By John Thiel

Psalm 73:23 Nevertheless I [am] continually with thee: thou hast holden [me] by my right hand. 24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me [to] glory 25 Whom have I in heaven [but thee]? and [there is] none upon earth [that] I desire beside thee. 26 My flesh and my heart faileth: [but] God [is] the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.

The psalmist is taking a special account of the closeness of God to him how that God’s closeness is that which must guide me and is the counsel that I need to absorb.  Notice this hinges with our last message ‘Do you have the Law without Jesus?’.  We need to be diligent with the word of God so that I may be receive on the others side of the Jordan in glory. Here on earth, who have I in heaven but thee and there is none on earth that I desire besides thee.  That sounds a bit strange in relation to our relationships on earth. I remember someone saying to me I appear to play second fiddle in your life. No matter how precious our friends are on earth are, there is none that I desire but the Lord. That needs to be understood so we don’t estrange ourselves from each other. We want friends and we look forward to meeting each other in the congregation but as we look forward to fellowship with others, these principles of desiring none on earth but God is true when we come together to discover Jesus in each other.  It is only as Jesus is in my brother, sister, husband and wife that the fellowship is desirable. We desire no one else but him. If Jesus is in you and me, we love to come together to see Jesus in each other.  He has a way of making fellowship meaningful as we come entwined with our God.

The Intimacy We Are To Have With Jesus

It is Jesus in his Word that we are to become very much attached to. It is the counsel of the Word. We are to rely on no other man for counsel but upon Jesus. This echoed in the Spirit of Prophecy;

But we are not to place the responsibility of our duty upon others, and wait for them to tell us what to do. We cannot depend for counsel upon humanity. The Lord will teach us our duty just as willingly as He will teach somebody else. If we come to Him in faith, He will speak His mysteries to us personally. Our hearts will often burn within us as One draws nigh to commune with us as He did with Enoch. Those who decide to do nothing in any line that will displease God, will know, after presenting their case before Him, just what course to pursue. And they will receive not only wisdom, but strength. Power for obedience, for service, will be imparted to them, as Christ has promised. Whatever was given to Christ–the “all things” to supply the need of fallen men–was given to Him as the head and representative of humanity. And “whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” 1 John 3:22. {DA 668.4}

We are not to rely on the arm of flesh. It says in the multitude there is safety yet it also says we are to counsel with those that are older than us. How do we come to a balanced understanding on this? We can’t even depend upon counsel of ourselves.

Proverbs  16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death.

You can’t even rely upon your own security of understanding. Not even yourself, not even your own counsel is safe. It seems right to you. This is to humble us before the Lord. When we read the Bible, when we preach the Word, we are to constantly appreciate the fact that I must not communicate or think my own thoughts in regards to what I’m reading. I must do what the book ‘Steps to Christ’ says. There is a problem that in the reading of the Word it can be dangerous because we can read it from our own perspective.

God desires man to exercise his reasoning powers; and the study of the Bible will strengthen and elevate the mind as no other study can. Yet we are to beware of deifying reason, {SC 109.3}

As you read the Bible you must examine whether you are proud of your reasoning powers. Humanity is doing it all the time, a plain thus saith the Lord is not picked up as we come to the Word. We read it to verify my strong inward conviction.

Yet we are to beware of deifying reason, which is subject to the weakness and infirmity of humanity. If we would not have the Scriptures clouded to our understanding, so that the plainest truths shall not be comprehended, we must have the simplicity and faith of a little child, ready to learn, and beseeching the aid of the Holy Spirit. {SC 109.3}

in our natural state of coming to the Word we read it through and read it from the perspective of my own reasoning comprehension. If I’m going to have the Bible unclouded to my understanding, I need to come to it with the simplicity and faith of a little child.

A Little Child

A little child is picking up everything around it instead of having its own opinion. That mentality is the mentality that we need to have in reference to the reading of the word of God. Don’t put my impressions upon what I’m reading. Let it dictate to me. If we let it dictate to us we will discover how God’s ways are not our ways. We will discover that I was all wrong but I was so sure I was right. There is a way that seems right to a man but the ways thereof are the ways of death. How many times have you discovered you were all wrong? What I have banked my dependence upon, I may then have to admit I was wrong. Here lies the counsel that I need to rely on. It is not the counsel of any human counsel, not the counsel of not leaning on the arm of flesh, I must lean on the direct representations of what God is saying. I desire no one else but the Lord but yet are we not to desire each other’s company? We are to desire Jesus in each other not the frail human beings we are. The scripture does emphasizes that we do need to receive counsel of human beings around us.

A sense of the power and wisdom of God, and of our inability to comprehend His greatness, should inspire us with humility, and we should open His word, as we would enter His presence, with holy awe. When we come to the Bible, reason must acknowledge an authority superior to itself, and heart and intellect must bow to the great I AM. {SC 109.3}

Are you proud of your intellect and reasoning powers? If you are, you are going to slide in the wrong track somewhere. The only security that we have is an absolute abdication of my own deifying of my own reasoning, my enjoyment of how capable I am with my reasoning. My reasoning powers must receive the Word of God and I must reason in the scriptures. To have a faith relationship with Jesus Christ, I do need my fellow human beings.

God Sends Preachers for Our Salvation

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I’m incapable of making correct decisions, I’m seeking and calling upon him.

Romans 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

A preacher is necessary but remember I’m calling upon the Lord. If a preacher is necessary, what I am going to discern in reference to a preacher?

Romans 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written,

Many run but they have not been sent. Many function under preaching pretences but they have not been sent. It has to be someone that God has sent.

Romans 10:15 How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

10:17 So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

The Bereans were nobler than the others as they depended on the people that we were sent and studied that which was shown to them and they searched the scriptures to see if the things they heard were written.

The Instrumentality that God Exercises For Those Relying On Him

God reveals his instrumentality. he is speaking of Levi.

Malachi 2:4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

2:5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him [for] the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.

2:6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.

2:7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he [is] the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

2:8 But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

God has sent him and whom has he sent? It was the person whose covenant of God was with him and God says I gave the covenant of peace and life to him, why? Because of the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name. How can you detect whether a person has been sent by God? Here is a very important guideline. Whether the ministry is communicating an academically trained mind or whether the ministry is communicating a deep dependence on God and a fear of the Lord in communicating the word. It is demonstrated by those who fear before God and do not sprout forth their wonderful ideas but communicate a dependence on what the Lord has said.

Malachi 2:6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.

2:7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he [is] the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

There is the human being to whom others will go but not to hear the theories of a man, not to hear the experience merely of a man’s own personal experience but the experience of the Word in those people. You can always tell whether a person is going to answer you from his own brain or from a thus saith the Lord. Those who have had deep experience with a thus saith the Lord, they are the messenger of the Lord.

The Pioneers of Adventism

The only people I trust today is the pioneers of the Adventist church. I can’t trust modern priesthoods. The only one I can trust is the one who will delineate the old truth as they were once given by the Lords messengers back then. Today everything has been clouded in a haze of human opinion that has been mingled together with a thus saith the Lord and interpreted in a certain way.  I hate the concepts of interpreting what I think about of the word. I cry to the Lord help us so we can hear what you are saying.

How to Get Sense Out Of the Bible

How to get it for yourself. The mere reading of the Bible and understanding it as you read along, is not sufficient. You need to take each passage and text and ascertain its reading in there rather than coming to a conclusion of what it says as you may be wrong.

A mere superficial reading of the inspired word will be of little advantage; for every statement made in the sacred pages requires thoughtful contemplation. {FE 169.1}

You can’t just read the Bible through, you will still miss concepts.

It is true that some passages do not require as earnest concentration as do others; for their meaning is more evident. But the student of the word of God should seek to understand the bearing of one passage upon another until the chain of truth is revealed to his vision. {FE 169.1}

If you don’t bear a statement in its connection with another you will not see its connecting links and you will come up with a wrong conclusion.

“Don’t Trust Anyone To Teach the Bible” Is Often Heard

We often hear ‘Don’t lean on the arm of flesh or on such and such a person as he is showing you, go to the Bible yourself!’  Many do that, they don’t rely on anyone to teach them as the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy says don’t rely on to a man to counsel you but some others verses say do.

As veins of precious ore are hidden beneath the surface of the earth, so spiritual riches are concealed in the passage of Holy Writ, and it requires mental effort and prayerful attention to discover the hidden meaning of the word of God. Let every student who values the heavenly treasure put to the stretch his mental and spiritual powers, and sink the shaft deep into the mine of truth, that he may obtain the celestial gold,– that wisdom which will make him wise unto salvation. {FE 169.1}

That is the diligence required to be saved at last.

If half the zeal manifested in seeking to comprehend the bright ideas of infidels, was manifested in studying the plan of salvation, thousands who are now in darkness, would be charmed with the wisdom, the purity, the elevation of the provisions of God in our behalf; they would be lifted out of and away from themselves in wonder and amazement at the love and condescension of God in giving His only-begotten Son for a fallen race. How is it that many are satisfied to drink at the turbid streams that flow in the murky valley, when they might refresh their souls at the living streams of the mountains? {FE 170.1}

Prophecy Against Those Who Are Meant To Be Shepherds of the Church

What does God have against those who are meant to be shepherds of the flock? What have they done with the word?

Ezekiel 34:2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe [be] to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

They feed themselves but what they give to the sheep is murky waters and. their confusion of the Word so that people can’t quite pick it up so vividly and sharply anymore.

Ezekiel 34:18 [Seemeth it] a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? and to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the residue with your feet? 19 And [as for] my flock, they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet; and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet.

What happens to the flock when it hasn’t got the fresh provender anymore? The minds of the people of God that are under that kind of ministry are then beclouded and befogged. If we are really going to help the flock then we must not confuse the minds of the people with my additional thoughts. My thoughts must be totally represented by the actual Word.

Are We Forever Going to Be Babies in God’s Church?

I am terribly observant over the years that the ministry of today reads something and then plants it before the people from their own chewing’s. They have chewed over it themselves instead of presenting it to the people for them to chew. To chew it over for someone else is only for baby birds. That is what the birds do.  They regurgitate what they chew and put it into the mouth  of the babies. Are we forever going to be babies in God’s church? Are we not to learn to chew the words for ourselves?  That is the work of the ministry and because they are not doing it God says;

Ezekiel 34:22 Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.

34:23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, [even] my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.

34:24 And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken [it].

In these times of turbid waters and spiritual undermining, Jesus is saying right, I’m going to make sure that my flock is going to get the pure food and that is a great comfort to me – one shepherd, Jesus Christ and the correct understanding of Jesus to every member of the flock. Whether it be the preacher or those who are listening to the preaching. Because of the backslidden condition of the people God says;

Jeremiah 3:14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

I am married to thee, there is none other I desire.

Jeremiah 3:15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

That’s precious.  That is why under a dependence as a little child of every passage of scripture speaking for itself saying what it has to say, under that kind of feeding, we will be able to do as the Bereans did.  We will be able to go to the scriptures passed onto me.  We will do exactly what the under shepherd has done. Someone said to me when I’ve studied with them they said can’t recall what I said. I said good, you need to go and read the scriptures again.  People don’t listen to the scriptures but the person speaking.  It is important to listen to the sermons and follow carefully if I’m listening to the Word as its being read.  Ponder upon the Word as it’s been conveyed and go home and ponder again and the Lord will help us to appreciate and to feed ourselves. May God help us to feed ourselves that we will prepare to enter glory and be ready for Jesus to come as only as I do that and put it in action can I enter heaven.

Amen.