GOD'S SHEPHERD AND GOD'S SHEEP
GOD’S SHEPHERD AND GOD’S SHEEP
Isaiah 53:6; Psalm 119: 176; Song of Songs 6:6
I am seeking to be of service to God and to those who are present this evening, and have read these scriptures to speak about sheep as seen in them. The passage in Isaiah is read from the great and well known evangelical chapter of the book written by the evangelical prophet. This book has served for centuries the Spirit of God, offering, indeed, great material for evangelical service, and the New Testament alludes to it especially as testifying to the glory of Christ. John, the beloved apostle of Jesus, of Christ, quotes from the prophet, and then speaks of Isaiah as having seen the glory of the Lord: “These things said Esaias because he saw his glory and spoke of him”, John 12: 41. No one really can present the gospel unless he sees the glory. One great title of the gospel is that it is “the glad tidings of the glory”,
1 Timothy 1: 11. That is the glory of God, to be sure, and Jesus is the glory of God. He is the Ark of the covenant. We are never to forget the deity of Christ, that He is God. One great servant says, speaking of Christ, “who is over all, God blessed for ever”, Romans 9:5. What a theme for the contemplation of a person, or creature of God! What a theme to speak to a creature, about God, and about His Christ, and that Christ is God, and “over all, God blessed for ever”. And so it is that Isaiah is said to have seen the glory of Christ. It is called “the glory of Jehovah” in this book, and the word of the Lord in this book, when alluding to Jehovah (Isaiah 9: 1), says that Christ would be from Galilee. It is the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the same Person “who is over all, God blessed for ever”. And so Matthew, the first writer in the New Testament, tells us by the Spirit that His name shall be called “Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins”, Matthew 1: 21. His name is Jesus and Jesus means Saviour. Then again, “They shall call his name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted,’God with us’”. How wonderful that he could say these things-the evangelist Matthew, the apostle Matthew, once the tax-gatherer Matthew, also called Levi! He tells us these things by the Spirit. “Book of the generation of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham”. Then he too, quotes from this prophet (Isaiah 7: 14 and Matthew 1: 23): “Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, ‘God with us’”. I wish to impress upon you, in speaking to you, that God is here tonight.
You say, ‘He is in heaven’. Yes, true enough. He is on this earth, too: “The heavens are my throne, and the earth is my footstool”, Isaiah 66: 1. These are facts. The earth is God’s footstool, where He rests His foot; you say, ‘Impossible!’. It is quite possible that it is the footstool of God, that He may go there and rest His foot. It is His footstool, and He is on it. Are there any here that do not believe that? I know it, that God is here, God is amongst us, God is in us. It is the truth. Now this book of Isaiah, who is the great evangelical prophet, tells us and records for us the words of certain people who are learning to tell the truth. Very few indeed learn it, for men lie about themselves, and about others and about God. Isaiah tells us the words of certain men who had learned to tell the truth. There are many here tonight who are truthful inwardly, and these men learn to tell the truth. They say, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”. That is about themselves.
How does every one here stand as to this? We have all gone astray, even those brought up in a christian household, who have been taught to read the Bible, and perhaps to pray, who are now grown up, yet have gone astray. The world is full of murderous things [p. 434] now, and the young boys and girls are starting to take them on. The devil is preparing them for the next war. As time goes on we will find that the young people will start the next war, and the devil knows that. He is the destroyer; that is the devil. He incites war, and the boys get violent thoughts, blood thoughts. Their ears are full of hearing of blood, their eyes are full of seeing blood, they get accustomed to it, they make light of it, and they begin to do violence, for the world is full of it. So young persons are going astray, incited by the devil to violence. If there are any such here, I would say to you young people, ‘Begin tonight to tell the truth’. If you are called before magistrates, you will be forced to do it. How much happier before God and the brethren, His people! It is much easier to do it before those who are sympathetic with you. They have prayed that you might be converted tonight, and, if you are to be converted tonight, you must begin to tell the truth. The truth is that you have gone astray, you have turned to your own way. Now is the time to turn back, for that way will lead you down to the pit that is yawning for you. “For wide the gate and broad the way that leads to destruction”, Matthew 7: 13. People take that way, and you may have a time of revelry on the way, but it may go out by the chair or the gallows. Or you may go out in ease, like that man of whom the Lord Jesus spoke, who went out with a rich funeral but lifted up his eyes in hades (Luke 16: 23). Young people, turn away! Learn to tell the truth about yourselves! Then you will understand the truth about God. So they say, “And Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”. That is Jesus, He is the theme in this chapter. It is my business to make that clear. It is your business to make that clear, too, telling the truth about yourself and turning away from the wide path to the path your father taught you about. That is your side. Let us never forget [p. 435] that there are the two sides. God has His side, but you have yours. The side taken by man is that he tells the truth about himself, and then tells the truth about God. Then the truth means that God has been doing something to cause man to turn from his crooked way: “Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”. That is what God was doing. In truth He was doing it from the time that sin came into the world. Man was under a curse, a terrible curse, led by the devil and by his own will. Immediately God began to undo it. What was God doing while the devil was working thus with man? He was taking up this matter of laying on sins.
The first man that saw what God was beginning to do was Abel, and he says, ‘I will do the same. I will join in that’, and he did. That was what caused him to kill the sacrifice; Abel learned how to do that, and he did it. He died in doing it and he yet speaks even tonight. And so, as I have said, God began this work. There was the tabernacle for hundreds of years. It was a sacrificial work, and it went right through. God set up the tabernacle in the wilderness; He took great pains to tell Moses how to make an altar, and to provide a family of men to do the priestly work. This went on for centuries down through history, this great work of God, laying on sins, “Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”. Jesus had not yet come, but God was thinking of Jesus; He would think of Him every time an ox or sheep was slain; it is this great work of God’s which runs down through history.
Now the principle we need to lay hold of is to tell the truth, about ourselves, and about God. He is a sacrificial God, One who laid on Jesus “the iniquity of us all”. There would not be many sins to lay on at the start, but they increased down through history, especially in the wilderness. As the cattle were driven to the tabernacle the blood flowed as they were laid on the altar, it was especially so on the great day [p. 436] of atonement in Leviticus 16. God set apart that day for this work of laying on sins, a vicarious business. You say, ‘It was just animals’, but in the mind of God it was not just animals, it was Jesus. God always had that thought before Him. Adam was made in the image of God; in God’s mind that was Jesus. And when Jesus came to walk about this earth for some years we get the account in the word: “Who went through all quarters doing good, and healing that were under the power of the devil”, Acts 10: 38. In due time, according to the testimony of the evangelists, He was slain, He was given up. That is the word that is used: “Him, given up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye, by the hand of lawless men, have crucified and slain”, Acts 2: 23.
Those wicked hands were doing God’s work! That blessed Saviour was slain, He was actually killed by them. He was killed vicariously; all the murderers on earth could not kill Him, no one could take His life. It was His own act; God delivered Him up on account of these sins. It is a miracle to be able to count all those sins. “Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”. God did it; the work was done perfectly. Isaiah 53: 6 is a prophetic announcement of it. What was to happen hundreds of years after is in the mind of God as if it were done. He looks on to that moment when the Lord Jesus could say to His Father, “It is finished”, and He “delivered up his spirit”, John 19: 30. He did really die. And then it says, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”, 2 Corinthians 5: 21. What a wonderful statement that is, for you young people especially! You have all gone out of the way. “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way”. God takes the matter up, as I have said, in the long line of sacrifices to bring the thought into men’s minds, until the actual thing took place in the death of Jesus, in His saying “It is finished” and delivering up His spirit. There is no longer any need for the droves of cattle. It is one Sacrifice for ever, the sacrifice of Jesus; “Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”. You say ‘We shall all be saved’. No, you will not indeed! There will be lost people. There may be some lost people in this room. I know it positively. There is a class of people called by God ‘lost’, and they will never be saved. You say, That is a difficult thing and very puzzling if One died for all, and God is one, and there is one Mediator, “who gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony to be rendered in its own times”, 1 Timothy 2: 5, 6. But, if the testimony is rendered, it is to be received, and it is for you to receive it. There is no one saved unless they receive the testimony. Have you young people received the testimony of God? What a testimony! It is to be received. In the first letter to the Corinthians we have an account of the gospel and the preachers, for they received it by the preachers. “But I make known to you, brethren, the glad tidings which I announced to you, which also ye received, in which also ye stand, by which also ye are saved, (if ye hold fast the word which I announced to you as the glad tidings,) unless indeed ye have believed in vain. For I delivered to you, in the first place, what also I had received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he was raised the third day, according to the scriptures; and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the most remain until now, but some also have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to an abortion, he appeared to me also”, 1 Corinthians 15: 1 - 8. Is there anybody that can say it is a myth? It is a terrible thing to disbelieve the wonderful testimony that God has shown. Think of “five hundred brethren at once”!
[p. 438] God has given abundance of testimony; the twelve were commissioned to bear testimony and to preach. Preaching is more than testimony or witness. There has to be power to preach. Witness is to show that the thing is so. The Spirit of God witnesses to the thing, to show that it was. But preaching it is forcing it on you. God says, ‘You need preachers to make it hard for you to be lost’. You have to go against the love of God, against the twelve apostles, against Jesus, if you are going to be lost. God is making it hard for people to be lost. He is piling up things in your way so that you will not be lost, but saved. This meeting is as one of the obstacles in your way. “The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved”, Romans 10: 8, 9. The word is actually in your mouth as I am preaching, but you may be making up your mind to go out of the door lured by the devil. But God has come so near that He has put the word in your very mouth, and are you going away and going to let someone else get the blessing, and you are going to be lost? It is good to take to heart what I am saying.
Now I turn to Psalm 119: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant; for I have not forgotten thy commandments”, Psalm 119: 176. That is a remarkable thing; this man knows that he is a lost one, and he puts it upon God to seek him. Then he tells Him that he is keeping His commandments. This brings up a great deal that it is well for us to take note of. God has worked with you and you have received the gospel; now God is looking for something. Throughout the Old Testament it comes to light that God is working with men, and He would have them understand that He is working with them. At the beginning they [p. 439] do not need to do anything; God does it all. Then a time comes when the work of God is developing, and God loves to see this development with men of His work, involving keeping His commandments and laws. Men thus become alive, understanding what God is at, and that they can start an account with God, that they can save up an account with Him, and have a credit with Him. It is not to be one-sided; it never was intended that it should be. A one-sided gospel is not the gospel. It is a two-sided gospel! James tells us that. He says, ‘I will show you something with my works’. You say you have faith, but I would point you to this psalm. What a sheep this man was! What a man he was! He says to Jehovah, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant” (not ‘Seek thy sinner’.) I want everyone to take home the fact that this is a two-sided matter. This matter is to do with saved sinners, men that know something about saving. He says, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep”, and then God would say, ‘Even if you have done that, there is something else true of you’. This psalm tells of a lot that is true about him. This man knows that God will work with him, and so the ‘lost sheep’ is owned of God. He belongs to a class that are known of God, that are known to be saving up an account with Him; they are on easy terms with God. Some of you have been converted in recent years; what kind of terms exist between God and you? Are they easy or are they severe? It is the goodness of God that makes you easy, but the severity does, too, or does it give you pain and distress? There may be someone here that was really converted at some time and God knows it. How you walked in some way with God, and now are turned aside like a lost sheep? This gospel is for you, that you may be brought back to the sure foundation on which you began. God has done the great initial work; we need a Saviour, and God has provided One for us. But God works in us
[p. 440] too. And that is what this man says, “Seek thy servant”. He says nothing of his sins, though he needs a Saviour in a certain sense, and he asks Jehovah to seek him. He has built up a credit account with God, and God listens to him, and goes to help him. This meeting is to help any souls here who are half-way christians. It is in order that you may become out and out. God is ready to help you; that is the great point. He is telling you tonight that this is a two-sided gospel. He says, ‘I have converted you and given you My Spirit; what are you doing?’ That is the way with those who are going only halfway or quarter-way. This man is in that position, on that line; yet he has written this wonderful psalm of 176 verses, and at the end of it he is telling God that he needs to be sought, that he has gone out of the way.
Will God turn away from him? Never! God is ready to listen to you tonight. God is ready to take up the matter, if you will ask Him to do it. He loves to do it. When Jacob left Laban he had quarrelled with his father-in-law (a quarrel which was never healed, as far as we know), but God says to Jacob, ‘I will take care of you’, and He sent angels to meet him. No doubt Jacob prayed to God, and that brings up what we have been saying, that the Old Testament gives an account of men who were on easy terms with God, who had come to know God and to build up a credit with God. Abraham was said to be “Friend of God”, James 2: 23. God came to visit him one day with two others. What a glorious thing that was! What terms between Abraham and God! So with Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, David, and many others. The light of the gospel came to them in some sense they walked in it, and built up a credit account with God, living on easy terms with Him, God listening to them as to His people. God is not ashamed of such people as that. You cannot push yourself in on God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before thee!”, Genesis 17: 18.
God says, ‘I do not like Ishmael’, although He did something for Ishmael for Abraham’s sake. Let us not hide behind that man, for God does not like him. He wants to deliver you from such. The gospel is simple, for God wants to bring you back, not only to like you, but to love you, and make you at home on a sure foundation. This sheep owns that he has gone astray and asks God to seek him. That is, you have got into a mix-up with some worldly matter and you cannot get out. God longs to help you. God says, ‘I am ready to do it’. You have forgotten things you once enjoyed, even forgotten that your sins are forgiven. Just get back to the start again! God says, ‘It will take time’. It is a two-sided matter. This man himself says these things. God says, ‘I know that’. Take David when his prophet Nathan says to him, “Thou art the man!”, 2 Samuel 12: 7.’Yes’, says David as his conscience is touched, “I have sinned against Jehovah”, 2 Samuel 12: 13. ‘I have sinned against others too’. Maybe he was unable to say just that; that will come later, but God loves to hear such an acknowledgment from the lips of David. Nathan says, “Jehovah has also put away thy sin thou shalt not die”. But David had committed a great sin, and not until the child died was he happy. That is the other side; you must take on the other side too; it is a real matter, there is judgment in it. It is a real christian that takes things on seriously. This man in Psalm 119 took it on seriously. He says to Jehovah, ‘Seek me’, and He did. God hearkened to him. God loves that sort of thing. There is the other side of the gospel, too, that God has taught you to go out, and do some saving. Save your children and your house. So God answers this man, and the next psalms are full of it. They record the experience of the man. All this is a double matter, and it is for you to take it on, so that you may come into the enjoyment of that of which these psalms are full.
[p. 442] It is a remarkable statement in the Song of Songs, “Thy teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep which go up from the washing; which have all borne twins, and none is barren among them”. There is no suggestion of straying in this flock. They are going up from the washing. Heaven looks down upon us as moving up from the washing. And what are we like? “None is barren among them”. We have had a wonderful time here, indeed it has been “the washing”. Heaven is watching to see what we are like. As we walk down the street, or go in cars to our homes, what are we like? Do we love one another? See the loveliness of the saints as presented in this setting, as a flock of sheep; the Lord Jesus loves that. He loves that picture in John 10, His sheep. “I lay down my life for the sheep ... . My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me ... and they shall never perish”, John 10: 15 - 28. These are beautiful things. The Lord Jesus will never perish and His sheep will never perish. “They shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father”, John 10: 28, 29. These are precious words; they are foundational words as over against certain christians’ talk of being saved today and lost tomorrow. “For by one offering he has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified”, Hebrews 10: 14. That is the perfect sacrifice, the one offering, of Christ.
May God bless these thoughts to us!