What a joy to be with you once again. My wife and I were trying to count the number of years. We think it's four years since we were with you. Seems like yesterday in some ways and it seems like eternity in others. Much can happen in four years. When we were here last, we had our little granddaughter with us. She was three years old at the time. She's going to be eight pretty soon. That's making me feel older. Since that time, our daughter has been saved and come back to know the Lord in a wonderful way, and our granddaughter is back with her mom, who is married to find Christian man and living for the Lord. And Judy's going to share that story with the ladies on Tuesday. When I came here last, I was a professor at Columbia Bible College, Director of Educational Administration. Just want to update you a little bit on where we've been in four years. And I resigned that position and did a crazy thing, really crazy, unless you understand that we were hit over the head by the Lord with a two-by-four and made to do this. And I ran for state superintendent of education in South Carolina against the incumbent and lost by eleven hundred votes statewide. But because of that, we received an appointment from the South Carolina legislature to direct the Joint Legislative Committee on Children and Families and had an opportunity to direct the research rewriting the entire children's code for the state of South Carolina. While the legislature undid that committee, as they did all joint committees, and I have now received an appointment as associate superintendent of schools for the school district of Greenville County, South Carolina, and the number of Christians got elected to that board and made that possible. They all got voted off the board in November and left me hanging high and dry. But again, we know who raises and who deposes those who are in authority. We're being given a number of opportunities right now. Had an opportunity to give the invocation at the state education office professionals banquet. My wife wrote a song for that because my secretary was named president of that state organization. Now it's interesting when you're a Christian and you're in the secular world, they don't like the name of Jesus. And so when they ask you to pray, they usually say, and there's some non-Christians here, would you refrain from praying in the name of Jesus? I find that very interesting. So I like to accommodate them. And so I pray in the name of him who is wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. It's amazing. They never get it. They think I'm doing a good job in obeying their request. This last time I was able to pray in the name of Him who came to be a servant and whom we acknowledge as Lord of all. And they thought I was doing real good by not praying in the name of Jesus. Well, over the last number of years, the Lord has given me a burden for the fallen, for those who have fallen away from the Lord and need to be restored. psalm twenty three is a wonderful psalm is it not what a glorious psalm the lord is my shepherd and literally it's i'm no longer missing i don't think you can understand psalm twenty three unless you understand some new testament commentary on the psalm and i want you to turn in your bibles this morning with me to two portions in the new testament first of all john chapter ten A little bit later we're going to look at Luke chapter fifteen. Then we're going to go back to this glorious Psalm twenty three and we should understand it a little bit better because we've been in John ten and Luke fifteen. John chapter ten and let's begin our reading with verse eleven. Words of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is a hireling and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep or not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveeth the sheep and fleeeth. And the wolf catches them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeeth, because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. Back to verse two, he that entereth in by the 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 puteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. Now turn with me over to Luke chapter fifteen. Luke chapter fifteen, a very familiar portion of scripture. In fact, all the scripture we're going to be reading this morning is very familiar, but so important. Perhaps that's why it's so familiar that the Lord's people throughout the years have recognized how important these verses are. Luke chapter fifteen beginning with verse three and he that is Jesus spake this parable unto them saying what men of you having a hundred sheep if he lose one of them does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it and when he hath found it he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing when he cometh home He calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. And now to Psalm twenty-three. As I was pondering this Psalm in preparation for this time this morning, I was thinking of when I was a boy in school. Back in those days you could read the Word of God in school. In fact, in New Jersey where I was raised, it was by law required that a portion of Scripture would be read every morning. And so often I heard Psalm twenty-three read in school. Today you cannot read. read devotionally the Word of God in public schools. You cannot pray devotionally in public schools. You cannot post a copy of the Ten Commandments in public schools. I was reading when I was a professor the court ruling that came down that said you cannot post the Ten Commandments. And the logic of the court was incredible. The United States Supreme Court said, if you post a copy of the Ten Commandments, children might read them. It says that in the case. And then it says, if they read them, they might believe them. And then it's, this is incredible. If they read them and believe them, they might act upon them. And therefore, the posting of the Ten Commandments would be designed to have the influence of affecting one's religious belief, and we can't allow our schools to do that. Can you imagine what would happen in America if children began reading, believing, and acting upon the Ten Commandments? Can you imagine all the lawyers that would put out of business? Can you imagine all the police officers that would be out of work? It's incredible where we've come. But we know him who sits on the throne of heaven, don't we? And one day he who sits in the heavens will have them in derision. One day faith will give way to sight. Those of us who know him, the good shepherd, will find ourselves with him in heaven itself. Psalm twenty-three, 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 restores my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake. 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. May we look to the Lord in a word of prayer. Father, what a joy to be with your people this morning. What a privilege to be here and have in our hands copies of your precious, your holy, Your inerrant word. We thank you this morning for the Holy Spirit who delights to take from thee and give to us. We ask as we ponder these passages that we've read, as we discuss them, that your Holy Spirit would encourage us, enlighten us, convict us if necessary. Father, may the end result of our being together here this morning be the honor and the glory of the one who is the shepherd himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. And with joy we pray in his name. Amen. One of the greatest studies, I think, in all of the Bible is to study twenty-two, twenty-three and twenty-four of the Psalms together. Psalm twenty-two. What a wonderful, wonderful Psalm As those of us who gathered earlier at the remembrance meeting were looking at just briefly, this is a psalm that takes you onto the cross itself. Whereas in the New Testament, you have four accounts of the cross given from a bystander's point of view, obviously inspired by the Holy Spirit. When you come to Psalm twenty-two, you are looking at the scene of the cross from the vantage point of the one who's hanging there on that cross. What an amazing portion. What man cannot see as he stands looking up at the cross. We begin to see in Psalm twenty-two as we identify with Christ upon that cross. We begin to see what he saw, what he thought as he hung there. The scene in Psalm twenty-two is Mount Calvary. It's the shepherd dying for the sheep. When you come to Psalm twenty-four, there's another mountain. Now you're on Mount Zion. Psalm twenty-four, it's the risen, exalted Savior whose rapture bringing forth all of his sheep, bringing them into that final resting place. And in between these two Psalms, psalm twenty three a valley a valley between two great mountain peaks it's the valley that you and I are called to walk we were looking at that marvelous portion in Luke fifteen the parable asking the question which of you if you had a hundred sheep and one went astray would not leave the ninety-nine and go after the sheep that had gone astray. Every time I read that, I think of that wonderful Isaiah fifty-three. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to his own way. So there's not one of us that can't identify in some measure with being a lost sheep. But I don't think Psalm, at least Isaiah, excuse me, I'll get it. See, it's catching up here. I love that new version, brother, of that hymn. You said, where be, what be, whatever it says here. I don't think when the Lord was talking about the sheep that had gone astray, he was necessarily talking exclusively about the lost. In fact, I think the opposite is true. I think he's talking about one of his sheep who has gone astray. And there's many of us who can identify either as having been lost sheep or have prodigal children, perhaps, or grandchildren who could be considered as lost sheep, the one who has gone astray. Marvelous, isn't it? To know there is a shepherd. who's different from the hireling of John chapter ten. The hireling, when trouble comes, what does he do? He takes off because he's a hireling and not the shepherd. But the good shepherd, he loves the sheep. He loves all of the sheep. He doesn't just love brethren sheep. Some of you might find it strange. He loves Presbyterian sheep. Someone said PBs are only Presbyterian backsliders. He loves all his sheep. He loves those who are in the fold he likes. He loves those who have gone astray. In fact, he loves the wandering sheep so much that he's willing to leave and go after them. What a lesson for us. So often the Lord's people, when someone goes astray, say, Good riddance. I always doubted him anyway, not the shepherd and not the biblical unshepard who cares for the sheep. I love the way Psalm twenty-three opens. Here's the lost sheep. You see, if Psalm twenty-two is the Savior on the cross and the New Testament gives four accounts of those looking at him on the cross, psalm twenty three is written from the vantage point of the one who had gone astray it's from the lost sheep's perspective just as in the New Testament we see the good shepherd going after the lost sheep here in psalm twenty three we're with the lost sheep who's now found this is a wonderful psalm you see this lost sheep has been out there and he's he's not only lost but he's hungry He's afraid. He's confused. Might be a she. I'm using he in the generic sense. We have to be politically correct, you know. But the lost sheep is in big time trouble. And yet in all of his trouble, he hears the voice of the shepherd. I love this. He hears the shepherd calling. And he bleats out in the shepherd hears his bleat. And he comes to the lost sheep. And these are the opening words. The Lord is my shepherd. And although the sheep has been lost, he realizes afresh that his shepherd is not a hireling, but the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep, who does what it takes to bring the lost sheep. back to himself. I shall not want. I think the King James, and I'm reading from it this morning, I'm very orthodox this morning, I'm reading from the old Schofield reference Bible, but I think the translation is better. I am no longer missing. No longer missing. I'm found. I'm found. Oh, isn't it wonderful to be restored? That's not to infer you ought to go away every now and then to experience the joy of being restored. But it's wonderful to be restored. What does the shepherd do when he finds the lost sheep? He makes me to lie down in green pastures. I think what we have here is a model for those who would have the heart of Christ in relationship to prodigals. What do you do? How do you restore someone who has gone astray? Number one, you look for them. You go after them. You don't let them stay out there and wonder in their lostness. Two years ago, my absolute best friend absolute best friend, used to say, I have no man on this earth more like-minded who I love as a man in Christ than this man. Went absolute AWOL spiritually. And I cashed in everything I could, bought a ticket, and flew across the country to try to restore my brother to the Lord. What do you do when someone goes astray? You get on your knees and you pray to God and you say, God, what can I do? And then you go to your brother. Look at the example of the good shepherd. He makes the sheep lie down in green pastures. You bring them into the word of God. I believe with all my heart the green pastures are the wonderful, wonderful, blessed truths of the Word of God. You get them into the Word. Then he says, He leadeth me beside the still waters, quiet waters. Some have suggested he's referring to prayer at this point. You quiet them before God. you're found. Get into word. Get into prayer. He restores my soul. You see, this sheep is confused. A number of years ago, when our daughter was so far away from the Lord, we were struggling with that ourselves. I sat down with the son of one of my colleagues at Columbia Bible College a man who was a Christian counselor and I said, what kind of advice can you give me? What kind of advice can you give my daughter? And he talked about what he called stinky thinking. You have to replace stinky thinking with biblical thinking. Isn't that good? You see, when a person goes astray, He's not acting upon the truths of the Word of God, not acting biblically. Somewhere along the line, the person who goes astray has gotten his thinking wrong. Listen to Isaiah fifty-three again. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to his own way. I love what it says in another portion of Scripture. It is not in man who walketh to direct his steps. And whenever a man begins to take control of his own life, and that's one of the problems in our society today, people are being taught that they can direct their own lives. You don't need God. You need to be self-actualized. You need to be free. Realizing that the kind of freedom that modern man promises is bondage itself. We have generations now of people going through educational systems where God is excluded, and the Word of God is excluded, and the thoughts of man are put forth as being the wisdom of our age and our generation. And we wonder why people have problems. We were talking at the breakfast table about some of these things. And I mentioned that we're going to have more and more people with more and more problems as we get closer to the return of the Lord. Because as a nation, as a culture, as a society, we're moving further and further away from the truth. Further and further away from the Word of God. And when people go astray, understand they are in a confused state of mind. because they haven't been thinking biblically. And that's why when the shepherd finds the lost sheep, what does he do? He brings them into the Word of God. He brings them back into communion with God. He restores my soul. He gets me thinking biblically again. And when you think biblically, it's amazing how the clouds depart. The confusion leaves you. We begin to understand truly what it's all about. Don't want to get ahead of my wife from Tuesday, but our daughter, when she was further away from God, ended up one Sunday morning here in Florida in a church. To this day, doesn't know how she got there. Found herself on a Sunday morning waking up in an eleven o'clock service in an assembly of God church. And she doesn't remember the message, but two young ladies about her age came up to her and said, you look terrible. Now I've been a big critic of many of our assemblies, how we receive unsaved people and visitors. But I don't suggest that you go up to a visitor and say, boy, you look terrible. I don't think too many folks would want to come back with that kind of a welcome. But she did look terrible. And after saying, well, thank you very much, they said, no, please understand, you look like we looked a year ago. Something's wrong in your life. Can we talk to you about, will you come home and have dinner with us? What an example. What an example. And they started witnessing to our daughter. And our daughter said, you don't understand. I went to Columbia Bible College. My father's a preacher. I was raised in a Christian home. I know all about the gospel. And these girls said, then why are you living the way you're living? My daughter didn't have an answer to that question. She went home and as she tells it, she went into a pigsty, her apartment. And it made her sick. You see, it's amazing how stinky thinking leads to stinky living. And she said it disgusted her and she spent until three o'clock in the morning cleaning and washing and scrubbing. And she slept, she said, she got into the bed on clean sheets for the first time in months. It was little Bethany's mother. And she took her Bible and she started reading her Bible. And as she read and fed, she realized, I do believe. I really do believe. And she confessed that she was a lost sinner and that she did believe that Jesus died for her. And she said, I want you to be the Lord of my life. And I'll never forget the phone call that night. Daddy, crying, I'm saved. I'm really saved. Oh, what a joy that went on in heaven. How do I know that? We read it this morning about the joy in heaven over one sinner that comes to repentance. My daughter has grown for the last four years. My, she was at Elysia Springs last summer, and she got up and she sang one of my wife's newest songs that goes like this. Goodbye to the world. Goodbye to the sin I used to call pleasure. Goodbye to the world. Goodbye to the trinkets I used to call treasure. Since I found the Lord, I have a new or different standard to measure. And she sang that song with tears coming down her face. And I went up to her and I hugged her and I said, I now have the daughter I always wanted. And my friends, if you or one of yours is a lost sheep, The Lord Jesus, as the good shepherd, wants to put his arms around the lost shepherd, a lost sheep. The good shepherd wants to quiet the sheep who's gone astray. He wants to put that one down in the green pasture along the still waters and restore their soul, change their way of thinking. But now watch this. Having done all of that, the good shepherd, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Oh my, can you grab a hold of what's going on? The lost sheep is found, restored, and now the shepherd takes this formerly lost now found sheep and puts them on the paths of righteousness. Turn the sheep around from going this way to go this way for his namesake. Isn't that precious? Didn't hear one amen. Thank you. Precious. Notice it's plural on the paths of righteousness. for his name sake. Notice he's not simply saying, well, sheep, I've got you ready. Go to it. He doesn't point out the way of righteousness and say, go to it. It says, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness. That's precious. He doesn't send me. He takes me. He's with me. He leads me. He's my guide. And of course, we've read the whole psalm. And so we know where the paths of righteousness are leading. The house of the Lord. Forever. But I like this psalm because it tells the way it really is. No idealism here. This is reality. The paths of righteousness lead through. The valley of the shadow of death. And again, they tell me, the Greeks and the Hebrews and those people who spend a lot of time studying languages, that the emphasis here is not necessarily the valley of the shadow of death. It's the darkest valley, which many of us often equate with death. I want to suggest that there are valleys worse than death. I think I would have welcomed death at different times in my life through some of the valleys that I've been called to walk on the paths of righteousness. Death would have been a welcomed relief to be absent from this body And all of the trials that I was called to go through at different times would have been a release. And I've often said, I think at times it's easier to die for Christ than it is to live for Christ. Living in this world. But listen to the sheep. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. It's one thing to have to walk through the valley alone. Something else to walk with the shepherd. I grew up on the wrong side of town in Kingfield, New Jersey. The wrong side of the tracks. And many times coming home as a, or I guess around supper time, my mother would send me up to the corner store to get something, to the delicatessen. for maybe a late supper. And it would get dark as I would be walking back from Clinton Avenue to the backside of Palmier's bowling alley. I say that. I know that some people know where that is or was. Haven't been up there in a long time. And I can remember the cold chills going up my back as I would hear footsteps behind me and not know who that was and walk a little bit faster and hear those footsteps a little bit faster knowing that it wasn't a really good neighborhood. I can remember at times walking down Johanna's place alone, scared to death, having a cat make a loud noise and jump probably high enough that if they could have measured it, I would have set a world record. But I can also remember walking the same route with my father and not fearing any evil, not fearing any villain who might be out there or any obstacle that might come across my path. Because as a child, I knew my father could deal with any difficulty that came across my path. Whether he could or not, it's another question. But as a child, I believe that. My heavenly father. is greater than my earthly father. And as a sheep, my shepherd is the good shepherd, who happens to be the omnipotent, omniscient son of God. Do you understand why the sheep says, I will fear no evil. Why? For thou art with me. Thou art with me. Oh, I. When we consider who he is, This morning we looked a little bit in Colossians chapter one. We saw he's the one who created all things and for whom all things were created. I never ceased to marvel at the opening chapter in the Bible. Genesis chapter one, telling us of his great creative power. And I stopped when it says, and he made the stars also as if that were nothing. I'm not a scientist. I can't tell you how many stars there are. I know there are bunches of them. I love to stand out on a summer night up in the mountains of Virginia and look up and see all the multitude of the stars and contemplate how big they are. And he made the stars awesome. He walks through the valley of the shadow of death with me. He's not only there, but his rod and his staff. Comfort me. Along the way, he prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemy. I looked that up a number of years ago. David was obviously referring to a very common practice of that day when a general of some sort would win a great victory, defeat his enemy. They would chain the other generals, the opposing, you know, army heads to poles. And then in front of these defeated foes, they would throw a big party. And they would rejoice and make the defeated enemy. Watch them celebrate. My friends, the Good Shepherd went to the cross in Psalm twenty-two. And he defeated death. He defeated the devil. He defeated the demons of hell. And He makes, prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies. He anoints my head with oil, my cup, run it over. Doesn't get any better than this. Remember, as a young man working for Pinella's masonry, working my way through college, one of the carpenters had a big sailboat, and he invited me to go out sailing in the ocean. And we're laying out there on the deck with this crew handling all the details, and he looked at me and said, I wonder what the poor people are doing. And to him, it didn't get any better than that. Well, my friends, my good shepherd has given me things and given me joy. that so far exceed laying on a deck of a sailboat in the Atlantic Ocean that there's no comparison. Where will it end? Well, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. My dad's in the glory now. The last time I was with him, he hadn't spoke a coherent sentence in months. And I sat in front of him with a little flock hymn book and sang breaking of bread hymns and read the scripture and prayed. And in twenty minutes my father was singing those old breaking of bread hymns with me. And he looked up at me with Alzheimer's disease, tears coming down his face and said, all of this and heaven too. All of this. And I thought, all of this, Alzheimer's, in a nursing home. But his thoughts inwardly were upon the one who redeemed him on the cross of Calvary. And his thoughts were, I'm going to be with him. Let me ask you this question. Who's your shepherd? Is he a hireling? Who's leading your life? Is it the good shepherd? I hope so. If not, if you're here, if anybody could be in this audience and not be one of his sheep, you say, well, maybe I'm his sheep, maybe I'm not his sheep. Well, we read in John chapter ten, did we not? My sheep, hear my voice, and they follow me. Are you following him? Are you on the paths of righteousness? Are you on your own path? That's the question of the day. The good shepherd, The good shepherd wants to bring you into his house forever. May it be so for his name's sake. Our time is gone. My wife has already indicated to me this, and that's the final warning. So let's pray. Father, we thank you and praise you.