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I. I shall notice first, what the text rather suggests than declares, namely, our PROFESSION TOWARDS GOD.

1. That we avow Jehovah to be our God. The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob is the God of believers to this day. We do not wish to have any other God, although in these days the carnally wise have set up another. This effeminate deity now occupies the place once given to Apollo or Venus, and he is as much a false god as they were.

2. That we are His people. Our song is, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." To glorify God in our spirits and in our bodies, which are alike redeemed, is our reasonable service. In Jehovah is our trust, our joy, our glory.

3. Our joyful confidence in our Immanuel — God with us. Leave out the word am, which is in italics, and you get it, "God with them." What is this but "God with us"? Has there not been a Divine nearness between our souls and Christ since that first day when we touched His garment's hem and were made whole?

II. OUR PROOF FROM GOD. If God work among us, then shall even our adversaries say, "Jehovah-Shammah," the Lord is there. A tree is known by its fruit, and the rule applies even to God Himself.

1. The first mark is the gathering in of the scattered (ver. 11). Conversion is the sure sign of the immediate presence of the Lord. Glory be to His name, His hand is stretched out still for miracles of grace.

2. A second token of the Lord's presence is the feeding of the flock. The Holy Spirit seems to lay great stress upon that (ver. 15). Have not your Sabbaths been times of holy festival? Has not the King Himself banqueted with us? At the communion table have we not been transported with such joys as can never be excelled until we behold the Chief Shepherd face to face?

3. Another token of the presence of the Good Shepherd is the healing of the sick; I mean the spiritually sick, for there is this promise given, "I will seek that which was lost," etc. It is a rare joy to restore such as have been overtaken in a fault. The God of our salvation hath devised means to bring home His banished, and therefore He is still in the midst of us. Glory be to His condescending love!

4. A further Drool of the presence of God in a church is when the Lord Jesus Christ is greatly honoured; for here it is written, "I will set up one shepherd over them," etc. If your faith rested anywhere but in the glorious person and finished work of the Son of God it were a worthless faith. If He be indeed the Lord of whom we are the loyal subjects, then the Lord our God is with us, and we are His people.

5. A further evidence of the Lord's presence with a people is found in their prevailing peace of mind. "I will make with them a covenant of peace," etc. Do not many of you realise that deep peace, the peace of God which passeth all understanding, so that you are free from all fear, and happy amid grievous poverty and trial?

III. OUR DESCRIPTION BY GOD.

1. God calls His Church His flock. A flock is the shepherd's treasure, it is his living wealth; but it is also the shepherd's care, it is his constant anxiety. A true Church is therefore a very precious thing, it is not a mere human society banded together for certain objects, but it is a community which God Himself hath formed, and over which He doth watch with an unsleeping eye.

2. Observe that it is added, "The flock of My pasture." There is a different idea here. It shows that God's people are not only peculiar in other things, but they are peculiar in their feeding. You may know a child of God by that which his soul lives upon. God's people know their Lord, and they know the kind of food which He gives them. They know the truth from a lie. They will have nothing but clean provender, and the more evidently it comes from the great Shepherd's own hand the better it is to them.

3. It is a very singular thing, but it is added, "Ye My flock, the flock of My pasture, are men." "Ye are men": then God knows what kind of persons we are, whom He has loved with an everlasting love. We are Adams, not angels. God's people are but men; yet they are men and not brutes. There are in human form many who are hardly so good as brutes; but the saints are gentle, compassionate, and gracious. God's people are true men: when the Spirit of God is in them they quit themselves like men; they come to the front and bear the brunt of the battle.

4. But then He adds this blessed assurance, "And I am your God." God is not a man, that He should lie; nor the son of a man, that He should repent. I hear that poor soul seeking after God, say, "Oh, but I am so unworthy." Just so. The Lord knows it. He says you are men. But then He is not unworthy; he is worthy to receive honour and power Divine, for He is our God.

( C. H. Spurgeon.).

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KJV: And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.

WEB: You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, says the Lord Yahweh.