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I. WHO ARE THE LAMBS WHICH OUR BLESSED LORD IS SAID TO GATHER AND TO CARRY IN HIS BOSOM?

1. In a certain sense we may affirm that all His people are lambs. In so far as they exhibit the Christian spirit, they are lamb-like.

2. Still, this is not the precise meaning of the text. The word "lamb" frequently signifies the young; and our Lord Jesus Christ graciously receives many young persons into His bosom. The ancient teachers of the Jewish law invited no children to gather around them. I suppose there was not a Rabbi in all Jerusalem who would have desired a child to listen to him, and if it had been said of any one of the Sanhedrin, "that man teaches so as to be understood by a child," he would have thought himself insulted. But not so our Master; He always had children among His auditory. Some in our day mistrust youthful piety, but our Saviour lends no countenance to such suspicions. Some cautiously whisper, "Let the pious youth be tried awhile before we believe in his religion; let him be tempted; let him bear the frosts of the world; perhaps the blossoms will drop away and disappoint us." Such was not my Master's way.

3. But, again, by lambs we may quite as properly understand young converts.

4. We shall not strain the text if we say that the lambs in the flock are those who are naturally of a weak, timid, trembling disposition.

5. The lambs are those who know but little of the things of God.

II. HOW DOES JESUS SHOW THIS SPECIAL CARE FOR THE WEAK ONES? He does this, according to the text, in two ways —

1. By gathering them. The shepherd's kitchen fire is, for the time, the lambs' own nursery. When the flock is on the march, it will happen, unless the shepherd is very watchful, that the lambs will lag behind. So it is in the progress of the great Christian Church; persecuted often, always more or less molested by the outside world, there are some who flag, they cannot keep up the pace; the spiritual warfare is too severe for them. At other times the lambs do worse than this. They are of a skittish nature, and, feeling the natural vigour of new-born life, they are not content to keep within bounds, as the older sheep do, but they betake themselves to wandering, so that at the close of the day the lambs cost the shepherd much trouble. So are there many immature Christians whose minds are hung loosely, and are unstable as water.

2. After He gathers them, He carries them in His bosom. That is —

(1) The safest place, for the wolf cannot get them there.

(2) The tenderest place, where we should put only a poor creature that had a broken bone, and could not bear to be roughly touched.

(3) The easiest place.

(4) The most honourable place. We would not put into our bosom that which we despised.

3. Our Lord shows His care for His lambs in His teachings, which are very simple, mostly in parables, full of winning illustrations, but always plain. He is pleased to reveal His teachings gradually. His experimental teachings are all by degrees, too.

4. In the solemn curses with which He guarded the little ones (Matthew 18:6, 10).

5. How many of the promises are made on purpose for the weak.

6. The Lord Jesus Christ's tenderness to His people is further shown in this, that what He requires of them is easy.

7. He shows His gentleness, moreover, in that He accepts the least service that these little ones may offer.

III. WHEREFORE THIS CARE OF CHRIST TOWARDS THE LAMBS OF THE FLOCK? Because they need it, and He loves them, and therefore shall they receive according to their necessities. But why is He so particularly anxious to succour them? Surely, if He lost a lamb or two, it would be no loss among so many, and if one of the feeble minds should perish, it would be no great consequence when a multitude that no man can number shall be saved. The answer is plain.

1. The weak are as much redeemed by the blood of Christ as the strong.

2. In the new-born child of God there are peculiar beauties which are not so apparent in others.

3. Jesus has such care for the weak ones, because they will become strong one day.

4. Our Lord Jesus Christ's suretyship engagements require that He should preserve the weakest as well as the strongest.

5. Besides His suretyship engagements, there are His promises.

6. Compassion argues that if any should be watched it should be these.

IV. A PRACTICAL CONCLUSION.

1. Let us gather the lambs, for Christ..

2. Learn to carry in our bosoms those who are gathered.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

WEB: He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.