SHEEP

^[p. 50] SHEEP

Isaiah 53:6; Psalm 119:176; Song of Songs 6:6; John 10: 14, 15

I wish to speak this evening about sheep, that is, sinners viewed as such, and then saints viewed as sheep. When Adam named the creatures, the land animals particularly, he would convey, in the names given, the traits of each; according to God, the name is to convey what the person or thing is characteristically, and these traits were intended by God, as in these creatures, to serve His testimony later. Some of them even represented Christ Himself in a figurative way, and among these sheep are worthy of special attention. The idea of a sheep is used to typify, in certain senses, the Lord Himself; indeed, in this very chapter I have read from in Isaiah, the Lord is said to have been like a sheep dumb before His shearers, as you will observe — “he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth”. That is a sheep characteristic, and I hope to come back to it as seen in Christ, showing that God intends in the gospel to secure us at least in that characteristic, for the gospel has Christ in mind, not only as the Saviour, but as the Model for all those who are saved; God intends to make all the saints like Jesus. A sheep does not represent all that Jesus is, even typically, there are other important features, but the sheep has a great place. John’s sheep particularly represent the saints as conformed to Christ and attractive to Him, loved by Him because of that. They are not viewed as straying or lost in John, because John is concerned about persons who are like Christ, and the sheep are amongst these, they represent that. But Isaiah, by the Spirit, says, “All we like sheep have gone astray”; that is not a trait that ever shone in Jesus, I need not say, it never was seen there; the blessed Lord Jesus is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens”, Hebrews 7: 26. He never did anything contrary to the divine will, the will of His Father, never in thought or word or deed. So that we must first look at these creatures presented in this verse as persons who have exercised their own wills, the very opposite to Jesus — “not my will”, He says, “but thine be done”, Luke 22: 42.

Now there may be some here, christians, as we say, that is, God has wrought in you, but your will has not gone yet, you are not subdued, and your parents are concerned about you — you exercise your will. “All we like sheep” — it is a collective thought, and is, of course, inclusive of a great many; but then we have the individuals in the passage, as it says, “we have turned every one to his own way” — every one. Some young boy here, fairly acceptable to his parents, naturally acceptable, fairly obedient to what his father tells him, as in the parable the Lord uses in Matthew 21: 28 - 30, he said to one of his sons, “go work today in my vineyard”. He said, I will go — but he did not go, that is the kind of thing. Another one said, I will not go. Well, that is a very objectionable attitude for a young person to take up towards his parents, it is often done. I will not go, he says; there is much of that kind of thing, and it is passed by, too. But then the Lord’s parable is intended to show that the one who said he would go did not go, and the one who said he would not go did go, and the Lord shows that the one who did go did the will of his father. His father would thank God as he saw him going off to the vineyard; he would mourn as he failed to see the other one go; so that the first one is choosing his own way — “every one”, it says here, “to his own way”; that was his own way, that is,

^[p. 52] he was a deceptive young man, a very objectionable feature, he was not an honest young man. The other was a bit impertinent, a bit insolent, but he was obedient in the long run, and that is the point. “Every one to his own way” — as we say, ‘his own sweet will’. It will become a bitter will; never did anybody do his own will but it brought bitterness. “Every one to his own way”; well, that is what is stated here and it is put in this setting to bring out that, in spite of that disobedience, in spite of that waywardness, God is acting in your favour. He is acting at great sacrifice, too, in your favour, mark you, it is “the iniquity of us all”; those people who are going astray and doing what they will do — God is acting at great sacrifice in their favour. These wilful actions of these sheep are all counted up by God, He does not omit one. If we take them to be the lost sheep of the house of Israel spoken of elsewhere, as doubtless they are, how many we cannot say, what wills were active and what deeds they performed in their self-will! But Jehovah was writing them all down, not one is omitted; for God keeps books, and that is one of the most solemn things to bear in mind — book-keeping indeed occurs. People do not trust their memories, they put their things in books and accountancy and the vast system of mathematics is all needed because we cannot keep everything in our minds, it is worked out scientifically, as we say. But God keeps books, too; it is not that He cannot keep things in His mind — nothing can pass His mind, but He uses figures to come down to our way of thinking, as much as to say, ‘Do not be deceived, I have not omitted one of your sins, not one — they are all written down’; but then, as written down, He has laid them on Jesus, “The Lord ^[p. 54] hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” — all that is very touching, and especially as we go on down the verses. The Spirit of God brings before us the sheep character of Christ ^[p. 53] in the very next verse — how different! He is not doing His own will. We see Him in Gethsemane under the greatest pressure — not yet from God, He was not on the cross in Gethsemane, He was not bearing sins in Gethsemane — and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. So great was the pressure, and how the Lord felt it! but in that pressure He says to the Father, “not my will, but thine be done”. He was not turning to His own way. He speaks of His own will, but it is the Father’s will. It is the Father there, not God; He is still in the unclouded precious favour of His Father, but He is under pressure, He is facing death, not ordinary death, not mere martyrdom, but the death of the cross, which meant the forsaking of God, which meant bearing the full wrath of God; that was what He was facing, so He says, “not my will, but thine be done”. What was God’s will? He is laying all these waywardnesses, these wilful acts of young and old, spoken of in the previous verse, on this precious Saviour. God is doing that; He could not do it without Jesus — we must understand there are things God could not do. There was no sacrifice worthy of the name really save that of Jesus; no one else on whom these iniquities could be laid. There were, of course, types of it, but we are told expressly that the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer could never take away sins — only the blood of Jesus. So that Jesus is acting for these straying wayward sheep of Israel, and any sheep here who is like it, each going his own way. We are here to tell you that God knows it, He knows it well, He has watched every movement, and yet He is acting for you. This meeting is for you, all the prayers that have preceded it are for you; all heaven is for you. Think of what that means! As soon as repentance is seen in anyone, heaven is aglow with interest, all heaven is on your behalf — “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all”. I need not enlarge on that, doubtless you have often heard gospel addresses on these verses — I go on to the psalm.

Some of you may not be as conversant with this Psalm 119 as others are. It is the longest psalm and the longest chapter that the Spirit of God has written, and the verse I read is 176. This is not man’s division, as the other chapters of the Bible, generally speaking, are; these psalms are all divinely arranged, the number of them, in nearly every case by the writer — not in this case: in this psalm the author is not given us, so that we may all put in our name as taking up its language. Speaking of the last verse, you wonder how a man who could write such a psalm as this could say, at the end of it, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep”. It is not that it is a matter of history, he is not putting it that way; he has consciously gone astray, not exactly as it was said in Isaiah 53, there they have just gone astray, but here he says, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep”there is a deeper meaning in this, this man is speaking in a deeper way. A lost sheep is a solemn thought; it is a question of not being consciously in ownership. He wants to be — and God knows that, and God values that. He virtually admits that he belongs to God, but he is wandering like a lost sheep. Like a ship, too, without a compass or a rudder or a master; he knows it, that is important to see, he knows it. The statement in Isaiah is prophetic, persons are speaking in a prophetic way — “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way”, but this man brings in the word ‘lost’. Is there anyone here like that — with a sense that you are just without any owner? You have right desires — there are many like that. If you read this psalm you will marvel at the desires this man had and the way he speaks of the Lord and the ordinances and the word, and so ^[p. 55] on, and yet he is not consciously in the hand of an owner. Is there anyone here like that? You are not averse to the brethren, you like them, you like to be with them; you have no pleasure in the world, in theatres or cinemas or race-tracks — nothing like that; you are sincerely desirous of getting on in the truth of God, and yet you are not settled under the hand of an Owner, there is a sense of being lost, of being astray like a lost sheep, and you would give anything to be like the brethren. You see how happy they are, and you think, Why is it I am not like them? I can speak of the things of God as they can; I can speak even with more sincerity perhaps than some of them; yet they have more liberty, more peace, more joy, than I have. Why is this? Well, this man knows where to go, and he goes there, and that is what I would advise you to do at this time. He says to Jehovah, in the end of the verse, “seek thy servant” — not because You are the Good Shepherd, not because there is love in Your heart towards me, but seek me because I am of some value to You. I am not saying too much; why should I not think myself of some value to God? Certainly I am. If this man is born again, if you are born again, you are of value to God. If you love the testimony of God, if you love to read the Bible, to come to the meetings, to talk to christians, you certainly are born again; you belong to God, He is your rightful Owner. But then what this man says is, I am of some value to you, and you are of value to the brethren, they are just waiting for you. But the enemy has somehow darkened your mind and as I said before, you have no definiteness, you are like a sheep and not simply a straying sheep — it is straying, but straying like a lost sheep — it is the consciousness he has of it. But all the time he says, “I do not forget thy commandments”, that is his plea; he is not pleading grace, he is not pleading mercy, he is not even pleading the ^[p. 56] death of Christ, he is pleading his own personal value; and he is right and God would not spurn that for a moment, for you are of value to Him as the subject of His work — the gold is there. And this meeting is for you; He intends to liberate you so that the gold should shine, that you should be consciously it, no longer astray, as I said like a ship in the Atlantic without a compass, without a rudder, without an owner, on a dark night. But all the time you say, ‘I do not forget Thy commandments’. At the bottom of your heart you think of God, you think of the brethren, too, you think of the Bible, you love to read it, and yet you are conscious of this, that you are astray like a lost sheep, there is the consciousness of not being attached, you are unattached, if you understand me, an isolated person inwardly — maybe nice enough in your family and to your friends, but inwardly you are unattached; and the point here is the man knows where to turn, and the plea, too — “I have not forgotten”, he says, “thy commandments”. This might even be applied to a person who goes in a little bit for the world, because a man of this kind is likely to; unless he becomes attached the enemy has an advantage. The enemy would say to you, You are not attached to the brethren, you are not attached anywhere, so what does it matter? You are unattached spiritually; you may be tempted to go into the places of evil, for the wicked woman who flatters with her mouth has influence over you. You may have been to a theatre. I knew a christian who used to be attached, in fellowship, and he got away and he slipped into a theatre in New York, and, while sitting there, something was brought up in a play and they quoted John 14. Think of that! think of the devil using the scripture in the stuff he deals out in these wicked theatres. You know, in America they use the word ‘comforter’ sometimes for ‘comfortable’, a sort of quilt, and this actor brought it forward on the stage, and said, ‘What did the clergyman say last night at the church?’ and the answer was, ‘He spoke about the Comforter’. He wanted to speak in a jocular way, but the Lord had this young man in His mind. This young man knew perfectly what John 14 said, that the Lord Jesus had said that He would send another Comforter, and it broke him down in the theatre and he went out and wept bitterly. I only cite that incident to show how unattached persons may come under the influence of evil, even though they may be real christians, as we speak, subjects of the work of God. (Although the word ‘christian’ means more than that, it is an oracularly given name of disciples of Jesus — “the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch”, Acts 11: 26. It is a known, dignified name, referring to real fully developed christians. But still we speak of it in this way that those in whom God has wrought, who have believed, are christians.) If you are unattached, as I say, you are pretty certain to come under the influence of evil, and you may have to weep bitterly, like Peter, for it was the same in his case — the Lord looked on him at the right time, and the word came to that young man I have spoken of at the right time. You will understand I am not encouraging anybody to go to a theatre to get converted; no, beloved, the guests of the wicked woman there are in the depths of hell, she flatters with her mouth — flattery is a great thing in connection with these things. So this man says, “I have not forgotten thy commandments”, and, if you read the whole psalm you will understand the kind of man he was, yet he was unattached. Need I say Jehovah heard him? If I connect the passage with Luke 15 you will see that it is the converse of this. This man is asking to be sought out. “Seek thy servant”, he says. Well, that is Jehovah. Jesus is Jehovah the Saviour, He is the good and the great Shepherd. Luke 15 does not intimate at all that the ^[p. 58] lost sheep sought to be found — that is not the side there, here it is so, and what you find in Luke 15 is the very words here. The point is not that it has gone astray, it is in Matthew 18; here in Luke 15 it is lost, that is, the sheep is lost to its owner and lost to itself, as you might say, straying — as I have been speaking of it. But the Lord left the ninety and nine — of course that means something, too, I cannot speak of it now — He went after the lost one and found it. That is my business here tonight, to tell you that, if a cry reaches Him, there will be no delay. Luke does not say there was a cry, but there is a cry here, and if you put the two scriptures together, you can see how quickly the good Shepherd goes out after the sheep and finds it, and places it on His shoulders and brings it home rejoicing. It is of value, that is the point; this man was conscious he was of value although unattached, away from his Owner. And the Lord intimates plainly enough that a sheep is of value; He troubled to find it and He found it.

Now I want to show you from the Song of Solomon how sheep are viewed collectively and in attractiveness, they form one of the beautiful features of the loved one, that is, the bride in the Song of Solomon, or the assembly, as we may say now. The assembly, of course, in one of its features; it requires more than one feature to make up the beauty the Lord seeks, and the verse I have read gives one of the features the Lord has in mind in finding the sheep, attaching it, as I might say, to Himself; for John 10 works all that out, He attaches it to Himself, the sheep is characteristically attached to Christ, it hears His voice and follows Him, and He moves it from the fold to the flock. The sheep are now beautiful in His eyes and He is putting them together — that is the next thing, if God has found us He is going to put us somewhere. In John 10 He takes them out of the fold and puts them into the flock; a fold has its ^[p. 59] walls round for protection, but a flock is a question of the saints themselves — it is a movable thought, and it is the sheep character that is in mind. Well now, the sheep character here, as you will observe, is only one trait, but evidently one of the leading traits. In this chapter you have certain things spoken of in regard to the loved one. Verse 4 says she is beautiful and comely; Tirzah and Jerusalem are mentioned, alluding, doubtless, to some administrative position; and an army with banners, referring to military power, and then it says, “Turn away thine eyes from me, For they overcome me”, and “Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep Which go up from the washing”. These are selected features in this chapter; in the next chapter you have a great many more features. The Lord is reserving these, for, if they are attractive to you, He will give you others in the next chapter, beginning at this feature; for the Lord loves to go over and parade any little bit of beauty He sees in us, it is all a reflection of Himself, and particularly the sheep character. So here He speaks of the loved one’s teeth as like a flock of sheep — that is one part of the beauty of the beloved. It is a collective matter now, and what I am seeking to do is to attract anyone who is interested, but not yet attached, and to show how the Lord would attach you to Himself by giving you to understand how essential you are to what is before Him and how much you are needed, you are needed to add beauty to what He has before Him. You say, I never thought of that. But then, the Lord is the judge, and I would say to you here tonight, if you are not attached, not set up in relation to Christ and His people, you are denying Him His rights; He says, I need you, I need you because of the sheep character I want to present. “Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep Which go up from the washing”, that is, they submit to the washing, they do not rebel; that is where the difficulty lies very often, where ^[p. 60] saints get light, they do not submit to the washing. The laver stood in the court as you came into the divine system; there must be the washing — “If I wash thee not”, says Jesus, “thou hast no part with me”, John 13: 8. The Lord would say, I have you, but there must be the washing, the submission to the truth in its cleansing character; not only the blood of Christ, but the water that flowed from His side. They came up from the washing, they had been down there; I suppose that means it is a descent, like baptism. As we see with Philip and the eunuch, there needs to be a going down to the water; there is ascent from that. In chapter 4 we have the same language only it is added that they are shorn sheep; you say, there is not much difference, but there is as regards characteristics; it is like Jesus as a sheep dumb before His shearers. That is how Jesus was, He submitted to the shearers, that is taking up what particularly belongs to the sheep. Many hold themselves aloof in self-will, they will not submit to the requirements of the fellowship. The fellowship has requirements, the Lord has requirements, and shorn sheep, of course, are easier washed — that is, the idea is that you submit. The Lord gave His “back to the smiters”, too, it says, and His “cheeks to them that plucked off the hair” (Isaiah 50: 6), there is submission. That is a great point in christianity; one is of no value really in the attached state of things aside from submission. The church is said to be subjected to Christ, that is the mind of God, and practically it must be so, for naturally we have so many wills instead of only one will as in the assembly. Another thing that is mentioned here, and it is a very important thing, too, is that under these circumstances you have fruit-bearing. But the beautiful thought of the mystery, of the teeth as essential to beauty, is what the Lord stresses, but the word is added that they come up from the washing. That is, the Lord sees the ^[p. 61] company of the saints free from all defilement, and that is seen in the sheep coming up from the washing. Well, finally, in John we have, as I said before, the full thought of the sheep. John makes a great deal of persons. He tells us, for instance, about fishes, even an hundred and fifty and three great fishes (John 21: 11) — they are counted. There is no idea of the nets being broken, with him it is a question of the quality of the fish. And so here it is the quality of the sheep, they are the sheep viewed as particularly attractive to the Lord; and so John presents the truth I am speaking of in its finality. The link between the Lord and the sheep is most striking, as I have been showing, but here it is not that He has the characteristics of the sheep, but of the Shepherd. In Isaiah 53 He has the characteristics of the sheep; now it is those of the Shepherd so that the more you reach the thought I have in mind, the more you come into the sense of your value in the eyes of the Lord Jesus, and of the love that has gone to such lengths, the more you will be able to say, like the apostle Paul, the greatest of the sheep, as I might say, He “loved me, and gave himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. The Lord says, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep”. What a wonderful thing that is, that kind of knowledge, not ordinary knowledge but the kind of knowledge between the Father and the Son — it is according to that. The Lord says much here; it is a wonderful chapter from this point of view, the sheep, viewed with the characteristics of sheep, as seen in the divine mind from the outset, presented to Jesus now, taking form in those who believe — “my sheep”, He says. I “know my sheep” — how precious that is. I “know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father”, and He says, “I lay down my life for the sheep”, to finish the thought of their value in His eyes, the price He gave for them. And then, as going away, He takes His greatest servant then, Peter, and He says, You look after them — they are the ones; finally reaching his soul, as he strayed like a sheep, the Lord secures him, and He says, Peter, look after the sheep; feed the lambs, but shepherd the sheep and feed them, too. So that we are taken care of. We see how God has His eye on us and how He would allure us into the circle of the flock where divine love is and knowledge, reciprocal knowledge, such as exists between the Father and the Son.

May the Lord bless the word.