Please open your copy of the scriptures to John chapter 10. Jesus, it appears, is still in Jerusalem. He is still talking to people who seem to hate Him and patiently instructing them in the truth. He's just healed a man who's been born blind. who was then rejected by his own synagogue, his own church, and excommunicated because he would not condemn Christ. He would not speak a word against Christ. And this has caused Jesus to go into the response that we see in John 10, contrasting good shepherds with false shepherds, good shepherds with those who are thieves and robbers and wolves. We learn much about our Good Shepherd in this particular portion of Scripture. In John 10, we see that Jesus actually seems to be pulling from many truths found throughout the Word of God to describe this work, but especially Psalm 23. So please remain seated, but I'm going to read the first 30 verses of John 10. This is God's inspired Word. "'Truly, truly, I say to you, He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him. for they do not know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and go in and out and find pasture The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand. and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. Just as the father knows me and I know the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the father loves me. because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father." There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, he has a demon and is insane. Why listen to him? Others said, these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? At that time, the Feast of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you did not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me. but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one. Amen. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy word. Let us turn to the Lord in prayer once again. Our Father in heaven, we come to you as children to a father who is ready and able to help us. We pray that you would open our eyes, soften our hearts, unstop our ears, that your word might be proclaimed boldly, fearlessly, and that it would be received with joy. treasured and loved and practiced by each one of us. Lord, we ask for your help. Without your Spirit, none of this is possible. Send your Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you remember Psalm 23, the third verse of Psalm 23 states that the Lord, Yahweh, restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. He restores my soul. The past two weeks we looked at Yahweh as our shepherd. And because He is the Almighty God, we have no needs that He does not meet. We shall not want. He gives us everything that we do need. And He restores our souls. He restores our souls. I'm going to look at three things with you. Three points. First, we'll see how our Good Shepherd brings back those who are wandering or who are injured. Restoring them. Two, we'll see that He leads in right paths. And three, we'll see that this is all for His name's sake. All for His own sake. Now Psalm 23, just by way of introduction, describes Yahweh as the Good Shepherd. The Father is our Good Shepherd. We also see that the Son in John 10 is the Good Shepherd. They have the same attributes, so we can see an interchange of their care for the sheep that is almost, if not perfectly exact. The reality is that we are sheep who often need to be restored. We are sheep that are often injured. We are sheep that often will stray. We are easily frightened, discouraged, tempted to wander. And like wandering sheep, we need to be restored. Sometimes a sheep will fall on its back and not be able to get up. This is what shepherds call being cast. A sheep that is cast is tipped over and cannot get up. Some of you may feel like that this morning. You've been cast. You've been tipped over and you're needing help to get up. Maybe it's the difficulties that you face in life that caused you to feel this way. Maybe you're stuck in a rut of sin or apathy or some destructive habits and you just cannot get right. But you see, we have a good shepherd. He knows his own. He knows exactly what you need, and He restores His sheep. He restores your soul. Well, in Psalm 23, it's the first point. David knew that there were times in his own life where God had to restore him. Times of great personal loss, he cries out to God in the Psalms. He knew that God had to restore him. Times of great sin, where he had fallen, wandered or become disillusioned by his own failures. We see these things in the Psalms. And he could not restore himself. He has to hope in God. He knows the hope is is only in God. Psalm 42 says this is David talking to his own soul. Why are you cast down? Oh my soul. Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God. You should ask yourself, why are you cast down? Oh, my soul. Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God. This is the only way that you will ever be restored in your soul. Is that you hope in God that you hope in Christ that you fix your eyes on Jesus. But the plain fact is that sheep are prone to wander. We do get disillusioned. We're easily frightened and we need to be restored. It seems, too, that the farther a sheep gets from the shepherd, the more disillusioned he may feel, the more bewildered he may be by his own surroundings and circumstances. He must be restored. In the Hebrew, the word means literally turn back. He must be turned back. We have a good shepherd who has such compassion for the flock. We should be comforted by that. He will restore his own. He will. In a few ways, He will. In Matthew 9.36, we see that when He saw the crowds, this is Jesus, He had compassion for them because they harassed. They were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. How much more compassion does He have for His own flock whom He's purchased by His own blood? He's so full of love and compassion, so much so does He know you and individually exactly what you need, as we read in John 10. He knows His own. He knows everything about His own sheep. That even if one does stray away, He will go find it and restore that sheep. In Luke 15, What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? Verse 6, And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. This is our Shepherd. This is our Good Shepherd. With such compassion for those who are suffering or wandering. Such compassion does He have. And such knowledge does He have of each sheep and every particular about your situation. That He would leave the 99 and go find the one. Do you feel like you're the one who's all alone? No one seems to care. No one seems to notice. You have a Good Shepherd. And He knows. He knows all things. But what if you are actually wandering in that you are running after sinful habits? You're stuck in sin. You've been cast because of your sin. One of David's most heinous sins is recounted in 2 Samuel 11-12. He doesn't go out with his army. He stays in the city. He sees a woman bathing. He lusts after her. He takes her, brings her to the palace, commits adultery, murders her husband, attempts to cover the whole thing up, breaking probably every single commandment. In a matter of a week, he falls lower in that one span of time. He falls lower than ever. because of his self-indulgence and sin. He's wandered from the truth. He's left the right path. Nathan, the prophet, comes to him and confronts him and restores him by telling him the truth. As soon as David was confronted, he repented, he grieved his sin, He knew he deserved nothing but death, and only God could restore him. We see this in Psalm 51, David's psalm of repentance. If you feel beset by sin, this should be yours as well. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love. According to Your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. V. 5, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. V. 7, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. V. 9, Hide your face from my sins. Blot out all my iniquities. Created me a clean heart, O God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. and uphold me with a willing spirit. Verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise. David knew that God must restore him. He says, create in me a clean heart. David can't create anything. God must create the clean heart. God must renew the steadfast spirit within him. God must restore his soul. And God did restore him. God heard his prayer. This may not be immediate. This may take some time. It won't be always that you pray and immediately you feel great comfort. Often God has His own purposes and you feel like the answer is delayed for some reason. Maybe you feel like that today. The reality is your good shepherd knows exactly what he's doing. David in Psalm 40 talks about how sometimes he had to wait. I waited patiently for the Lord patiently. Wait patiently, brother and sister. Because he will incline to you and hear your cry. He will lift you up out of the pit out of the miry clay, the pit of destruction and set your feet upon a rock. Put a new song in your mouth. He will. He will restore you. Well, Jesus showed on the earth incredible compassion to those who were stuck in sin. But also, we see the great compassion of our Good Shepherd for those who are just weary by life. He restores them as well. He touched them. He spoke kindly to them. He encouraged them. He's the good shepherd. He's not like those who care nothing for the sheep. He's the good shepherd. In Greek, the shepherd, the good one, the excellent one. And just as the Father knows Christ and Christ knows the Father, He lays down His life for the sheep. So yes, you may have fallen into some sin, some besetting sin. You're stuck in pornography. You're stuck in worry, anxiety. You're stuck in cycles of sin that seem to be casting you on your back. Turn your heart to God. He will restore you. Or maybe you're simply weighed down by hardship or the burdens of life. Our Good Shepherd calls to you to come to Him. If you're weary and heavy laden, come, He says. And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle and lowly or humble at heart. My yoke is easy. My burden is light and he says come. All who are weary and heavy laden. He's calling. For you to come to him. And he will restore your soul. What compassion he has? The one who would rejoice over finding one who is strayed. Finding that one and he rejoices. What compassion He has to restore you today. Turn to God now. Pray that He would restore your soul. Whatever the thing is, fix your eyes on the Shepherd. Listen to His voice. But we'll see that He also leads to right paths. This is the second point. The paths of righteousness, or literally in the Hebrew, right paths. When you understand that restoring your soul means turning back to the shepherd, to your Savior. And God turns you back to Himself and brings you back. You can see why the next line speaks of right paths. He leads me in paths of righteousness. We need divine guidance from God's Word and His Spirit if we're to stay near Him, if we're to hear Him, if we're to be near the right paths, on the right paths. If we're to follow the shepherd, In John 10, verse 3, he says, "...the sheep hear His voice, and calls His sheep by name, and leads them out. He goes before them. The sheep follow Him, for they know His voice." He's leading them on the right paths. How do you know His voice? The Holy Spirit that He gives you resonates with the Word of God that He's given you. And you know His voice well. For a shepherd to care for sheep well to get them on right paths. They had to move often. I'm talking real shepherds and real sheep. You've got to move the sheep often. If you don't, they'll overgraze one particular area, and it ruins it, and it becomes unhealthy. So shepherds are always moving their sheep. They're on right paths. They have to keep them on the move. Sheep will do the least amount possible to get the most food in them. Sounds like us, doesn't it? But the shepherd doesn't leave them to their own devices. He leads them in paths of righteousness. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. We think we know the right path. But he alone knows the right path. And this is the straightest path. It may not seem straight. God makes crooked lines straight. What seems like the most direct path to you isn't always the path God directs us to. We keep our eyes on our shepherd. Proverbs 2, verse 6 says, For the Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. You want to know where the right path is? We look to God's Word. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, watching over the way of His saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity and every good path. For wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will watch over you and understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil. This is what our Shepherd is doing in His Word, by His Spirit. So what exactly is the path? Well, it's as I told the children. It's Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. This is both a definite righteousness, the way of righteousness, a definite righteousness because of Christ's sacrifice, which once and for all gave His people a permanent, righteous declaration before the Father, but it's also a progressive righteousness, the path of righteousness, which is the sanctification of our souls. The paths of righteousness with our Good Shepherd comfort our souls first in the internal inheritance that is ours. We know that ultimately the path leads to Christ in heaven for eternity. Because of Christ's own righteousness, we are led to the path of righteousness that has an inheritance in heaven. But it also this this knowledge also leads us day by day on a path of righteousness. And that it spurs us on to love and good deeds as we pursue our savior, as we strive to live for him, as we fix our eyes upon our good shepherd, as we listen for his voice. When we are restored from sin, he causes us to embrace the paths of righteousness, and he sustains us when we're tempted to fail. Those who follow their shepherd will follow Him anywhere. The path of righteousness may be a difficult path. It may be a path that seems difficult in the moment. Why? Because He's refining your soul. He's using His rod and His staff. Christ tells us that the path will be difficult. Mark 8 verse 34, if anyone would follow Me, if any sheep would follow Me, If anyone would follow me, let him deny himself daily, take up his cross and follow me. That sounds like a difficult path, and yet it's the only path that will bring any contentment, joy, peace or happiness in life. We were made to worship, to worship Almighty God. Augustine said, Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee. The path of righteousness, the path of the righteous one, is not a path of comfort or ease. Jesus was straightforward about the difficulty. Taking up your cross. Following Him means taking up your cross. It means denying yourself daily. It's the narrow way that very few find, even among those who claim to be His. Many will find on the last day that they lack faith, true faith. They didn't follow the shepherd. They only paid lip service to the shepherd. Jesus in John 7-10 is contrasting those who seem to only pay lip service to God and actually are following their own way. He calls them thieves and robbers and wolves. To be led by Jesus is the difficult way, but it's also the way of abundant life. This is what He says. It's a life devoted to God. It's a life that led 12 poor fishermen to change the entire world by the power of their testimony about Christ. The paths of righteousness are found in God's Word. The paths of righteousness are the law of God. The paths of righteousness are the words of our Lord, the songs of the psalmist, the words of the prophets, the lives of the patriarchs, the Bible, It all points to Christ. It all leads to Him. Truly, He is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through Him. So God, through His Word, shows you you're a good shepherd. He brings your heart to a place of love for Himself, and He sanctifies you and causes you, above all things, to desire to please Him, to love Him, to serve Him, and to follow the right path. the paths of righteousness. But the third point is that it's all for His sake. It's for His own name's sake. If you're on a path of righteousness, if you have faith in Christ, if you're striving to please Him, it's not for your own sake. It's for His sake. It's not because of your righteousness. It's His righteousness. It's not because of your good decision. It's because of His decision. He leads us into righteousness for His name's sake. This is personal for Him. The honor of His name is on the line. He will do it. He will accomplish His purpose. When you read this phrase in the Bible, it shatters your pride, doesn't it? When something happens for His namesake. Wait, I thought this was for me. No, it's for His namesake. His goodness to man is for His own glory. For His own namesake. Not for our names. Not for our glory. For His, we have no merit in and of ourselves. What He does, He does for His own name's sake. He's self-moved. He saves us for His own glory. Isaiah 43 says, I am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake. Isaiah 48, for My name's sake, I defer My anger. For the sake of my praise, I restrain it for you that I may not cut you off. I refined you, but not a silver. I've tried you in the furnace of affliction for my own sake. For my own sake, I do it. For how should my name be profaned? My glory, I will not give to another. Over and over through the Scriptures, we see God doing what he does for his own name's sake. The southern theologian William Plumer writes, that which moves God to save His people is found in Him, not in them. This should be known and remembered. If God found in Himself cause for beginning our salvation, and if He never changes, then shall He find in Himself cause for crowning with glory the world of salvation begun in us? If He loved and pitied us when we were enemies, how much more will He love and save us when we are friends? Calvin wrote, certainly, His choosing of us to be His sheep and performing toward us all the offices of a shepherd is a blessing which proceeds entirely from His free and sovereign goodness. What you are in Christ is because of God's unmerited favor, and this is called grace. This is called grace, and it's a grace that changes everything. Because we live in a fallen world. We live in a world where people treat us in ways that they should not. And yet, as we have received grace from God, we pour out that same grace to each other. Nothing of what we have done, everything of what God has done. Well, I want to apply these principles to a macro level. as we conclude the sermon. I'm going to talk about this more in the home group tonight in our worldview study. So if you look at Psalm 23, if you look at John 10, one thing that becomes very clear, and that is that God is sovereign over all. The Good Shepherd is sovereign. No one takes His life from Him. He lays it down and He takes it up again. No one snatches any of His sheep. He's sovereign. He's Almighty God. David has the same understanding. This Yahweh, the Lord, will restore His soul. Will lead Him. Will make Him lie down. And goodness and mercy is His forever because of that. We need to remember when we look at our lives, when we look at this political moment, if you will, this cultural moment that we live in, that Almighty God is not just the main character of this psalm, not just the main character of the Gospels, of the Scriptures. Almighty God, the great I Am, the One who leads His sheep, is the One who created all things, including the universe, including every nation. And He laughs as they rise up against Him. Read Isaiah 40. It's one of the main points of Isaiah 40. That God looks down at the nations and they are as nothing before Him. You see, He wrote the story. He wrote the book. He knows everything that will happen before it ever happens. Indeed, He ordained it all. This is called providence. The characters, the plot, the ending. It's all part of God's plan. So we can say with David, He restores our soul. In what way? Well, we know that our Almighty God rules and reigns over all of the earth, including every outcome. There's no accident. David knows that the one who restores his soul is leading and guiding him specifically to a place. And this is applicable for everything that happens in the world. All of history, not just David's story, not just his story, but all of history has been ordained by the almighty and powerful God of the universe. And if he weren't a good God, a holy God, a righteous God, then it would be terrifying. But he's good. righteous and holy, and all that He does is good. God rules and reigns over every detail of His universe, from the smallest electron in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, to the deepest part of the ocean, to the most minute microscopic cell in your body. He rules and reigns over every bit of it. He's the sovereign King. He's the Creator. This knowledge, remembering that God owns all things and is providentially Ordaining all that happens, He's perfectly executing His plan at every level of creation. This restores our souls. So when you're tempted to look at this chaotic world, what feels like a chaotic world to us, you should remember, Almighty God is in charge. He's in the heavens. He does everything that He pleases. He orders all things in such a way that nothing happens apart from His good plan. This knowledge is restorative. This restores your soul to remember God. But secondly, He's leading in paths of righteousness. He's leading in right paths. It's true for David. It's true for you. It's true for world history. It doesn't mean it's an easy path, but it's the right path. It's a path created by God for you. Indeed, it's a path created by God for the whole world. Our God is sovereignly directing every detail of the universe to its predetermined end. It's a right path. It's not going to be messed up by someone's pride or someone's evil in this world. It's important for us to remember, I think, about our national moment right now. I talk to so many people who just say things that are confounding. The whole world's unraveling. Our country's over. This is the end of democracy. This is the end of the world as we know it. So nervous, so scared. Brothers and sisters, this is not the way Christians should think. We know that God has ordained all things that come to pass. And if He's a good God and this is true, then we can trust Him. It's a right path. We understand God's sovereignty, and this brings comfort to our souls. He tells us that it's going to be difficult. I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves. It's not that He doesn't know what He's asking us to do as sheep in this world. But He's with us. He knows the world has wickedness in it. The world has been much more wicked before than it is now. Genesis 6 verse 5, He destroyed the whole world because every intent of every person's heart was only evil continually. We're not to that point, brothers and sisters. And praise be to God for that. He has constrained and restrained sin and lifted up the righteous. God's people have been much more distressed, much more severely in times past than they are today. Read Habakkuk. Read Jeremiah. Read Daniel. Read the book of Kings. So what you're feeling may look like chaos, and yes, you may really feel beset, like wickedness is winning, but you've forgotten that this is God's right path. It's not an aberration. What is happening is happening because God has ordained it. That doesn't mean we sit back and watch the world go around. No, we pray. We do like David. We pray. We listen to our shepherd's voice. We call out to our shepherd. We cry out for justice and righteousness. This is what we do. It's what we're called to do, commanded to do. The angels in heaven are not concerned at what they see on earth, that somehow, somehow the plan of God has been thwarted. It's a right path. God isn't looking over at Christ and saying, OK, it's time for plan B. They messed it up too much. No, He's directing the right path. It's all part of God's plan. Not a sparrow falls from the sky apart from the will of the Father. All of your hairs are numbered. The survival of the human race, our country, the church, is not based on any event that's going to happen in the future, on any election, on any one person's survival. But we still cry out to God for justice. We still pray. David said, incline your heart to me. Rescue me speedily. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear and answer speedily when I call. We still cry out to God. And Jesus Himself, when telling us that we should be persistent in prayer and never give up in prayer, talks about a widow who goes to an unjust judge and cries out for justice. And Christ, in His response, says in Luke 18, 7, And will not God give justice to His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? Yes, we will have justice eternally. Amen. Well, we are called to cry out to God today. Who knows? He might change the state of our country. He might change the state of our state. The state of the world. We need to turn to Him in prayer and trust His sovereignty. We can trust that He leads in paths of righteousness, both individually, corporately, as a church. In every way, He doesn't mess up. And it's all for His good name's sake. It's all for His own glory. One of the first things we pray in the Lord's Prayer is, Let Thy kingdom come. It's all for His kingdom. It's all for His glory. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Have we forgotten? Have we forgotten our Shepherd? The power, the might, the majesty of our God. So whether it's your own individual life, Trust God to restore your soul, whether it's your church, whether it's anything else in this creation. Trust in God, His attributes, and He will restore your soul. He will lift you up. I'll close with this verse, Hebrews 13, verse 20. Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Let us pray. Almighty God, we thank you for your mercy, your love and your grace. We thank you that you indeed restore our souls. You lead us in paths of righteousness for your namesake. We don't have anything to fear. Lord, you give us all that we need. Individually and corporately, you direct and govern all things according to your almighty plan and purpose. And as the shepherd of this flock, we thank you that you comfort our souls with the exact comfort that we need. You comfort our souls. You lift us up. You turn us right. Lord, help us help the sheep of your pasture. Help us, Lord, in Jesus name. Amen.