John Thiel mp3

We have heard precious messages that nourished our souls. I would like to continue longer on previous meditations about the sheep and the shepherd. I would like to focus our whole attention upon the shepherd of the flock.

We had studied in the past about how that the flock had been strewn by the careless treatment of the under shepherds. It is written in Ezekiel 34 as we just return there in the description of the suffering of the sheep who were His own sheep:

Ezekiel 34:11 For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. 13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. 14 I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.  16 I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.

Here is the shepherd speaking. He has a particular solicitude over His sheep who were so badly treated. Today we wish to meditate deeply into His loving care. Over those sheep. In verses 22 to 24 of the same chapter, we read once more.

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. 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.

Under the false shepherds and under the head butting of strong and ferocious cattle, goats and he-goats and all that kind of thing. Under all this terrible experience that the flock has been suffering under, the little weak sheep that have not been able to feed correctly because of these anomalies:

Ezekiel 34:4 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. 5 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.

This was the description in verse 21 and 22 of what we had been reading rather 22 to 23.

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. 23 And I will set up one shepherd over them,

This is the way the Lord wants to work. He wants to be the shepherd. He wants to have a shepherd over them that will take care of those who have been scattered, who have been hurt, who have been buffeted, who have been afraid to come near to where the food was because of the various different mistreatments which we have already spent time on in the previous two sermons that I shared.

Mistreated in the Church

For all who feel mistreated, in this world, all who feel mistreated in a church, those who are spiritually lean destitute, uncertain, hungry for love of the truth, hungry for sympathy. This divine service is for those. There is someone who will supply your want, Jesus is that one

John 10 11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 27 My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

This is the. Scriptural preparation of our mind here. In our divine worship today. We are here to meet and appreciate this wonderful shepherd whom the genuine sheep can hear. They will recognise His voice. Jesus will know them and will draw near to them and comfort them. This is our meditation today. What will he do to those who have been so suffering to those who have been neglected, who have felt total devastation and fled and acted like sheep who have been thrown into chaos? Here is this beautiful shepherd, Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 40:11 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.

How endearing is this imagery? How best could Jesus Christ and our Father in heaven communicate His yearning for our comfort? But to put this kind of imagery before us, first to describe the suffering that was experienced at the hand of false shepherds, everybody who is a sheep and knows what that feels like, He seeks to help them understand; ‘I know your experience, I know what you’re suffering under,  I want to be a shepherd to you, I want to draw you to myself. I want to bring you together in my fold.

Those sheep that have been hungering and thirsting because they weren’t able to drink pure water, it was grit there because it was stirred up by the stronger sheep and who couldn’t eat the pure food because it had been trampled under by the rough behaviour of the flock before them, Jesus said I’m going to take you away from all that and I’m going to give you pure water and I’m going to give you lush feasting of the provender.

Let us examine first of all as we concentrate on this aspect of that flock that He is trying to bring together. Who are his flock that He knows and they know Him?

John 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

Remember what was said, “My sheep recognize My voice.” So those who knew Him not, were they His sheep? No. Were they the sheep? They didn’t receive Him. My sheep know my voice. So who are his sheep?

John 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

We look back nowadays and we think well, I wouldn’t have done what the Jews did. I wouldn’t have done what the world did if I would have met Him today Don’t be so sure of that. To recognise the real shepherd, you need to be a sheep. Are you a sheep? Do you really receive the real Jesus? This consideration is brought to our attention Jesus says I know my sheep. Let us consider this statement.

We are known by God before we receive Him. “I know my sheep.” How do souls become Christ’s sheep?  TMK 52.2

Goats

We’re all goats, but we may be born again.

By choosing to receive Him. But Christ had first chosen them. He knew every one who would respond to His drawing, TMK 52.2

The beings who will receive Him, they will be born again, they will become Sons of God. So it is those goats who receive Him that will actually become His sheep. They will become little lamb, born again. How do souls become His sheep? By choosing to receive Him. That’s how they become His sheep. But Christ had first chosen them. He knew everyone who would respond to His joy. Isn’t that a precious thought? Before He even came to them, He knew who they were. He knows if you have it in your heart to come to Him.

He knew everyone who would be inclined to receive Him but who through popular opposing influences would turn from Him. TMK 52.2

Isn’t this what we studied how the wrong ministry and the carelessness of other sheep push them away from Him.

…and He knew every one who would be inclined to receive Him but who, through popular opposing influences, would turn from Him, John says to all, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Those who heard the voice and did behold Jesus as the Lamb of God believed in Him and became His property from their own choice. But … their choosing of Christ was in response to His drawing. The love of Jesus was expressed to us before we loved Him. TMK 52.2

Here we get this beautiful appreciation as to who is the flock that He will care for so lovingly and tenderly. Those who has been strewn about by all sorts of false influences. Have you been one of those? Have you experienced confusion because of the false influences of true godliness around you and you’ve been bewildered in your past experience and you’re still recovering even now from those kind of bewildering internal sufferings? Why is it that he knows them so well? Why does he know his sheep? Why? Why do they know Him so well? Why?

John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

What did John the Baptist say? What did he say? Behold what the lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. What did Jesus become? A lamb. If He became a lamb, and as a lamb He grew up and became a sheep, He himself, a lamb, a sheep, how was He treated as a lamb and a sheep? In his home, He was harassed. In the church, He was put down. As a minister in the faith, He was harassed and torn and shredded until finally he was crucified. Does He know by experience what it means to be a sheep that’s been mistreated? Does He? This lamb became the shepherd of the sheep.

Ponder what He knows about his mistreated sheep. Ponder on it, gaze upon it, consider that this shepherd knows His sheep. Let’s consider it. The mistreatment which we can identify so well with in our own experience. What he knows about your and my experience. This is true for his time and it’s we can identify now how true this is for our time. What are our predominant circumstances today?

Isaiah 59:14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. 15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. 16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

What did you just pick up here about what He Himself knew of this experience? At a time when judgment is turned away backwards, at a time when justice stands afar off, when truth falls in the street and equity cannot enter, at a time when truth fails, and you’re looking for truth, you’re looking for justice, you’re looking for right, and you can’t find it; did Jesus experience that? You can tell it here in verse 16.

When He was there in Gethsemane, what did He experience? He looked for some and did He find any? Not even His own disciples at that stage. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore His own arm brought salvation to Him and His righteousness, it sustained Him. He experienced the sheep that has been torn and shredded and confused by nobody being with you in your effort to try and get right. How many times we have tried from childhood to youth to do the right thing? Have you had an experience as a child that you wanted to do the right thing and even your parents didn’t support you? Have you experienced that? And you thought well if my mum and dad aren’t even going to assist me well I know as well stop trying. Have you experienced that? And then as you got older and your intelligence became a bit more clear and you thought well they are all doing it wrong. “Am I the fool?” Then you think, “Well, of course, I’m only a child, I’m only a youth, they all know better anyway.” And so you grow up in this sort of bewildered state and you begin to take on things that you knew weren’t quite right, but everybody did it, so you might as well do it too. And then your effort to really do what’s right, you were bewildered and you were turned off the path.

Jesus was there in that same position. He grew up in the same circumstances and He thought to Himself, well, and did He at any time choose to violate His own individual knowledge of right as He grew up? No, He didn’t. He said, “I will get myself through this then. I’m going to persevere. I’m not going to give in to all these suggestions that are streaming around me.” He is the one land that wasn’t misguided because He decided, He wouldn’t. As He experienced all the desire of reaching out of his own bewilderment, he did by the help of God, and He knows what you will go through if you do, because anybody that departs from evil, what?

Maketh himself; if you do succeed, you will be pounced upon like birds that pounce on the weaker bird. Have you seen this in nature sometimes? I’ve seen this happen. I thought, “Oh, how cruel.” And that’s what happens in society. You get pounced upon just like Jesus was. They’re ready to pounce on anything that comes out and shows them up that they’re wrong. And how many parents have punished their little children because they have wanted to do what’s right.

That poor child, I’ve watched it happen. The bewildered state of mind that was facing me as I looked at the face of that child and I just thought, I can’t do a thing about it.  This is rampant in our society today. Those who really desire to withdraw from bewildering, corrupting wrongs of this world. What hurt have they? Have you been misguided and have you gone the wrong path because you’ve been bewildered and confused and yet you desire to pursue the right, still deep down inside? These messages are for you earnestly desiring to do right. Struggling against the odds and failing and getting up and stuff, but I don’t want to go this way. But you do just the same and you can’t help it because everything is pushing you that way. But deep inside is the cry, “I want out !” And you don’t know how. Does he know it? Does this shepherd know that? And as you consider whether he knows it or not, can you begin to feel common ground? Can you begin to feel that he actually knows you and that you actually know Him? When He speaks, He speaks to your heart because you can actually hear Him speaking your language. When the shepherd says, “Coo wee, come here,” you will actually be drawn to Him, because that’s what the inmost side of you has still wanted to do, to really do it as Jesus did it. But there’s been all this confusion for so many years. Have a look how realistic Jesus knows that experience that you’ve been trying to come out of Psalm 69. Look at the bewildering expression that comes from the words of Jesus in this psalm. Many people don’t recognise that this psalm belongs to Jesus. It was not until I actually studied Waggoner and Jones’ words that I discovered, oh this is Jesus. Here He is. Look at the bewildering state of His experience.

Psalm 69:1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. 3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. 4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.

Ever felt like that, where everything piles in on you like water gushing in upon you, drowning you. You know how many times I have you as a child experience reproof or correction and you felt that there was no cause for it. Then you wonder why, maybe you were wrong after all and you content yourself well I’ve got a change in harmony with society. He decided no. I’m not going to go down with this. I didn’t do anything wrong but I’ll meet up with the consequences nonetheless.

Psalm 69:8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother’s children.

Home sweet home, and you don’t feel at home at all because you’re constantly under pressure from doing what you know you should be doing, but they’ve all told you, don’t worry about it. Wait till you get my age. Oh, how many times it’s been told me when as a child I responded to the beautiful things that the kingdom of heaven was talking about. Prayer and I said I was talking to some older ones who were old Adventists, you know many years in advance and I was talking with them and I said, “Well, we can pray, can’t we?” “Oh, John, you wait till you get my age. You’ll discover that prayer doesn’t really do it as you think it does.” And I thought, “Oh, is that right?” And I decided, “No, it can’t be right.” So I persevered. But here it is. “You know, we know better than you, John, so I must be the fool.” Yes, even in the home even as it says here, I’m a stranger unto my brethren and alien unto my mother’s children.

Psalm 69:20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. 21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

That’s the way it is in society. Brethren. That’s the way it is. You will often look for comfort when things that you know you should be doing and you’ve tried to do, and people run you down for it. You look for comfort and you don’t find anybody. Where are they? There is none. And you really stand there bewildered. And those do good as around you that are trying to comfort you and make you feel worse. But look who’s speaking here. ‘They gave me also gall for my meat and in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.’ That’s nice. Are you a sheep? Do you know what this means? To yearn for good and right and to be totally bewildered. Jesus felt it.

Psalms 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

Ever felt like that? Where all spiritual life was ready to be snuffed out. Spiritual moisture was gone and my bones are dry? What does it say about bones being dried? How do they get dry? Does it say there in Psalms or Proverbs something about the about the bones being dry. You know what I’m referring to? Affliction really makes the bones dry. He is speaking my language. Are you a sheep? Can you recognise the voice? Will you follow the shepherd’s voice? He is the one whom you can recognise as the voice of the shepherd. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.

A true shepherd knows and pities and helps the sheep that most need his help—those that are bruised and lame and feeble. “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.” TMK 53.2

Why are they bruised and lame and feeble? We already read all that. They couldn’t feed safely. They were buffeted. They couldn’t eat the rich food because they were trodden underfoot. These are bruised and lame and feeble. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.  Far more intimately than the patriarch Jacob knew the weak, the suffering and the lame among his sheep. Does the chief shepherd know his flock much better? Why? Why did He know it much better than Jacob? He knows what no one else knows about you. He knows what no one else knows. He has himself weighed every burden. No one knows the weight like himself, for He has borne all our griefs and carried all our sorrows. It was this that made Him a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. What made it? Because he bore every one of our burdens and sorrows. That’s why He was acquainted with it. If there is not another soul in the universe that regards you, the Lord God of Israel, is looking upon you with thoughts of concern. Because He knows.

When you really decide to make the break, when you really want to tear yourself away from all that which has over the years hemmed you in by the wrong ways around you really want to make a break, is it easy? Have you succeeded? Can you, as we have been hearing the powerful messages of God’s reproofs from this pulpit and you have said yes, yes I’m going to and all that. Wonderful; deep inside of you that has for years been trampled underfoot begins to respond and you really want to do it, did you succeed? Don’t be disappointed. You’re going to go through much more harder times here.

You and I need a shepherd. You and I need somebody where when we’ve made that decision to respond to the inward things that have been trampled under us for so long, to respond to the external call, we are going to find it hard and hard and hard again just like Jesus felt it, because we are surrounded by it continually. You will feel alone. You will, you will feel many times ready to collapse. No internal strength left to pursue what you know and it’s been proven to you is really the truth because truth is silent. And when everything around you fails. Your own individual ability to hold yourself aloft will fail as well. There’s nothing, and don’t be deceived to think there is I’m speaking from experience. You fail and you fail and you fall miserably you can’t and Yet the desire to reach out for this ideal is there just like it was in Jesus Christ. This wonderful shepherd who’s experienced exactly the same thing as you and I did, hear Him. Hear him speaking now. As you see and experience these impossibilities, these hopeless realities that strike upon you as you really can recognise I’ve got to do everything that I know is right and you hardly can lift your energies to this. You’ve already tried so hard and the things that weren’t so hard. But now it gets a bit harder still and you go oh I’m weary now I can’t do that one as well. I mean how many times has it come to you? You think you’ve just about got dreads of a form right? And then He drops another bombshell in your ear. What? That’s not even right. I give up. Have you been through that? Or food or whatever it might be? It’s too hard. But listen to this wonderful voice of the shepherd.

I have endured your sorrows, experienced your struggles, encountered your temptations. I know your tears; I also have wept. DA 483.1

What did he weep for? Because the reason that you wept for.

The griefs that lie too deep to be breathed into any human ear, I know. Think not that you are desolate and forsaken. Though your pain touch no responsive chord in any heart on earth, look unto Me, and live. DA 483.1

You’re alone. Nobody else can understand, I know it. Isn’t that the tender shepherd? Isn’t He carrying you in his bosom? Isn’t that what we read? He will carry the lambs in his bosom. That’s the reason why. The imagery falls short of the reality. Because you can only carry one lamb at a time in reality. But this it can carry every one of us in his bosom. Everyone. Therefore, if he knows and he’s been through it to the fullest extent, He knows all our burdens. He knows every intimate little detail because He Himself has carried it. You know, that’s very hard for people to accept. That’s very hard for people to believe and the people who don’t believe it are not his sheep. Do you catch that? The people who don’t believe that Jesus came in sinful flesh and suffered it. Who don’t believe that he suffered free scaring of temptation that you and I experience, that people who do not believe this are not his sheep nor his shepherds because they can never help you when you get right down into the dregs of your sad experiences. They can never help you. So we are to look to the one who is really experiencing this. And then we will hear the shepherd’s voice and we will follow Him.

Hebrews 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; 8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Because everybody else failed around Him. He decided He wasn’t going to fail. He decided that He was going to pray to God. He read the Bible text and He made a decision from childhood to adulthood. “I’m going to pray to God to help me here. I’m not going to give up. Lord, help me with strong crying and tears.” That’s what he had to do. It wasn’t easy. But the Lord taught him and he was made perfect. He was made perfect by the things which He suffered. What must you and I do if we are going to succeed at length? You know you’re not going to succeed without this. You’ve got to follow your shepherd. If you’re trying to do it without following your shepherd, you’re going to fail. I promise you, we’re not going to make it. We have to follow the Shepherd.

Hebrews 12:2 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

Many people start, but do they finish? They may start with the right motive, they might want to do the right, but Jesus finished it. He is the one and only person who can show us how to start and how to finish and to do the right in between. He is the one that we are to look to, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. All those hard things that we experience that really rack us, rack at our system, that weaken us. He endured that, he suffered it, despising the shame and it’s set down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him. You know how many times do you consider him, Do you? Do you spend a lot of time considering Him when you’re down in the dumps, when you think that it’s all done and you’re ready to throw in and say, “Oh, I’m going back into the world.” When you do that, are you considering Him? Oh no, not at all, because you can’t talk like that when you consider Him, because when you consider Him, that endured such contradiction sin is against himself, lest you be weary then faint in your mind. You will faint in your mind? You have not yet resisted unto blood -striving against sin. You haven’t done it like Him. He’s gone much further than you. With all your experiences, plus everybody else’s upon him, and having to keep a pure life without failing once, that being your experience, He’s got more to bear than you. This is the greatest psychology that you can ever study. When people are distracted and they’ve gone mad in their brain, they can’t think straight anymore. Too many thoughts, too many convictions, too many failures, too many Oh, it’s too much, and they lose it. When all those voices are there, Jesus is there too. If you will look to Him, you can be healed from mental disease. As I’ve watched it, because Jesus is looked at, and they’re not alone. And then all of a sudden all the mind practices, all the different depressions that have been oppressing start to lose their power and you start to think straight, oh it’s not so bad after all because you’re looking to the one that is actually taking your experience and you can hear His voice, you can recognise His suffering. Will you look to Him to survive and not only to survive, but to gain victory. So when you need cosseting, you know, one of the most terrible things is that there’s nobody to comfort you. We have other reactions in our being that need… people don’t think we need it, but we do. You know, you see people that are so strong, you think, “Oh, they’re all right. They don’t need any smooth comfort. They don’t need any arm around their shoulders. They don’t need any words of comfort. They seem to be so strong.”

Don’t you believe it? False fronts, you know. When I speak to men, I hear them. That’s a man coming through. And I’m just waiting for the little boy to finally break out to tears and some just don’t want it. Oh that’s soft, that’s sissy. But Jesus could weep. That wasn’t sissy for Him. Because the little child needs to be born again. It needs to come up and needs to grow with a tenderness and gentleness of a child that is prepared to learn now. Men don’t ever regard it as sissy to become soft like a little child. You don’t have to keep those false fronts there. Jesus is your front. You can hide behind Him. He’s strong. You are as weakest water is the reality.  Wen I’m needing comfort, when I’m needing succour, when I need cosseting, my Jesus understands because He’s been through it and He had nobody to cosset Him. Jesus had nobody to cosset. He had to cosset himself. But he knows that you cannot cosset yourself in times like this. So He’s provided Himself for you as your shepherd.

If there is not another soul in the universe that regards you, the Lord God of Israel is looking upon you with thoughts of compassion, tenderness, and sympathy. He sees you with your strong impulses when fainthearted and discouraged…. You have the deepest, the richest, the most refreshing sympathy in the bosom of the great Shepherd. We have not an high priest who cannot sympathize with us, but One who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin…. TMK 53.4

What sort of thoughts? Tenderness and sympathy. He sees you with your strong impulses when faint hearted and discouraged. Where will he carry you? In his bosom. What you yearn for in your bosom, Jesus knows how to supply it and you can be strong in Him because you are comforted to the very end degree. Brethren, I know that experience. It’s real. Find Jesus as your shepherd and break your heart before Him. It’s real. He will comfort you like no human being can. That statement is so emphatic and yet it’s been misconstrued by the false shepherds; “He was in all points tempted like as we are not fully, not in sinful flesh, only up there somewhere”  And when you’re going through your sinful flesh temptations, “Oh, Jesus isn’t there. You’re alone. Not even Jesus can comfort you.” That’s when you go down. That’s when you’ve got no more hope. That’s when you lose out. Or you can turn the tide the other way and say, “I’m going to get myself out of this. And I’ve got all this knowledge I’m going to actually take hold of the Holy Spirit myself and I’m going to become a legalist.”

You see plenty of them around and you hide you think “oh they got it better than me. They haven’t got Jesus. They’re just strong natured people.” You aren’t. They’re the ones that trample the problem under feet. They’re the ones that keep on rending you all the time because they are legalists. Not only has every provision been made that when tried and tempted you should find help and strength and grace but also that your influence upon other minds should be fragrant. It is beautiful you think about. When you haven’t had to pull yourself out of the mire so that you can pride yourself, come on, you weaklings, you can do it too, I can do it. What sort of a fragrance is that in your influence over others? But when you yourself have suffered and needed custody and only Jesus could supply it, how will you feel for others? Your own influence will be fragrant.

Not only has every provision been made that when tried and tempted you should find help and strength and grace, but also that your influence upon other minds should be fragrant. Not only does Christ know every soul, and the temptations and trials of that soul, but He knows all the circumstances that irritate and chafe the spirit. Your great danger is in being self-sufficient. This will not do for a Christian. Christ will give you His patience if you ask for it…. TMK 53.5

Isn’t that just what I’ve been portraying? Our great danger is that we will be self -sufficient, that we can handle it ourselves. Thank you very much. And as we try to do that, we will not have the right kind of fragrant influence. Because things will irritate me. Things will chase me. And when you become irritated and chafed and you lose sight of Jesus, how do you react to others? Is that fragrant? When your irritation and your impatience with the other person starts to be voiced in little tones of reproach. Did Jesus ever reproach a weaker soul? No, He never reproached weakness. The only thing He reproached is that. The only ones that he approached with those Pharisees. He really let them have it, but with what kind of voice He is in His voice? Because He knew those poor thoughts. They are rejecting the only hope they can ever find when dire destruction hits them. He’s grieved to the utmost.

Your great danger isn’t being self -sufficient. This will not do for a Christian. Christ will give you patience if you ask him. TMK 53.5

How would He give you patience? Because He’s been through it with you and He can show you the internal chastising experience that He Himself suffered and laid it down. As you watch Him, you will lay it down as well. The only way to survive in this evil generation is to keep your eyes riveted on Jesus Christ. You’ve got to keep on looking at Him in every little detail. If you don’t, you will lose your fragrance.

To Jesus the whole human family is entrusted, as the flocks of sheep are entrusted to a shepherd. These sheep and lambs are to be tended with pastoral care. They will be guarded by the faithful Chief Shepherd, under the care of faithful under shepherds, and if they will obey the voice of the Chief Shepherd they will not be left to be devoured by wolves…. TMK 52.3

In his church you will be cared for. He is the shepherd of His church. If they will obey the voice of the chief shepherd at the hand of what? Faithful under shepherds. I hear that you had some wonderful messages here while I was away that God has His church and he has His stars in His hand. Who are they? Faithful under shepherds that He does work through. He’s got them in His own hand and they’re the ones we’ve got to look for so that He can tend His flock at the hand of His under, faithful under shepherds because those faithful under shepherds are having their eyes on Jesus and they know exactly the comfort and the cost that they themselves have found and they meet others who are also going through this and they can meet them in the same attitude as Jesus met them because they went through it together with Him. Now they can go through it together with the others and so it happens in His church.  If you will heed the shepherd’s voice, through his methods of dealing with his flock:

“My sheep hear my voice, … and they follow me” (John 10:27). The Shepherd of Israel does not drive His flock, but He leads them. His attitude is wholly one of invitation. “My sheep hear my voice.” If we are indeed sons and daughters of God we not only hear, but recognize the voice above all others. We appreciate the words of Christ, we distinguish the truth as it is in Jesus from all error, and the truth refreshes the soul, and fills it with gladness…. TMK 52.4

We appreciate the words of Christ. We distinguish the truth as it is in Jesus from all error. What will you distinguish? Truth as it is in Jesus from all error. Praise the Lord. And the truth refreshes the soul and fills it with gladness. Beautiful illustration. Beautiful truth, brethren and sisters, I love the message of the nature of Christ. It is my true shepherd. It’s that which alone has got me through this fire, sinful and helplessly hopeless I am. It wouldn’t have been for this message that I was being was being strung out of my system in the previous ministry that I was with. I wouldn’t be here to preach this message. I love it. It’s my only salvation and I can recommend it to you if you are going to be his sheep, if you can recognise the call of the little child inside of you that’s been downtrodden for so many years, if you can recognize the shepherd’s voice, go for it brethren and assisted. Don’t dilly -dally. I mean it. It’s got such little time. But the time does not matter because Christ can help us quickly. But if you can hear His voice, if you can hear them knocking on your heart’s door, go for it. Please, it’s the only way we’re going to get through the time of trouble. It’s right upon us. As I see your face here,

as many of you I know, very closely, I’ve laid it for you. I know the tugs of war that’s going on around us. I know my own, and we have to press together. We have to go for it at all costs, and I pray God will really touch us with the shepherd’s touch. That from these messages that we have been basking in, we will come away and hold on to it and not be so ready to lose again by losing sight of this shepherd so that sheep may safely graze in this fold. The shepherd who Himself is a lamb will successfully satisfy all true sheep.

Very powerful words, very comforting, that He right now is the Lamb in heaven. Don’t forget, the great I am. When He became a Lamb, He is a Lamb still. And He knows everything past, present and future as a present experience for Him right now.

Revelation 7:16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. 17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

When will this shepherd lead us? Like this on the earth made new? He is a lamb that sits on the throne. He knows exactly what we’ve all gone through and we’ve all gone through together with Him and He will lead us as a wonderful understanding shepherd because may God help us never to lose sight of this precious reality, of this precious message, that we will keep on exploring its depths so that by beholding we will be changed, is my prayer in Jesus’ name.

Amen.