The LORD HIMSELF Will Search For HIS Sheep And Look After Them!

The Shepherd searching for the sheep!
(Alexander Smellie, "The Secret Place" 1907)

"This is what the Sovereign LORD says: 
I myself will search for MY sheep and 
look after them!" Ezekiel 34:11 

The prophet looked into a distant future, 
and saw the day of CHRIST from afar.

1. Just so, I look back and see my 
sovereign LORD in the manger-cradle 
at Bethlehem. HE has emptied HIMSELF--
HE has laid all HIS glory down. HE has 
come to my earth, not in the splendors 
of HIS divinity, but with an infant's palpable 
and pathetic claim for nursing and nurture. 
HE has taken my nature in its feeblest 
and most helpless condition, and made it 
HIS own nature. 

It is a long way for the SHEPHERD 
to travel in search of the sheep--
no arithmetic can compute it, no history 
can describe the downward journey. But 
the Incarnation is not enough. Not at 
Bethlehem does the Lover of my soul 
find me who has departed from HIS fold.

2. Then I see my sovereign LORD 
on the hillsides and in the cornfields 
and on the lake-waters of Galilee. 

Never a man speaks like this MAN--
HIS are the words of grace and truth, 
of fire and dew. 

Never a man lives like this MAN--
HE does not weary in healing, 
feeding, comforting, rebuking sin, and 
compassionating and blessing the sinner. 

HE is seeking me by the messages 
of HIS lips, and by the blamelessness 
and beneficence of HIS life. Patiently 
HE is enticing me home. But the ministry 
of word and miracle is not enough. Not in 
Capernaum does the Flock-master find me, 
who am so persevering in my revolt.

3. Then I see my sovereign LORD 
beneath the olive trees in Gethsemane. 
HE is praying with strong cryings and tears. 
HE has come very near to the transgressors 
now, and more poignantly than ever HE feels 
the awfulness of their burden. HIS sweat, 
falling down to the ground, is, as it were, 
great drops of blood. 

The Seeker is learning the sharpness 
of the crag, and the rush of the torrent. 
None has cared for me so much; none 
has borne a sorrow so deep on my behalf. 
But HIS intercession and HIS sympathy 
are not enough. Not in the agonies of the 
garden, does HE succeed in finding me.

4. But, last, I see my sovereign LORD 
nailed to the Cross outside the gate 
on the Hill of Reproach. HE dies for sin--
but not HIS own; HE is purer than 
the newborn lamb and the new-fallen snow. 

HE lays my immeasurable guilt on HIMSELF. 
HE redeems me by the one perfect offering 
of HIS unblemished body and soul. The Good 
SHEPHERD is giving HIS life for HIS sheep! 

And this, at length, is enough--
the atonement, the blood-shedding. 
It is enough for GOD--
and it is enough for me. 

On Calvary I behold the depth of my iniquity--
and the wonder of HIS redemption! 

On Calvary my GOD finds me, 
and conquers me, and saves me!

Never was there a sheep so silly, so fond 
of roaming, so bent on destroying itself!
Never was there a search so long some, 
so untiring, and so fraught with suffering! 
Never was there a Shepherd like my 
adorable REDEEMER!

"I am the Good SHEPHERD. The Good 
SHEPHERD lays down HIS life for the sheep!" 
John 10:11

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GraceGems has published Archibald Alexander's powerful article,
 "The misery of the lost!"