Mp3 John Thiel
In the final analysis of the investigative judgment, and of the judgment right at the very end, in Matthew 25, Jesus speaks of separating the people one from another.
Sheep Grazing Safely
Matthew 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Matthew 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
Jesus here identifies His labour of the gospel to separate sheep from goats representing His work in human beings on this earth. Through sin, all humanity has become a race of goats, but redeeming love has brought about new birth. The old life of sin is replaced by a life of humble obedience, a new heart, the heart that is sheep -like. those who submit themselves to the gospel of Jesus Christ become sheep, the sheep of His flock.
Goats and Sheep
Very in vast contrasting nature. If you’ve ever looked after goats and sheep, it’s remarkable to observe. Goats are very self -willed and self -assertive. They have a very stubborn nature. If they don’t want something, they don’t want it. I used to have goats as a young person. I used to milk them and to milk a goat is sometimes a very unpleasant experience. That goat doesn’t want to let the milk go. You can pump as hard as you like. She doesn’t want to let it go. Only when you do the right thing for her, then she may relax and if she doesn’t like it, you put her foot right in the bucket that you’re trying to milk into. I’ve had some wild and serious experiences with a goat. They are very combative. They have a very knowing way about them, and they have a way of feeding which is very characteristic. They’ll eat everything that they can find even the clothing on the line. Even if it’s not good for them, they’ll eat it.
They have a characteristic of headbutting. They will butt anybody that they don’t agree with. Sheep, in contrast, are timid, retiring. They tend to convey a spirit of contentment as you see them grazing on the fields, reposing. They graze on grass, basically, and green leaves of low -lying bushes. That’s what they graze upon. They are also very helpless and dependent. When in danger, they are not aggressive. They become very nervous, and if you’ve ever watched sheep when they become aroused as they are walking, feeling peacefully on the field and you walk through them, they start to look up and look around and start to bleed and start to get nervous and press together. They have nothing to defend them. If a dog chases them, they press together. Sheep huddle together for protection and they are easily made afraid. One of the characteristics of a sheep is that it will follow. If you’ve brought up a sheep from very small, they get to know you and they will come running to you for protection and for care and for cosseting. For sheep to thrive, to be healthy, they need to be able to feed fearlessly as they are grazing in the field. They need tender care. Because they have this characteristic of following, they need a shepherd.
In countries where they do not have fences, they have shepherds. It’s interesting that in the western world they herd sheep instead of calling them. They chase them with dogs and with motorbikes. Quite unnecessary if they would train those sheep like a shepherd does. If they do not have a shepherd, they wander aimlessly and they become vulnerable to the beast of the field. It is these characteristics that God chose to symbolise the children of His kingdom.
Ezekiel 34:30 Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD. 31 And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.
My flock, the flock of my pasture are men, His people, and it is to care for them that Jesus came to this earth to care for his sheep. John chapter 10 was our scripture reading and there He is portrayed beautifully as a tender shepherd that is known by His sheep. Those that are sheep follow him.
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
John 10: 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
What an endearing precious imagery that Jesus portrays here. You and I who have this sense of uncertainty in our hearts in regard to the spiritual life who feel condemned because of sin, who are yearning for redemption, we have a sheep -like nature. We are distressed, we cry, we seek for help, we seek for the shepherd, and the Shepherd gives His life for us. The Shepherd cares for us. Jesus being that shepherd of the flock has launched out in His church under shepherds to care for the flock.
In John 21:15 and 16 Jesus speaks to Peter after He had trained him and put him through some very strenuous education programs with him through experience. He then turned to him and tested him thoroughly. In the words that He tested him with, notice what He said in John 21:15 and 16.
John 21:15 So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, love you me more than these? He said to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my lambs.16 He said to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, love you me? He said to him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my sheep.
He repeats it again in verse 17.
John 21:17 Jesus said unto him, feed my sheep.
Under faithful shepherding, the flock of sheep are secure. The Shepherd will give His life for His sheep, and the under shepherds, directed by the chief Shepherd, will do that work very meaningfully. Why? Because he himself has made an experience with Jesus as Peter did. Jesus put him through the works. Peter had denied him and after he had said, “I will never deny you.” And three times Peter denied Him and three times Jesus put him through the exercise. feed my sheep. Here was a shepherd that could feed the sheep because he knew what shepherding and what sheep -like experiences really are.
We have come down through the ages and we have seen through the history of the church that there have been faithful shepherds and there have been hirelings and the church, as a result, has become torn and scattered, and alas the picture is sad when you see so many sheep that are scattered and questioning according to the hymn that we have been singing ‘O Tell Me, Thou Life and Delight of My Soul’:
2 O, tell me the place where the flock are at rest,
Where the noontide will find them reposing;
The tempest now rages, my soul is distressed,
And the pathway of peace I am losing.
3 And why should I stray with the flocks of thy foes,
In the desert where now they are roving;
Where hunger and thirst, where contentions and woes,
Where fierce conflicts their ruin are proving?
This is the terrible reality of sheep scattered throughout Babylon through the contention of doubt of knowledge of truth There is all this kind of thing going on and in Ezekiel 34:1 to 6 is the description of this sad experience of under shepherds who have failed in their care for the flock.
Ezekiel 34:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 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? 3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. 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. 6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
Here is an indictment upon the shepherds of the flock. They have failed to take care of the sheep. They have been commissioned, and they have fed themselves, but the flock they have been careless about. As they cared for the flock, they made themselves wealthy upon it, and even ate of the flock. But the sheep were left to suffer.
In Jeremiah 23 we read another record of this.
Jeremiah 23:1 Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. 2Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.
Pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture. He is against them that feed my people. You have scattered my flock and driven them away.
How The Flock Are Not Fed
How it is that people are scattered because they don’t receive the nourishment and they start scattering and running for food because they can’t find very much.
We have no time for dwelling on matters that are of no importance. Our time should be given to proclaiming the last message of mercy to a guilty world. Men are needed who move under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. The sermons preached by some of our ministers will have to be much more powerful than they are now, or many backsliders will carry a tame, pointless message, which lulls people to sleep. Every discourse should be given under a sense of the awful judgments soon to fall on the world. The message of truth is to be proclaimed by lips touched with a live coal from the divine altar. 8T 36.3
My heart is filled with anguish when I think of the tame messages borne by some of our ministers, when they have a message of life and death to bear. The ministers are asleep; the lay members are asleep; and a world is perishing in sin. May God help His people to arouse and walk and work as men and women on the borders of the eternal world. 8T 37.1
The feeding of the flock has to do with a life -and -death message, a message that will fatten their souls so that they will be able to meet the future disasters that are already being sprinkled upon our life today and with these shallow messages from the shepherds, the flock are not thus prepared.
Have we not known this in our experience? That the messages that were most needed, we discover only after years and years of hearing shallow messages of no real weight, of chaff instead of wheat. The scattered sheep are bleeding, they are crying for food, they are spiritually hungry.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He cares for His feeble, sickly, wandering sheep. He knows them all by name. The distress of every sheep and every lamb of His flock touches His heart of sympathizing love, and the cry for aid reaches His ear. 5T 345.2
Do you often cry like a bleeding sheep? Lord, I yearn for your beautiful food. I’m hungry. That cry, that need for spiritual food, Jesus, the true shepherd hears. What does the good shepherd do as He hears these bleating sheep where His heart is touched with the shattered and skinny condition of those sheep?
Ezekiel 34:11 For thus said the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks 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.
Does a sheep know that it’s scattered and lost? Many times it is not even aware of it, but it just feels hungry. It cries out. How many times have we thought we were being fed when we were really still hungry but the cry of the soul was heard of the Lord and He heard the distant cry and the Lord came and is seeking them out. Mark what this really means as through the false churches of today and those who have filed in their calling to care for the flock, the sheep are scattered in the different places.
Ezekiel 13 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 on 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 on 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 on the mountains of Israel. 15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, said 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 what the shepherd will do, very beautifully and simply portray. He will do it. This is what Jesus will do. I don’t need to add anything here. He will bring together His sheep into onefold, and they will feed and graze safely on the fat pasture.
We have been inclined to think that where there are no faithful ministers there can be no true Christians, but this is not the case. God has promised that where the shepherds are not true He will take charge of the flock Himself. God has never made the flock wholly dependent upon human instrumentalities. 5T 79.4
As these flock are not cared for by the shepherds as they should be, Jesus will take care of the flock himself. He will make sure that they will be cared for.
Ezekiel 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. 24 And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it. 25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. 26 And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.
Love it, don’t you? Isn’t it precious? This is what God’s people have been yearning for years in the faith of Adventism. We’re still waiting in so many churches today. They’re still waiting for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, those showers of blessing. They’re waiting for a future situation. Meanwhile, they’re still struggling with all the conflict of the doctrines that have been torn from their roots, from what used to be taught with power in the ranks of the original Seventh Day of this church. People today are still waiting for this to happen and here we read this beautiful record that the Lord is taking the thing into His own hand and He will make His hill a blessing and people will be able to sit in His fold and feed in the pasture. They will go in and out of the door, Jesus Christ.
These, the way He will interfere in the lives of those sheep that are bleating and hungering and don’t know how far they are from the true nourishment of food that He has for them.
Jeremiah 23:3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, said the LORD.
Wonderful comfort. He is going to make sure of that. And that’s what our scripture reading read. They will go in and out.
John 10:7 I am the door of the sheep. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
Sheep through Him will safely graze. That sounds like secure, peaceful, spiritual experience, doesn’t it? Good, nutritious spiritual fulfilling messages, comforting truth that will cause us to repose under the shepherd and partake of spiritual nourishment. Do we know such a sense? Do we know such fulfilling messages? Have we experienced what Jesus has actually done in taking us from our scattered state? There are young people in our midst here who have been found in the world and yet supposedly in the church. They have been laid for by the shepherd Jesus Christ and the shepherds and He has said and they have come out from a practice of careless grazing of being part of the world
They have changed their lives because the truth has been richly provided for them. This has been the case with all of us in our experiences. The Lord has fulfilled His word and has taken us out of confusion into a life pattern that was the grazing on spiritual nourishment and it has changed and it has satisfied our soul, and it has changed our life pattern. It has brought us together, as is written here, into His fold. Do we know other sheep out there that need to safely graze?
Song of Solomon
What the answer was there in in the last verse of hymn number 400?
A voice from the shepherd now bids me return by the way where the footprints are lying.
Song of Solomon 1: Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? 8 If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.
But where is such a place to be found and if it can be found, it must be kept a safe grazing ground. We have just spent some time rightfully in acknowledging that the shepherds have failed and the Lord Jesus has had to step in and rearrange and gather together and place the sheep under His shepherd. Consider now another factor of Ezekiel 34. He has finished speaking about the shepherds and placing his sheep under Himself and under His direction, nourishing them safely. Now He turns to another consideration because now that the feed is rich, now that the water is close because He leads them by the rivers of water. As He does that, He now says something else that needs to be considered here so that sheep may safely graze.
Ezekiel 34:17 And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. 18Seemeth 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. 20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD unto them; Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. 21 Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; 22 Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.
This is interesting. He’s not talking about the shepherds now, He’s talking about the flock. Notice now how He identifies those certain of those that are in the flock who are a little bit more powerful than the ones that are a little bit more lean and weak? Notice the way He actually deals here? He says here that the weak and the sickly have been buffeted and pushed aside by the stronger. These are human beings. You know when we see weak and sickly spiritual people, we fall into a danger, don’t we? Especially when we think we have it. We begin to treat them as though they should be different to us who think we have it. We begin to relate to them in a manner that makes them shrink away from the flock even more. Our message today is sheep may safely graze. As we graze upon God’s Word, God’s Word is speaking to us the flock as well as to the shepherds. There is such a thing as a flock feeds together and if it’s a little bit rough amongst itself it tends to trample a lot and that beautiful nourishment that was there for them to eat is trampled underfoot.
They were pretty good at chewing up the good food for themselves first of all and the weaker ones are left back a little bit and pushed aside and then when they finally have moved away the weaker ones come and they’ve just got the downtrodden rubbish to feed afterwards and the water that was lovely and clear The first and strongest ones rush into there, stamp with their feet after they’ve drunk them, and then the next ones come after and they’re drinking grits. This is the picture that God is giving us.
For sheep to safely graze, free from the buffeting and spoiling of the rich provender, we have to consider something here, the manner in which we feed. If the shepherd is right and he is feeding us rich, nutritious provender and he is feeding us by the rivers of water of life, the flock is also responsible what they do with that the very food so tenderly provided can actually turn sour in the buffetings of the flock.
Many times I have observed this. I have loved sitting in sermons where the food was beautiful and I loved it and I drank it and I swallowed the beautiful nourishment that was coming. Then I would go out, ask the observers, and outside it was a different story altogether. The people who had just been eating and drinking talked about all sorts of things that had nothing to do with what I was just eating and drinking. I was just trying to digest it and in communication outside afterwards there was nobody talking about it and in fact the material that they brought to my mind absolutely brought to naught what I had just been meditating about.
It washed it out as quickly as it came in or it went sour in my mind and I could no longer meditate upon it and nourish myself on it. Because the subject matter tore it out of my mind afterwards, outside, by people who had just fed themselves. They might have been a bit stronger than me. They might be able to think about it when they get home without any more problems. But my mind was just disturbed and I couldn’t retain what I had heard, and it was spoiled for me. With attention turned to the flock God says the following. Examine what I mean here. What does He say?
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? 19And 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 does this mean? What does it mean to make the crop that you are feeding on trampled? The water that you drink, spiritual water, to make that of no nutritious or refreshing effect? This is a remarkable statement, and a lot of people are very unconscious of it.
The world needs evidences of sincere Christianity. The poison of sin is at work at the heart of society. Cities and towns are steeped in sin and moral corruption. The world is full of sickness, suffering, and iniquity. Nigh and afar off are souls in poverty and distress, weighed down with a sense of guilt and perishing for want of a saving influence. The gospel of truth is kept ever before them, yet they perish because the example of those who should be a savor of life to them is a savor of death. Their souls drink in bitterness because the springs are poisoned, when they should be like a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. PK 232.1
As the people that we meet come in touch with the message we hold, they go, “Oh, that sounds good.” And as they come to drink, what is the danger? That the very beautiful thing that they are hearing becomes poisoned by the very flock, because the flock has been careless in the way that they are handling the nourishment that is amongst them. The very springs become poisoned by the manner in which the flock feeds. The beautiful truth may be there.
The most greatest care may be taken by the shepherd, but if the flock doesn’t retain and hold themselves carefully like tender, gentle sheep, instead of like headbutting, shouldering, cattle and goats. Those people will come and they will say, “Oh, it’s beautiful what I’ve heard here, but I don’t like being here.” Why not? Because the tender, frail sheep runs away from distress. Is that correct? You watch the sheep. If there’s any kerfuffle, the sheep look up their head and they run away. They won’t stay there.
Wherever there is any stress or distress in the flock that feeds on God’s word spiritually speaking, how true that is today, isn’t it? How easy it is for God’s people to forget what they’ve just heard and think about something else that has nothing to do with the nourishment with just deceit. How much that happens? I have seen experiences where we’ve come away from something that is so beautiful and there’s a different spirit altogether out there. Where from? From those who are sometimes stronger than others and might say, “Well, didn’t you just hear?” or might just say something that hasn’t got to do with the message at all, that turns your mind away from what we’ve just heard. So much of that we are in danger of. God wants us to feed safely. Jesus is the shepherd and He hears the crying of the flock and He gathers them together and cares for them. Sr White applies this whole message to the church that she is writing to.
You will have many perplexities to meet in your Christian life in connection with the church, but do not try too hard to mold your brethren. If you see that they do not meet the requirements of God’s word, do not condemn; if they provoke, do not retaliate. When things are said that would exasperate, quietly keep your soul from fretting. You see many things which appear wrong in others, and you want to correct these wrongs. You commence in your own strength to work for a reform, but you do not go about it in the right way. You must labor for the erring with a heart subdued, softened by the Spirit of God, and let the Lord work through you, the agent. Roll your burden on Jesus. You feel that the Lord must take up the case where Satan is striving for the mastery over some soul; but you are to do what you can in humility and meekness, 5T 347.2
The sheep is a very meek animal.
and put the tangled work, the complicated matters, into the hands of God. 5T 347.2
What are we to put in the hands of God? The complicated matters. The things that we don’t seem to understand; why these things are happening? They are not for us to step in there and to throw the food in front of them and batter them and push them or anything like that.
Follow the directions in His word, and leave the outcome of the matter to His wisdom. Having done all you can to save your brother, cease worrying, and go calmly about other pressing duties. It is no longer your matter, but God’s. 5T 347.2
When we feed on the spiritual nourishment, doesn’t the nourishment have its effect upon our life anyway? If the real nourishment is coming to me, why do I have to go along afterwards and make sure the other person’s got it here, eat? You know, isn’t that often what we do? Why aren’t you eating it? I just heard it. Why aren’t you doing it? Isn’t that the way we have to read God’s word? To read it with the desire to do and We make the other person do it instead of me just quietly doing it and neatly Conveying the beauty of what I’ve just fed on to share with somebody isn’t this beautiful? Isn’t Jesus wonderful enlarging the beautiful nourishment that we have received from him and so indeed
Sabbath by Sabbath we come and we feed on God’s word and we are to feed and graze. We are to take the word of God without any fear that I’m going to come to church and I’m going to meet a buffeting experience. Can we see what the Lord is saying to us? Sheep may safely graze. Do we want to have a safe grazing pasture? I do.
May God grant us to meditate on this ongoing message. When we come again on Sabbath next week, God willing, we can drink more deeply of this aspect of nourishment and benefit without suffering. May God’s house and may His church be a safe grazing place, is my plea.
Amen.
