“GODLESS LIVES, SHEPHERDLESS SHEEP, OR GUARDED, GUIDED, GIRDED, AND GRACED BY THE TRUE SHEPHERD?”
By: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 12-13, 2017
Very interesting Verses in Titus 1:15-16 which says: “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they DENY HIM, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”
Would you be bold enough to say that behavior, aligning with the Holy Word or not, ‘fleshly works’ or Spirit-anointed servants, are easily identifiable by the “fruit” their walk produces? In Matthew 7:15-20 the Lord Jesus said: (Be assured as you read this passage that “false prophets” are representative of “sheep-professing godless lives”!),
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in ‘sheep’s clothing’, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn-bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
Oh, and then in Matthew 7:21, the Lord Jesus really exposes the, yes, visible difference between ‘shepherdless sheep’ and the ‘sheep’ birthed by the True Shepherd! Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER IN HEAVEN!”
Godless lives and shepherdless sheep are confronted by their own consciences, the call of God to repentance and faith and they shut their ears, minds, and wills to God’s invitation and sacrificial provision, embracing their own ‘respectable goodness’ without any need of God’s “blood redemption”, and insisting that there is no need of being ‘sorry’ before Holy God, because they’ve done nothing to offend “your merciful God; so leave us unbelievers alone”!
Have you ever heard an ‘unbeliever’ say, “I have no desire for Jesus’ broken bread and poured out wine – my pious superiority and intellectual genius blocks out your Savior’s request of me – you and He don’t know who I am!” If the Lord Jesus says, “Trust in the Lord and His finished work at the Cross and the empty tomb and His present reign at the right hand of God as God sits on His throne,” what does the unbeliever say? “I’m OK – you’re OK; stand up for who you are and for what you do in the best effort of human flesh?”
Godless lives, shepherdless sheep, wandering unbelievers, will and do argue with God and His messengers, because they are bound to self-will, bound to self-pleasure, bound to their own ‘lordship’ with no desire to hear what Holy God DEMANDS! In fact, in 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul wrote: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned;” which reminds us of why early in His ministry the Lord Jesus in John 3:3 said to Nicodemus, “a religious leader of Judaism”, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” followed by Verses 5-6, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Is that the natural man ‘born of human flesh’, inheriting the spirit of the natural man, which is “I do as I please without any consideration of the God who made me, lost me, bought me with a price, but in my best mind I discern there was no reason for Christ Jesus to include me on the Cross because I’m a good man”? Yet the Holy Word declares, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” which tells me Almighty God wanted men in their free wills choosing, desiring, longing to be the man He desired for His fullness not their fleshly emptiness, His blessing not their sin-nature curse, His gift of everlasting life through the “Good News” of the Everlasting, Unending, Seeking Gospel not their ‘fleshly benefits’ as they saw them for themselves!
Here’s how Peter described “Guarded, Guided, Girded By The True Shepherd”: In 1 Peter 2:4-5 Peter illumines our minds and hearts saying: “Coming to Him (King Jesus) as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
He enlightened us more, and, yes, inspired us when in 1 Peter 2:9-10, Peter wrote: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.” Oh, but then in 1 Peter 2:24-25, the Apostle identifies lives under the administration of the True Shepherd! He said:
“Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died TO sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” Glory! Are YOU freed from the bondage of sin? Have YOU, yes, DIED TO YOUR OLD SIN NATURE? Have you been healed of your ‘sin disease’? Have you truly returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul? Do YOU see yourself as a member of the “holy priesthood”? Have YOU obtained mercy? Are YOU living daily fully aware of your presence in the Holy Place?
In Hebrews 10:19-23 we read: “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, LET US DRAW NEAR WITH A TRUE HEART in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
That 19th Verse ought to be a daily reminder of what Christ Jesus has done for us. And one thing is for sure: Christ Jesus is the Son of God, Emmanuel, or “God with us”, and yet He said, “I didn’t come to be served but to serve and to give My life a ransom for many.” So the true disciple does not live in pride or arrogance about ‘who I am’, in stodginess, about his/her spiritual relationship with Holy God, or in spiritual pettiness about what he/she does “for” Christ, but determined daily to be dead to self, but in my redeemed, blood-washed life in Christ, I choose to “let Jesus BE Jesus in me”, expressing Himself as only He can!
Are YOU guarded, guided, and girded by the True Shepherd? Guarded? In Genesis 24:27 the servant of the Lord said, “As for me, being in the way, the Lord led me…”! As your “guard” the Lord Jesus will never lead you away from the “straight and narrow” way – in fact, in His abiding presence in you He’s promised “never to leave you nor forsake you.”
But also in the community of faith, in the body of Christ, in the assembly of the saints, as fellow soldiers in the army of the Lord, we do have, (Yes!), the responsibility of looking out for one another! In Ezekiel 38:7 the Word tells us: “Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; AND BE A GUARD FOR THEM.”
There have been times when I served as a pastor of local churches before my “missions ministry” overseas that I had to confront men, women, teenagers in churches I pastored to warn them of dangerous steps I saw them making that didn’t not line up with the Resurrected Christ they professed to be loyal to! It could cost you ‘friendships’ whether they were truly in the faith or not!
Guarding goes hand to hand with “guiding”! In Psalm 78:70-72 we read: “He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; From following the ewes that had young He brought him, TO SHEPHERD JACON HIS PEOPLE, AND ISRAEL HIS INHERITANCE. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.”
No doubt there are times when God’s people have been a disappointment to Him, but He has no desire to cast any away, and in Psalm 106:44, even when God’s wrath had been kindled against His own people, the Word tells us: “Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, when He heard their cry.”
Hebrews 5:7-11 tells us about Jesus’ suffering yet guided to the Cross by our caring Father-God! The Word says: “…who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all WHO OBEY HIM, called by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”
Jesus was “guided to the Cross” by Father-God – and there’s not one true child of faith who will be guided in any other way! Didn’t Jesus say, “Take up your cross and follow Me?” When did that change? Yes, YOU are “guided to take up the cross to your old life that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in your mortal flesh.” ARE YOU WILLFULLY, PURPOSEFULLY, DAILY TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH UNTO YOUR OLD SELF SO CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED THROUGH YOU?
“Guarded”? Are YOU? “GUIDED” by the Word and Spirit? Are YOU? If so, there is the grace of God’s GIRDING YOUR LIFE, YOUR FAITH, YOUR WALK, YOUR MINISTRY AND CALLING! I’m sure that there are many “professing” believers who, when they read Psalm 18:39, are shocked, and I pray alerted to all God desires to do in them, for them, through them, because of their maturing, growing faith in Him! The Word says, “For You have girded me with strength for battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.” (Who rises up against you? Consider the world, your old sin nature, and Satan and his armies of ‘demon distracters’!).
And ALL of the “guarding”, the “guiding”, and the “girding” is because the psalmist went on to say in Psalm 18:46-50, “The Lord LIVES! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted. It is God who avenges me, and subdues the peoples under me; He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me; You have delivered me from the violent man. Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing praises to Your name. Great deliverance He gives to His king, and shows mercy to His anointed, to David and His descendants forevermore.”
In John 8:34-36 the beloved disciple wrote, Jesus speaking, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son (Son of God, the Promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, Emmanuel or “God with us”, Savior and Reigning Lord) makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Free from the law of sin and death, free from the bondage and slavery of godless men, nations, rulers of the flesh-nature, free from the chains of spiritual slavery that binds people, free from the deceptions of an unbelieving world, free from the masters of governmental rebellion against God nationally, statewide, or locally, free from the ‘masters’ in the world of fleshly deceptions, free from Satan’s lie that one can sin and not die, free from the deception of a good ‘in the flesh’ bloodline without a need of blood redemption, free from the curse of separation from Holy God!
And when we’re blood-bought as a result of Christ’s Cross-payment in our behalf as He suffered and bled and died in our place, and we repent and put our faith in what He did in our place, there is, by the Spirit, our birthing into the new, eternal Life in Christ! Our God, the giver of eternal gifts, yes, GIVES US the good and perfect gift from God, His Son and our Savior and Lord, and blesses us, and keeps on blessing us!
But one more great blessing from God through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior: He “Guarded” us, He “Guided” us, He “Girded” us, HE “Graced” us! And that amazing grace IS His gift of mercy! I remind you of Hebrews 2:9-10! It says: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, HIS OWN SPECIAL PEOPLE, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy BUT NOW HAVE OBTAINED MERCY.” But YOU have a ‘better way to live your life’ than be the vessel, the temple, the building housing Jesus’ Holy Presence?
From the old “American Hymnal” published in 1933 by The Broadman Press of Nashville, Tennessee, there’s a hymn entitled: “Hark, Ten Thousand Harps” that says:
“Hark, ten thousand harps and voices Sound the note of praise above! Jesus reigns, and Heaven rejoices, Jesus reigns, the God of love; See, He sits on yonder throne; Jesus rules the world alone, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen!
Jesus, hail! Whose glory brightens All above, and gives it worth; Lord of life, Your smile enlightens, Cheers and charms Your saints on earth; When we think of love like Yours, Lord, we own Your love divine. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen!
Savior, hasten Your appearing; Bring, O bring the glorious day, When the awful summons hearing, Heaven and earth shall pass away; Then with golden harps we’ll sing, “Glory, Glory to our King!” Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen!”
Are YOU in the “Amen” corner of praise, thanksgiving, and surrender to the King of kings and Lord of lords? Have you prepared YOUR heart for eternity around His Sovereign Throne, ruling, still, in love, mercy, and grace? This just may be why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, DO ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD.” Now, say “Amen” to God’s glory because, Yes, YOU are committed to honor Him as you yield to His Sovereign Reign through you!