Shepherding

Luke's Gospel, chapter 15, please. Gospel of Luke, chapter 15. Then drew near unto him all the publicans and the sinners for to hear him, and the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, notice the accusation, This man receiveth sinners, and he is with them.

He spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety-nine, and go in in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, and till he find it. Now, for the sake of time, over to John's Gospel in chapter 9. John's Gospel in chapter 9. John chapter 9 and verse number 34. Now this is referring, of course, to the blind man.

They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out, or, as your margin will give it, excommunicated him. Jesus heard that they had cast him out when he had, please notice the expression, found him. When he had found him.

He said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? And he answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? Jesus said, Unto him thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him. And now, please, down to chapter 10.

Chapter 10. Verily, verily, I say unto you, verse 1. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. 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 putteth 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 they will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.

This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are, notice he does not say they were, he says they are, presently still the same, nothing has changed, thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

I am the door by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and destroy. I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, leaveth the sheep, fleeth, and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.

The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and am known of mine. Now over please just for the sake of context to verse number 20.

Verse 19, there was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings, and many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad. Why hear ye him? Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Now they are going back to what happened in chapter 9, because it is in the context of it, that we have the truth of the shepherd.

Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? I want to speak very simply this afternoon, and I trust briefly about the truth of shepherding sheep. Now, I've raised a few chickens in my day. I've never really had cattle on the farm, and naturally speaking, what I have learned about anything of shepherding of sheep, I have learned by people that really were shepherds that kept sheep.

Other than that, all I know is what this book teaches me, and what it teaches you. The shepherding of sheep. I trust that I'm speaking to people that understand that the shepherding of sheep cannot entirely be left to the overseers to do the work, nor is it expected just of them.

Having said that, men that take the lead and go before the flock as we speak of it, should be men that have shepherd qualities. It's very clearly taught to us in the Word of God. The Lord Jesus would say to his own on occasion that if they would follow me would make them fishers of men.

It's very interesting. He never said, I will make you shepherds of sheep for this reason. Shepherds are not born.

They are not made. They are raised up. That's what this book teaches.

I think it's very simple to see that when you come to John chapter 9, here's this blind man. I do not know anybody, brethren and sisters, in our Bible that was bombarded with more questions and more ridicule than this dear man, the blind man. He does not confess to more than he knew.

All he can say is, once I was blind and now I can see. However, when you come to the end of the chapter, it's very obvious this man is in desperate need of somebody. I mean, the Savior has opened his eyes.

You know who he needs? The one who the Lord Jesus presents himself as in chapter 10. He needs a shepherd. He needs a shepherd.

I'm sorry that I heard a man one time say, I would still call him a friend of mine. I'm not gonna tell you who it was. Of course, I've learned that from my brother-in-law.

You say these things, you just don't tell who they were. That kind of annoys me at times, but anyhow, I've got over it. I did hear a man say, you know, he said really, he said in our part of the country, he said shepherding is virtually nil to non-existent.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Here were all these young people. This is a conference likely of likely 500 or more people.

So I went to him after, that would surprise you, and said to him, wait a minute, how do you think that these people came to be even at a conference? Do you understand that you are listening to someone and have been listening to brethren at this conference that are the product of shepherding? For my part, I must say good shepherding, good shepherding. Sometimes the shepherds were shepherdesses, and they were sisters, and they sought my care, and they sought to shepherd me. Nevertheless, without going any further than that, I am today, for better or for worse, the product of good shepherding.

I was not always a good sheep, because we learned the value of a good sheep here. That's why when you come over into Luke's gospel chapter 15, he does not say what shepherd among you. It's very obvious they were shepherds likely that he was speaking to, but he says what man among you.

Now that's for a very important reason is men will lose sheep, not shepherds. Men will lose sheep, not shepherds. You give me, we used to keep chickens, and you know I'd go back and I could see the fox had been in and done a number, and I knew how many chickens had fallen to the fox.

I might have known how many I'd left, but I didn't know which ones died. Didn't know which ones I didn't have anymore. I just had to give the tally to my father and say, we don't have a hundred anymore, if I can use that number.

We got somewhere around 92. Not the shepherd. I look at a field of sheep not far from where I live, and all I see is a lot of wool, and sometimes not the best, and dirty, and maybe an unkempt.

I just see, I just see animals, not the shepherd. He sees sheep. You see the teaching of the Lord Jesus in Luke's Gospel chapter 15 is the only one that would ever given that animal a second look had to be a shepherd.

Anybody else would say, excuse me, I don't want to sound crude, put it out of its misery. Not worth taking home. No, the sheep that he found in Luke's Gospel chapter 15 isn't the one in the front of your Sunday school paper.

Nothing against Sunday school papers, but you know that cuddly wool-filled little animal has just lost its way. It was so destitute. Almost undescribable its condition.

And only a shepherd could find that sheep. I want to think of the maturing of shepherds. The Lord Jesus does say this, what man of you, okay? It isn't just a challenge to anybody.

If you're going to shepherd sheep, can I speak to, you say, well, I'm just a teenager. Oh? Is there nobody that needs your care? Do you know what you have to do? You have to show maturity. Maturity.

That's why he says, what man of you, if he lose one sheep. I want to notice very quickly the making of a shepherd, okay? The man, he doesn't start out as a shepherd. He's just a man.

But in following the Lord, that man will become a shepherd. And he knows the value of the chief shepherd. He has learned it.

Now, brethren, today, those that seek to shepherd amongst God's people, please, seek out others that you think could possibly do that work and help you in that work. Don't wait till they're, you know, sometimes we get the idea they've got to be in their 50s before they can do anything like this. Encourage them in it.

Encourage them in it. They will be marked by maturity. The marks of a shepherd.

The marks of the shepherd, Luke chapter 15, notice what it says. He receiveth. He receiveth, and he says, he eateth with them.

You know, that is the word decame. That's that's the informal word. That's the people here.

He will bring them into his house. He will be with them. He will seek their needs.

These are marks of a shepherd and a shepherd will have these marks according to the teaching of the word of God that will fit for the work that he is doing. Now, you'll notice that the shepherd that he is talking about in Luke chapter 15 is different than the shepherd that he speaks about in John chapter nine. If I could say this in John chapter nine, here is a man that has already been reached by the gospel, so to speak.

OK, he's the lost sheep of Luke chapter 15. My point is this shepherds that have an interest on those that are within also have an interest on those that are without. OK.

In other words, those that are not saved, that have never truly become sheep, they are lost sheep. It's interesting that we are like an undeficient, unconverted days. But that symbolism, if I can use that, fades after we become saved.

But it's interesting that we are sheep. That have gone astray, we are termed as sheep that are lost before we are saved. And we're still called sheep after we are saved.

So it's very significant. Because we need that shepherd. And so the marks of a shepherd, if I can say that the shepherd has an interest on those that are without, and then he will have an interest on those that are in here.

The ministering of the shepherd. Now, what do I mean when I'm ministering of the shepherd? Well, maybe the caring for sheep is a little like the sign I saw in a dentist office one time. Here's what I said, ignore them and they'll eventually all go away.

Wish it doesn't happen amongst us all. Do you mean to tell me today that there's never been anybody in your assembly that you were, I won't say praying, I will not be that hard, but you hope they were getting a transfer, OK? Because really, somehow, somewhere, no matter what you tried to do, no matter how you tried to help them, it seemed so fruitless. You always came up empty and it grieved you and this and that.

But at the same time, there was a development going on in that process that was necessary for your development to shepherd sheep. I know nothing about it. I never was an overseer in assembly.

I never had that responsible job. I am not sure that I would be up for the task, even though I believe that the qualifications for a shepherd should also be seen in an evangelist. Some of what our brethren have to put up with, some of what they have to take, brethren, I think is at times where we just exceed what I think is the threshold of what I can accept or take.

Put it simply, sometimes they have to take a lot of guff. Sometimes the hardest to put up is not necessarily the sheep that they're or the ones are trying to look after. It's it's mom that's waiting outside to talk to them and say, and what are you saying to my boy? You asked him where he was last night.

I think there are men here today and brethren and sisters that understand what I am talking about. He knew their names. He knew their needs.

He knew their nature because he has the same within. So these are all things that are involved in the ministering of the shepherd. It's interesting that when the shepherd, if I'd have found the sheep of Luke, chapter 15, I'd say, what do I do now? Where do I go here? Not the shepherd had notice.

You know, he doesn't say, oh, here I go again. I'm tired of this thing. This thing wouldn't stay home.

And, you know, he drags it back home. Not at all. No, he doesn't.

It's with joy. He stoops down and he picks up that sheep and he puts it on his shoulders with joy. We have.

Brethren. Amongst us that are that way. No, I'm not saying because his son is sitting in this audience and is a good friend of mine and a partner to.

Scott's father, Doug MacLeod, is a true shepherd. He does his work with joy. I know nobody else that spends more time, even when he was employed with the water department in the city of Charlottetown that ministers like a shepherd than Doug MacLeod.

Now, before I said that, before I said that, I heard Albert Ramsey say the same thing off a platform. And I didn't hardly know who Doug MacLeod was, but I've come to know him. Anyone to the Bible says whose faith following follow.

So there is not only the maturing of the shepherd. There's not only the making of the shepherd, the marks of the shepherd, the ministering of the shepherd. But, you know, there can be the misunderstanding of the shepherd.

Sometimes shepherds in their work are are misunderstood. You see, if I seek to take sheep, if a shepherd seeks to take sheep. And goes before them.

Rather, and is driving them, you know what he's trying to do? He's trying to take them to a level that he hasn't been to himself. That's why Moses was so fitted for that particular work. Notice Joseph.

Joseph knew where to take those brethren. They were lost. What's he say? He says, take these men home.

Where was home, Joseph? That's where Joseph was. That's what we've been hearing about from Mr. McCullough this afternoon. Ultimately, the great shepherd of the sheep is taking us home.

So the truth is, when a shepherd is driving the sheep, he is trying to take them to a level that he has not been himself. He's now a herdsman. He's not a shepherd.

I really think, I don't want to sound too comical, but I think I would do better at herding goats and shepherding sheep. There's something in me that I'd like to grab those goats, you know? And I don't want to be like Mr. Herb Harris said one time, he told him a little, he got up a conference, a big conference, and he told him a little maid that was in the U.S. Army, and she worked for the general, and she was kept pestering him and said, listen, I want us to join the, I want us to join the army. Oh, he says, okay.

He says, but look, she says, when are you going to be a job in the army? Finally came home one day, the general, he said, got your job. Where am I going? You're going to the Bethesda Medical Center. Oh, she says, what's I'm going to do there? He says, you're going to nurse somebody.

She says, nurse somebody? I don't want to nurse somebody, I want to kill somebody. Quite a difference, I would say, brother. Misunderstanding of sheep.

You know, you look at, Lee, but it's interesting that, it's interesting that when it comes to shepherding, Jacob's name is linked more with shepherding than Israel's name is. Do you ever wonder why? Because the men that seek to shepherd understand they're not perfect men. Okay.

They will be the first to admit to you, they're only doing what God has really laid upon them, and they're just trying to do their best. He's showing you go through that, that story there. And, uh, Jacob says to Lee, listen, he says, these 20 years I've been with thee, thy ewes, and he says, and the goats have not, have cast their young and the rams and the flock.

He says, I haven't eaten them. He says, what are you looking at my direction for? They were torn of the beast. He says, he said, I brought it not unto thee.

He says, in fact, I bear the loss of it. At my hand thou didst require it, whether it was stolen by day or stolen by night. It was a man that understood that to do shepherd work, you are accountable.

And that's what we're hearing already that one must give account. But now we come to this blind man. Let me give you something.

And, uh, I am conscious of the time to show you the progression. Stay with me now, the progression of the truth of a shepherd and shepherding in our new Testament. When you come to the gospel of Matthew, you'll notice that the gospel of Matthew, the shepherd and Matthew is sent.

He is sent. When you come to the shepherd and Mark, he is serving. Notice the mention of his hands.

When you come to Luke's gospel, of course, it's very obvious. The, the shepherd there is seeking when you come to the shepherd and John's gospel, the shepherd here is not sent. He's not serving.

He's not seeking the shepherd and John's gospel is slaying the shepherd actually gives his life for the sheep. That's exactly what qualified him. It's interesting that sheep are mentioned 12 times in the gospel of Matthew 12 times, only mentioned twice in Matthew or rather in Mark and in Luke 12 times in Matthew, twice in Mark and Luke, how many times in John's gospel, 22 times, 22 times, so mentioned more in John's gospel than the rest of the gospels that are put together.

John chapter 10, there's those that were claiming to be shepherds and he speaks on three kinds in their attempt. He speaks about false shepherds. He speaks about the fearful shepherd, and then he will speak about the faithful shepherd.

What were the false shepherds? What was a false shepherd marked by? He tells you false shepherds. They're climbing up. They're climbing up.

They want position. They want recognition in a work that God has never fitted them for, but nevertheless, they're seeking that. Understand brethren, and I haven't just said this in this platform, I hope I can say that in any platform.

Salvation doesn't run in the bloodline. Sin does. Shepherding does not run in the bloodline because my father was a shepherd doesn't mean I am.

There's no passing of the baton. Now that doesn't mean a man that's a overseer, a shepherd in the assembly, that his son can't be one. Okay.

But there's no such thing as just, well, I, I passed the baton on to him because, uh, you know, they know he's my son. Oh, you say that doesn't happen. I beg to differ.

I beg to differ. False shepherds, those that are trying to climb up. The first thing we learn about the true shepherd is that he doesn't climb up.

He's not seeking his own, not seeking possession. So you'd say the false shepherd, he's fleecing the sheep. Isn't that the prophecy of Ezekiel? That's what they were doing.

They were fleecing the sheep. Then he comes and he speaks about the fearful shepherd. Now the fearful shepherd isn't climbing up.

You know what he's doing? He's taking off, taking off. He's not fleecing the sheep. He's fleeing the sheep.

Just about the time you think when you've heard everything and seen everything, you hear something different, you see something different. I was very sorry to hear not that long ago when I asked concerning a certain brother, they say, listen, Murray, he, you have to understand he just can't take it. As soon as he sees something like this coming, he's gone.

He's off. He just can't handle it. Oh, no, he doesn't want to get his nose rung.

Brethren, a shepherd bears marks. I know that I'm taking it over to context. You understand it for what I'm saying it.

You smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. You attack your shepherds and that flock will be driven apart. It will happen instantaneously.

You'd be careful of what you say about those that God has raised up as shepherds. It's not always going to be popular brethren. Now this worked too.

Now he's going to be every, not everybody's always going to appreciate you because not everybody's going to always understand you, but you've got to do what the apostle Paul said. And that is that he had to have a conscience that was void of offense. So the fearful shepherd, he's the hireling, he's fleeing the sheep.

One is a shepherd in heart and the other is a shepherd for hire. It's a job. It's just a job.

But when push comes to shove, you look around and he's not there. That's why we have a multiplicity of overseers. That's why we have a multiplicity in shepherds.

Your safety brethren is in numbers. And that's why you seek to bring others in and those brethren make a decision. It's not that, uh, you make the decision, then go back and tell the brethren, what decision you have made.

You make sure, even though it may not be convenient, even though it may require contact, you keep your brethren together in doing that work. Because when a difficult time comes, the shepherds need to stand, not to take off. So what does it say concerning the hireling? He seeth, he leaveth, he feareth.

Vigellus, that was a man. He lived up to his name. He's one who ran away.

David, David, only a few minutes. It only took him a few minutes to dispose of a Goliath or someone trying to intrude into that camp. But I suggest to you that not the military might of a man, David came forth, but the qualifications of a shepherd began to shine.

What does he mention? The bear, the lion. What's he doing with them? Oh, playing with them, hunting big game. No, he's preserving that flag.

And if he could preserve them from that, he could preserve them. This big boy that's coming down over the hill today. He's not taking off.

That's what Saul's brothers or David's brothers were doing. You know, they're standing there trembling. David says, what's all this about? They're talking about a battle.

What battle? There's no battle takes place till David gets there. What's David do? He recognizes God, brings the Lord into it, and he can stand in full face of whatever's got to come down that, I was going to say, whatever has to come down that pipe, what's the apostle write to the Philippians chapter two, all seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ. Sometimes we want to seek our own refuge, our own protection.

And, uh, that's not what the Lord Jesus did. So we have the false shepherds climbing up, fleecing the sheep. You've got the fearful shepherd taking off, fleeing the sheep.

Let me just close in the minutes that I have got left just a few and talk to you about the faithful shepherd. The faithful shepherd isn't climbing up and he isn't taking off, but he's coming in. Where's he coming in? He's coming into the sheep fold.

What's he coming in for? To fleece the sheep, to flee the sheep? Hardly. He is coming in there to feed the sheep. That's why verse number 10 says he shall go in and out and find pasture approaching the fold.

He did so by a legitimate way. He entered the door. He was not like the false shepherds that come before him.

And notice, as I pointed out in the reading, he says they are, see, Judaism was a system of ordinances on earth by which God separated people, a nation unto himself, and it was done by a wall, if you like, a circumference. But what the Lord Jesus is teaching about his own, that they will not be held together by an outer wall as there was in the sheep fold, but by a center to which those sheep were drawn. And he says, the door to that, he says, I am the door by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.

The separation of the flock was by a divine life that was within. Um, it marked them so differently. The fold was separated, as I say, by a wall, his own flock were separated by a will, those sheep knew him, they knew his voice and they would come at his call.

A number of years ago in the city of Toronto, Yonge street North, there was a Royal bank robbed, those men that had robbed that bank of all kinds of money, herded the tellers and the people in the bank into a vault and they, they locked themselves in there. And, um, when the security, the Toronto police department came along and they tapped on the door and they said, uh, this is the police department. You can, you can open up and let us in.

No move. Handle never moved. They said, it's the Toronto police department.

It's safe. Everything's under control. You can open the door.

Nothing moved. Do you know who finally came was their manager, a man they trusted. He leaned over.

He didn't say it's the police department. He did not say I'm here to represent the Royal bank. He started calling some of those that were in that vault by name.

He said, would you please open the door? Door opened. What made the difference? The man on the outside knew the names of those that were in the inside. Nobody lost their life.

What a difference to our shepherd that has given his life for the sheep. So the man at the end of this great controversy, and that's, that's why it carries into chapter 10. There's still, there's still a blind man is in the context of the shepherd.

And they're saying, well, can a man that is a devil cast out or give a man his sight, heal this blind man, she, what is she, what really is happening. But the one that has saved us is the one that shepherds us and the Lord Jesus will build that truth on a man that had been cast out. Maybe not so much.

I sure does. You know what new work is like. Um, I've been involved in lots of other men here that labor in the gospel with what we call first generation Christians, first generation Christians, their family of cut them off and cut them out, cut them out of the will.

And I'm talking to some big wills where we have a lovely couple just received Dieter Natalie Rubling into the assembly in Sussex, their daughter and her husband came to the baptism. They were very, very close together. Very close.

Dieter loves Heidi still does. Heidi has made it very plain that she did not come to the baptism to see them baptized. She simply just came and she says, I was not crying because I was so glad for you.

I was crying because I was so mad. We had another couple in Sussex. Just let me tell you this for the encouragement of any that seek to do this work, we had a baptism.

I haven't time to tell you the whole of the story. These two sisters, one in Charlottetown where the McLeods come from, one of our, in our assembly, their cousin, the girl's mother and her grandmother came to me after and they said, we did not come to see this baptism or encourage our daughter. I hope you understand that they were indignant.

You could see almost the fire in their eyes. You know what they said? We came to see if you had the nerve to baptize them in our face. What did they need from that day on? Why are those sisters married in the assembly and have children in the assembly? What did they need from that day on? You know who they needed? A shepherd.