THE SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP
R. Gardiner
Isaiah 53: 4–8; Romans 3: 9–12; Luke 15: 1–7; Psalm 23: 1–6
I want to speak about the Shepherd and the sheep. The Shepherd, of course, is the Man of God’s choice, He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners. The sheep are all of us; men, women and children, every kind of person finds his or her place among the lost sheep.
As sinners away from God, we are all lost sheep, but many will be found by the Shepherd. I remember an old preacher was asked once how did he manage to preach to a company of believers. He said, I look upon them all as a company of sinners saved by grace. So the lost sheep include every man, woman and child in the world; there is none excepted. You cannot buy yourself out of this, and you cannot claim lineage to get yourself out of this. It says in Isaiah 53 where we read, “All we like sheep have gone astray”. There is no exemption, my friend. There is not one person in Dundee, or Scotland, or the United Kingdom or the whole world that can be exempted from that word “all”. “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way”. What is man’s own way? It says in the Proverbs, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death”, Proverbs 14: 12. That is the end of man away from God.
There is nothing awaiting him but death, and after death the judgment, but ah! the greatness of the grace of God that has come into expression in a Man called Jesus. “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins”, Matthew 1: 21. The people who have gone astray, who have turned every one to his own way, these are the people that the Lord Jesus came into this world to save. What a salvation! Saved from the jaws of death, from the power of the devil, from an eternity of gloom and darkness
away from Christ, to be brought into an area of light, joy, life and liberty. What a gospel we have to preach to you, a poor sheep gone astray, following your own heart’s desires after the flesh, being taken further and further away by Satan from God Himself; but God has come out in marvellous grace in a Man called Jesus. What a Saviour!
‘“Man of sorrows!” what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to redeem!
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!’ (Hymn 426)
And so where we read in Isaiah 53 it says, “All we like sheep have gone astray” and, you know, the present circumstances in which the world is finding itself is only demonstrating to man how he has gone astray and finds himself in complete confusion. I could have read in Isaiah 30, “Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah, who take counsel, but not of me, and who make leagues, but not by my Spirit, that they may heap sin upon sin; who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked of my mouth, to take refuge under the protection of Pharaoh, and trust in the shadow of Egypt! For to you the protection of Pharaoh shall be a shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt a confusion” (Isaiah 30: 1–3). Is that not true of what is going on today? Men and women away from God seeking to find protection under Pharaoh in Egypt, seeking to find protection wherever they might, all under the power of sin and sins and Satan. It also says later in that chapter, “And when ye turn to the right hand or when ye turn to the left,” (that is the man that is in confusion) “thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying. This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30: 21). What a marvellous word!
What is the way? It is the way of righteousness. How has it been secured? It has been secured by the Man of God’s choice, who went by way of Calvary that He might seek and save sinners, those who are lost. What a way He went! It says “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, but he opened not his mouth; he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and was as a sheep dumb before her shearers, and he opened not his mouth”. The Lord Jesus, that perfect Man, “holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners” (Hebrews 7: 26), ever in His thirty-three and a half years giving immeasurable pleasure to His God and Father. Every thought, word, movement and deed gave pleasure to His Father. In the three and a half years of public service He was meeting the needs of men and women and children away from God. Not only bringing recovery where recovery was needed, either physical or mental, but bringing in salvation, “Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace”, Luke 7: 50. What a message, what a Saviour, the Man Christ Jesus “who gave himself a ransom for all”, 1 Timothy 2: 6.
You know, my friend, while He gave Himself a ransom for all, so that the gospel can be preached to the whole world today, the efficacy of that gospel is only experienced and known by those who put their trust in Him. So the gospel comes to you that you might put your trust in the Man who went by way of Calvary. Think of those three and a half years moving about Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, Galilee, Capernaum, think of all the places that the Lord visited in His sojourn here during those three and a half years of public service, and then at the end of those years those words, “Away with this man”, Luke 23: 18. Think of the feelings of this Man (who was God Himself), going into Gethsemane and saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt”, Matthew 26: 39. An obedient holy Man, going by way of suffering, going to the cross at Calvary, there to be taken by cruel men and hung between two malefactors, and Jesus, it says, in the middle. What ignominy, what suffering, nailed to that cross! The nails did not hold Him on the cross. It was love that held Him on that cross, love for foolish straying sheep, like you and me. The Lord Jesus hanging there, and saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, Luke 23: 34. What a heart of love was expressed in these words. A Man who knew what it was to suffer the forsaking of His God, three hours of darkness, no communion then, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matthew 27: 46. “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us”, 2 Corinthians 5: 21.
I would just like to pause for a moment. Have you ever thought seriously about what that means, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin”? Every part of the body of Jesus was perfect, it was holy, it was untainted and sin had no place in that perfect body, but He was made sin. Just think of it. He was made the very article itself. It demanded that if God was to come out in righteousness towards His creature sin had to be judged. It demanded that Jesus who knew not sin had to hang on that cross and bear the righteous judgment of a holy God. Why? So that you and I, the lost sheep, the straying sheep, the dying sheep, might be brought to life, light and liberty.
After He died a soldier took a spear and pierced His side, “and immediately there came out blood and water”, John 19: 34. The evidence to the whole creation that a life had been given up. A perfect life, holy, harmless, undefiled, a life the like of which had never been seen before, nor has it ever been since on this earth. Jesus, His life given up and His blood shed, so that our sins might be removed and that God might be glorified. His blood was shed so that we might be washed clean, then He was taken down from the cross to lie in the grave. Why? Christ bore the curse and He bore the judgment. He who bore the curse was laid in the grave so that man, that sinful creature, might be removed for ever from the holy gaze of God. There was no necessity on Jesus’ part for burial, but man as a fallen creature had to be removed.
Well now, the hymn says,
‘Out of Thy death has sprung
A wondrous living throng’. (Hymn 152)
My friend, those who have put their trust in the finished work of Jesus have come out with Him on the other side of death. “Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father”, Romans 6: 4. He was marked out Son of God in power by the resurrection of the dead. Because of who He was, He came out of that tomb triumphantly Himself. He broke the bands of gloom, and is now risen, ascended and glorified at God’s right hand, a Prince and a Saviour, all for the straying sheep, all for the lost ones that they might be found.
In Luke 15 we have it set out for us in detail, a sheep is lost and the shepherd has a heart. He goes after the sheep until he finds it. He held nothing back. He went all the way into death itself and burial, then was raised so that He might on those blessed shoulders demonstrate the strength of love. He puts the stray sheep on these shoulders and brings the sheep back to where it belonged. Have you been lost and brought back on the shoulders of Jesus, the One who has done so much, given so much, given His all? Have you allowed Him to take you on His shoulders and bring you back? There was joy in the house in Luke 15, neighbours and friends were gathered together. How would you like tonight, if you have never confessed the Lord before, to confess that He has brought you back on His shoulders, and you have taken Him to your heart as your Saviour? Confess Him to someone sitting by you, your parents or someone else, and find that your friends and your neighbours around you are rejoicing.
I well remember a young person coming, after the gospel preaching, and just saying to someone that he had accepted the Lord as his Saviour, and we all sat down again. Nobody wanted to go home. We all sat down and started to sing a few gospel hymns and prayed. The rejoicing can be heard afar off as young persons come and accept the Lord Jesus in the company of those who have already put their trust in a loving Saviour. When you come to that point, then you realise that the joy is not going to stop, it is going to continue and throughout your life; and no matter what befalls you, there is going to be that Good Shepherd, that Chief Shepherd, that Great Shepherd caring for you, until He comes to take you actually to be with Himself with all the saints.
In Psalm 23, the sheep has been brought back and can say, “Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake”. It is wonderful to own that you have accepted the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, and that you have committed your whole life to Him. The result is that you have a desire to come and remember Him on Lord’s day morning. And what do you find? “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside still waters”. How wonderful to be restful in the presence of the Lord, and not only restful, but responsive. What an opportunity to give to the One who has given His all, something in return. Many of us did that this morning; what a joy it was.
That opportunity is open to you, my young friend. If you have not yet accepted the Lord, accept Him as your Saviour. If you have not committed yourself wholly to Him, commit yourself tonight. What joy will thrill your soul.
It says then, “Surely, goodness and loving-kindness shall follow me all the days of my life”. It may be from time to time you will have discipline, and maybe from time to time you will have sorrow, and maybe from time to time you will have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but you will fear no evil for He is with you. Then “goodness and loving-kindness shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of Jehovah for the length of the days”. You know these days are never ending, the length of the days will never finish. The Father’s house is there for all eternity. It is called the house of Jehovah here, but for us it is the Father’s house. “In my Father’s house there are many abodes” (John 14: 2), and there is a place specially prepared for us by the Shepherd, the One who in John 10 leads out and leads in. What does He lead into? He leads into the Father’s house. Here it says, “I will dwell in the house of Jehovah for the length of the days”, secured, safe and joyful. It is a house that is filled with the atmosphere of love, not any ordinary love, but divine love, the kind of love that took the Shepherd to the cross. Divine love will permeate the whole of the Father’s house for all eternity.
Down through nearly the last two thousand years men, women and children have been borne back on the shoulders of the Shepherd, and brought into this house of joy and of liberty; but more than that, where we are empowered by the Holy Spirit and led by the Shepherd, Christ Himself, to give glory to God for ever. May each one of us commit ourselves tonight. Those of us who have done so years ago, afresh. If there is any young person who has not done so yet, I plead with you ere it is too late, come to know your sins forgiven, let the Shepherd carry you on His loving shoulders, and find the enjoyment of the Father’s house, for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Dundee
5 October 2008