"His Name's Sake"
All this He does for His name's sake. How beautiful those words are, "for His name's sake." Christ's own glory is involved in the security and care of His children. The physician cares for your child who is sick unto death, for your sake, it is true, but for "his own name's sake" as well. To lose your child would hurt his reputation and practice. The lawyer protects his client for his client's sake, it is true, but also, and perhaps more so, for "his own name's sake." To lose the case would be to hurt his standing in the legal profession. The pilot guides the ship safely into harbor for the passengers' sake, it is true, but more particularly for "his own name's sake," for to lose the ship would be to lose his license.
We remember that Jesus said, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." He also said, "And of all that thou hast given me, I have lost none." Christ Himself is the door. His broad figure and bulk fills it. Who shall strip Him of His power, or rob Him of His sheep? He is the secret of the security of the believer; yea, He is the security itself. We are hid in Him. It is rather the perseverance of the Christ than of the believer. Here, then, is the security of the believer, saved and kept for "His own name's sake."
How proud we are of someone who is named after us! We have more solicitude and care for the child that carries our name than for other children. For His name's sake, therefore, is an indication of the intense, intimate interest and care of the Christ for His people. Do we not recall what Moses said to Jehovah when He said He thought to destroy the people of Israel? Did not Moses plead thus with God, "If thou dost destroy them, what shall we say to the nations, and what wilt thou do for thine own name's sake?"
Shall it not be that in that great day not one of Christ's sheep will be missing? "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be missing."
Christ Jesus hath the power,
The power to renew,
The power to cleanse your heart from sin,
And make you wholly true.
Christ Jesus hath the power
For evermore to keep;
Oh, none can pluck you from His hand,
Or rob Him of His sheep!
God as a Guide
What a wonderful truth is asserted in this verse—"He leadeth me." Meditate just a moment on these words—"He," God, the great and mighty One, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the One who upholdeth all things by the word of His power, the unerring, unchangeable, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful One—"He leadeth me"—me, poor, trembling, wayward, straying, sinning, fallible, erring son of Adam, unworthy, unfit, not entitled to the least of God's blessings; yet, incomprehensible as the truth may seem, God in heaven leads "me," here, on earth. He leadeth me on a journey in which it is so easy of myself to go astray from the right path. Further, He leads, not drives, His sheep. "He goeth before His own sheep and leadeth them." The Good Shepherd will not ask you to go anywhere where He Himself has not gone. He does not drive His children. He leads them.
He leadeth me! Oh! blessed thought,
Oh, words with heav'nly comfort fraught!
Whate'er I do, where'er I be,
Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.