lord is my shepherd. I'll take care of it. Help us to live for him. Who's gonna preach the Bible and never compromise at all? Who's gonna give their heart and soul to spread the gospel? We appreciate you listening to Treasured Heritage. Tune in at the same time every weekday to hear God's Word.