02 John Thiel the Pearl that Sparkles and Shines

John Thiel mp3

What a wonderful, fitting hymn for the subject of the hour: the pearl that sparkles and shines. As we’ve just been singing,

3 How blest are we, with open face

To view thy glory, Lord,

And all thy image here to trace,

Reflected in thy word!

4 O teach us, as we look, to grow

In holiness and love,

That we may long to see and know

Thy glorious face above.

We are here to behold the glorious face of Jesus, the pearl of great price.

2 Corinthians 4:6 ⁶For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.

Where?

2 Corinthians 4:6 ⁶In the face of Jesus Christ.

The face of Jesus needs to shine in our dark hearts. They have been darkened by sin, and God can bring light out of darkness. I pray that what I’m going to be sharing with you now is not just going to be received as me giving you instruction, guidance, or some kind of Biblical doctrinal proof. I’m going to share with you things that I have shared before, but not for the sake of information, but for the sake of beholding and admiring. Let us admire what we know of God, and maybe as we admire, we will discover some more information to admire even more. Remember the objective of Jesus, the pearl of great price. The great pearl of great price was portrayed by Jesus. Here is something that should impact our life.

Matthew 13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. ⁴⁶ When he had found one pearl of great price.

What?

Matthew 13:46 He went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Now I can share with you the instruction that you must sell all that you have. You must give everything up to take hold of Jesus, and this is often what you hear. You get those kinds of instructional messages, but how much value does that have to achieve its objective? According to this reading, the person who was looking for the pearl was a merchant who had jewels and certain things, but he found something, he looked at it and said, ‘Wow, this is something of greater value than anything that I had.’ So, what did he do; was he instructed?  ‘Well, you better go and sell everything you have.’ That’s what so many ministers do. They come to you and say, ‘Look, there’s this pearl of great price. You’ve got to get rid of everything to have it.’ What’s the value of that? You must see the value. You must appreciate its preciousness. Then when you see its preciousness, you will give up everything to have that, and that is required of the minister. Many just speak at the word. Many just share the information. That as many of us have no doubt experienced, is just not getting us anywhere. We need to admire something, we need to see something glistening and sparkling. That is what I am instructed to do.

Lift up Jesus, you that teach the people, lift Him up in sermon, in song, in prayer. Let all your powers be directed to pointing souls, confused, bewildered, lost, to “the Lamb of God.” Lift Him up, the risen Saviour. Ev 185.3

How am I to do that?

Let us gather together that which our own experience has revealed to us of the preciousness of Christ, and present it to others as a precious gem that sparkles and shines. Thus will the sinner be attracted to Him who is represented as the Chief among ten thousand and the One altogether lovely. Ev 186.3

What are we to do as we uplift Jesus? We are to uplift that which is so precious and we gained it this morning in our worship. Somebody had an experience and he used the experience to share with us the sparkling gem Jesus Christ, and didn’t it touch our hearts? God grant that He will touch our hearts once again. Our scripture reading gives us direction. What is the direction there in our scripture reading? The Lord who brings light out of darkness is to shine in our hearts by the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and that knowledge of Jesus is to be His face shining in our hearts by beholding His wonderful, glorious gem face. The knowledge of that, the imagination is to be engaged so that you can read God’s Word and imagine this beautiful gem. I pray that my imagination may stir yours because we are told that the only way in which we are going to finally be overcomers and be perfect is by beholding that gem.

2 Corinthians 3:18 ¹⁸But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, if you want to find the glory of Jesus to behold, you need to read the Bible in a different manner than you are used to. You don’t just read the Bible to get information; you read the Bible to find a picture, to find the beautiful display of God’s character, and you must let your imagination expand the picture. As you do, the Holy Spirit will make it possible because it is the work of the Holy Spirit that does this.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 ¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸But we all, with open face, behold.

The Holy Spirit is needed to paint the picture in our minds as we participate with Him. This beautiful gem of truth is in Bible Commentary under this text in the study Bible.

Beholding Christ means. 6BC 1098.1

What?

It means studying His life as given in His Word. 6BC 1098.1

That’s just what I was trying to explain.

We are to dig for truth as for hidden treasure. We are to fix our eyes upon Christ. When we take Him as our personal Saviour, this gives us boldness to approach the throne of grace. By beholding we become changed, morally assimilated to the One who is perfect in character. By receiving His imputed righteousness, through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, we become like Him. 6BC 1098.1

The imputed righteousness is not just something that is academic or forensic in its imparting to us. It is a righteousness that can be seen as an image. The image of Christ is cherished, and what you cherish, when temptation comes, if you cherish the temptation, you become corrupted. If you cherish the image of Christ, you become purified.

The image of Christ is cherished, and it captivates the whole being. 6BC 1098.1

Whether you study prophecy, law, information, or instruction, it is all to be seen in something far more beautiful than merely obtaining that information. It is to be seen when you study prophecy so that you meet Jesus in the prophecy. So many people get excited about prophecy but they’re still going to be lost because they don’t meet Jesus. This is what we’re after, the pearl of great price.

All the philosophies of human nature have led to confusion and shame when God has not been recognized as all in all. FLB 223.3

All the philosophies of human nature. You can study the Bible from your human nature, and you will get a thrill. ‘Oh, I know something. I can argue the doctrine. I can tell people the truth.’

That is the natural man thinking, and yes, you can get all the truth and think you are saved because you know all the truth. Sorry, it leads to confusion. Strange, isn’t it? Doesn’t Jesus say you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free? Think carefully, because we study it, and God is not recognised as all in all. But the precious faith inspired of God imparts strength and nobility of character, as His goodness, His mercy, and His love are dwelt upon. If you cherish that, you look at the prophecies and you imagine – ‘Oh wow, look what he’s done here with those nations. Look what he’s done with Nebuchadnezzar. Look what he has done with the unfolding of history. Wow, God is the orchestrator.’

There in the history of Daniel chapter 11 is Jesus, the pearl of great price. Right there, and you’re discovering where He comes into the picture and how He interacted with all the nations in prophecy before it ever happened. It just does something to you. His mercy, His love, His goodness is dwelt upon.

Then clearer and still clearer will be our perception of truth, higher, holier, our desire for purity of heart and clearness of thought. The soul dwelling in the pure atmosphere of holy thought will be transformed by communion with God through the study of Scriptures. COL 60.1

Isn’t this precious? This is so valuable to help us get clear on why we are studying the Bible. It says that as we dwell upon His goodness, His mercy, and His love, our perceptions will become clear, and the desire for purity will become higher and holier. You might have a low desire for purity at the present time, but it becomes more intense. You desire to become more like Him, not just because the song says so, like our theme song says, ‘I would be like Him.’ No, it is because as I’m gazing upon it and dwelling upon those wonderful characteristics of God, then it becomes more intense. ‘I want to be like this.’ Truth is so large, so far-reaching, so deep, so broad, that self is lost sight of. What have I just read? We are told we must become unselfish. We are told we must get rid of self. Have you tried it? How successful have you been? Self always prides itself that it got rid of self. And I heard a person say that some time ago. ‘I’ve got none of self anymore,’ and I thought, self is speaking. Because the moment I say that I have no self, I’m proud that I have no self. When I look at the Word as the way we have just pointed it out here from the quote, truth becomes so overwhelming that self is lost sight of. It goes, ‘oh, shrivel, shrivel.’ I’m so different. I’m not at all like this.’ The heart not only discovers that, but the heart is softened and subdued into humility, kindness, and love. That’s what happens to you if you behold the Word like that. We have the answer here to our question of ‘how can I change? I’m such a terrible sinner, and even if I try to change, I’m still finding myself totally different from God, from Jesus.’ ‘Gaze upon me,’ (Jesus).

Occupy your mind with not only the information but the expansion of this beautiful character. Those who had gone before us knew this. We just studied it that those who have died in the faith are going to be raised in a special resurrection.

The world is warned of its coming doom. The slumbers of those who are lying in sin and error are so deep, so deathlike, that the voice of God through a wide-awake minister is needed to awaken them. 4T 445.1

What is needed?

The voice of God through a wide-awake minister. 4T 445.1

What was the Laodicean ministry? Tame, voiceless, sleepy.

Unless the ministers are converted, the people will not be. GW92 137.1

‘Well, I don’t have to have a minister up the front telling me what to do. I don’t have to rely on John Thiel’. That has been said, even amongst us. But what is said here? Your future is dependent on my communication to you. That’s what that says, isn’t it?

Facebook and Internet Connections

Unless the ministers are converted, the people will not be. GW92 137.1

No matter how much they read. Unless the minister sparkles and shines the truth, they will just see the truth as doctrine and they will argue and debate and make Facebook connections to other people and do more damage than good. That’s what is happening out there. Because you cannot pass through Facebook or any other communication the beautiful descriptions of the love of God. Haven’t you found that? It becomes a debate and if I don’t see it, you’re going to see it one day when it’s too late. I’m telling you; this is the truth. I’m telling you the truth, no matter what your perceptions are. The reality is that our arguments for doctrine without the beauty of the description of Jesus, which is far too laborious to do by writing. It must be done face to face with each other.

Sister White doesn’t say that she saw people communicating across the world through the internet. What does she say? I saw God’s people running from place to place, sharing the word face to face. This is why I’ve had to swallow hard. I thought, ‘great, I just let this happen through the internet. Just let all the internet do its work and I don’t have to go to places.’

That’s what my thought was. Wonderful, all these people on the internet are doing a wonderful job. They are, but that is not going to save the soul. The saving of the soul is the people seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus and you. Don’t think any other way. Nothing other will work. I have watched it for years. I know what I’m speaking of.

Why has Seventh-day Adventism deteriorated into independent movements who have all got different ideas and different teachings? Yes, the Lord can bring light out of darkness, but don’t rely on the darkness, the wrong way of doing things as the source of the loud cry. The source of the loud cry is people who stand before the people of the world in living demonstration. There is value, and don’t think I’m rubbishing the internet. There is a value. That’s what Sister White writes. The books are sent out for the people to read, like leaves of autumn. That’s what the internet does. The arguments have all been given. The truth has all been displayed out there in terms of literary communication. But when God’s people stand up, and the people see the people, what they have read will suddenly come to their appreciation and then what they have read, because they have met the people, they will be converted. They will come out of her, my people. This is the chain of communication. It must culminate in the glory of God that shines from the heart. Never give up personal communication to be replaced by the internet. The internet is valuable, but it doesn’t do the final job. It’s you and me. Precious pearls of priceless value are to be displayed.

Unless the ministers are converted, the people will not be. The cold formalism that is now prevailing among us. 4T 445.1

Remember she’s writing this in Testimony volume 4. Were the Seventh-day Adventist church faithful at that time? They were upholding the pure truth. They were faithful. But look what she says:

The cold formalism that is now prevailing among us must give place to the living energy of experimental godliness. 4T 445.1

Experimental. It must be experimented with. It must be seen as experiments. This comes back to what I was saying even with the internet.

There is no fault with the theory of the truth. 4T 445.1

No fault with the internet.

It is perfectly clear and harmonious. But young ministers may speak the truth fluently, and yet have no real sense of the words they utter. They do not appreciate the value of the truth they present, and little realise what it has cost those, who, with prayers and tears, through trial and opposition, have sought for it as for hid treasures. 4T 445.1

What was the trial needed for? So that those who were such wonderful men, proclaiming so powerfully, they gained it by prayers and tears through trial and opposition. When the younger generation picked that up, they have all things laid out before them. Somebody’s worked it all out, and now they have demonstrated it in doctrinal truth, and that’s what she’s talking about. The younger generation in her time had the theory of the truth which was important but the real sense of the words were still not quite there.

Every new link in the chain of truth was to them as precious as tried gold. 4T 445.1

These people who sort it out.

Precious as tried gold. The links are now united in a perfect whole. Truths have been dug out of the rubbish of superstition and error, by earnest prayer for light and knowledge, and have been presented to the people. 4T 445.1

As what?

As precious pearls of priceless value. 4T 445.1

That’s what needs to be projected today. I have basically introduced here the importance of this. Now let me demonstrate.

Christ came to manifest the love of God to the world, to draw the hearts of all men to Himself. The first step toward salvation is to respond to the drawing of the love of Christ. God sends message after message to men, entreating them to repentance, that He may forgive, and write pardon against their names. Shall there be no repentance? Shall His appeals be unheeded? Shall His overtures of mercy be ignored, and His love utterly rejected? Oh, then man will cut himself off from the medium through which he may gain life eternal; for God only pardons the penitent! By the manifestation of His love, by the entreating of His Spirit, He woos men to repentance; for repentance is the gift of God. 1SM 323.2

The sweetest joy. That’s the part I wanted to really highlight.

The sweetest joy comes to man through his sincere repentance toward God for the transgression of His law, and through faith in Christ as the sinner’s Redeemer and Advocate. It is that men may understand the joy of forgiveness, the peace of God, that Christ draws them through the manifestation of His love. 1SM 323.2

What did you pick up here, especially on that last bit? The sweetest joy comes to whom? When did the pearl become so precious? It comes when man through his sincere repentance toward God for the transgression of His law and through faith in Christ as the sinner’s Redeemer and Advocate. It is when man discovers his plight and when he realizes his plight he discovers God’s wonderful forgiving grace. That’s the only way.

It is imperative that we begin to follow this through. God granted our experience may be that of the apostles because they met Jesus and they shriveled.

Then to that company of attentive hearers the apostle preached Christ—His life, His miracles, His betrayal and crucifixion, His resurrection and ascension, and His work in heaven as man’s representative and advocate. As Peter pointed those present to Jesus as the sinner’s only hope, he himself understood more fully the meaning of the vision he had seen, and his heart glowed with the spirit of the truth that he was presenting. AA 138.5

What was the experience of the apostles? They presented, Peter presented to them, Jesus. His crucifixion, His betrayal, His miracles, His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension. As He expanded on those scenes, as Peter pointed those present to Jesus as the sinner’s only hope, He Himself understood more fully the meaning of the vision He had seen, and His heart glowed with the spirit of the truth that He was presenting. To appreciate the beauty of what we are presenting requires our own experience. What does The Spirit of Prophecy say? To appreciate the preciousness of Jesus, what must I experience? To appreciate the preciousness of that pearl. I touched on it already in the previous statement, is to appreciate the sense of the darkness of your natural half. What did we read in our scripture reading? The treasure in where? In earthen vessels. Light out of where? Darkness.

Only he who sees his own sinfulness can discern the preciousness of the Saviour. DA 494.4

Do you want to discern the pearl? You will never discern it while you have a skerrick, a lack of understanding of your sinfulness. It will never be something you’ll sell everything for. So, the Lord is at work to bring us to our knees, and I’m seeing Him doing it. I’m seeing Him doing it because we still hold, while even while we’re preaching many times, we still hold certain high opinions about myself and not until myself is totally in the dust, in the sense of my appreciation about myself, can I then appreciate the preciousness of my Savior. Well, let’s explore. Do you have chapters in your life that are very secret and personal, and you have kept a lid on those chapters? You have not permitted yourself to go there. Don’t want to think about that. If you do, it frazzles you. It makes you feel like you’ve really done it. It’s beyond hope. I don’t want to see that but I will keep on preaching the word, and I’ll keep on upholding it all before the people and make myself feel better because, oh, it’s wonderful how the people are receiving it but there’s something hidden inside. Do you have struggles with sin secretly, unresolved? You’re battling with certain things that you know aren’t right, you know exactly what’s happening inside of you, and you’re overstepping the mark, you’re permitting yourself to pursue mental exercises that are not right, and you can’t stop yourself. You keep on thinking about those things, remember thoughts often repeated become actions and actions often repeated become habits, and habits become character.

You can’t stop it and try not to not admit that it keeps on festering. It keeps on coming up. It keeps on, and you want to keep a lid on that. You want to keep a good front. But deep inside there is this awkward, horrible sense and you don’t want to take the lid off. You don’t want to own it as my corrupt self. I’ve done my very best and still I keep on failing and I try to keep on keeping myself afloat. It is this kind of thing, brethren, and sisters, that the Lord wants us to admit, to confess to ourselves and to Him. Not to anybody else necessarily. But to me and Him, to let it really, let it all spill out. ‘I am like that Lord.’ Whatever it is, whether it be the sensual life, or whether it be the desires of the flesh in regard to the world that you still indulge, whatever it is, you are not free and as you are struggling with this, to keep the lid on there, take the lid off, face up to it, the deep-seated darkness of your heart, brethren, and sisters, I’ve had to do this. This is the only way I have found joy. Own it. Psychologists tell you, own it. That’s the terminology they use, own it. ‘I am a disgusting sinful wretch.’ Isn’t that what Jesus said to the Laodiceans? You do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. ‘Oh yes Lord, now I know.’ ‘You don’t know’, He says. ‘When you let me show you how wretched you are, then you’ll go somewhere. Because then, if you take the lid off those wretched realities of your nature, you will meet the pearl of great price.’

Here is the pearl of great price.

Isaiah 53:11 He shall see the travail of His soul and be satisfied.

Jesus sees the travail of His soul and becomes satisfied. Why?

Isaiah 53:11-12 ¹¹By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. ¹²Therefore, will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoiled with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

What does it mean that He was numbered with the transgressors? What does that mean? I have been told from my youth up, why? He was nailed among the thieves. He was numbered with them and that was all. What does it mean that He was numbered with the transgressors? He says there that He saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied. What was the travail of his soul? Let’s expand this beautiful pearl. Let’s really appreciate it here.

Jesus had been earnestly conversing with His disciples and instructing them; but as He neared Gethsemane, He became strangely silent. DA 685.2

Now just let your imagination pursue this. Why did Jesus become strangely silent? Before He was all bubbly with the joy of His relationship with the Father, instructing the disciples. But now?

He had often visited this spot for meditation and prayer; but never with a heart so full of sorrow as upon this night of His last agony. DA 685.2

What was it?

Throughout His life on earth He had walked in the light of God’s presence. When in conflict with men who were inspired by the very spirit of Satan, He could say, “He that sent Me is with Me: the Father hath not left Me alone; for I do always those things that please Him.” (John 8:29). DA 685.2

Wonderful comfort in His heart. But now what?

But now He seemed to be shut out from the light of God’s sustaining presence. Now He was numbered with the transgressors. DA 685.2

What does it mean to be numbered with the transgressors? To experience the transgressor in His dilemma. That knowledge as it was written there, He saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied by His knowledge. What was His knowledge?

The guilt of fallen humanity He must bear. Upon Him who knew no sin must be laid the iniquity of us all. So dreadful does sin appear to Him, so great is the weight of guilt which He must bear, that He is tempted to fear it will shut Him out forever from His Father’s love. Feeling how terrible is the wrath of God against transgression, He exclaims, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” DA 685.2

Have you ever been there? I really believed that my hope was totally gone. It was a death of such a nature that there was no hope, none whatsoever, and it strangled me. My brain froze. When you’re in that state, because you recognise your sins, that after you have preached for many years, you have done the exact opposite to what you have preached and you have been a guardian over the flock of God, and you have miserably failed. This is what Jesus experienced. He felt what I experienced, what you experienced, and the Lord told me that when I was in that horrible death struggle. ‘When you’ve preached to others, when you found that they were in the situation you are in right now, what did you tell them?’ Because I had taught the truth, now the truth became meaningful to me. He reminded me of that. I am totally bereft of any hope. I felt the wrath of God. I felt absolute damnation. ‘I’m speaking to you.’ ‘What’s that Lord?’ ‘What did you tell them? Apply it to yourself now John.’ Oh, I described to them that was Jesus in Gethsemane. Jesus is with me in this hopeless, disastrous mental exercise. I just marveled at God’s love. I found the pearl of great pride. I found God’s mercy and love for a bereft sinner in Jesus Christ. What was it?

So dreadful does sin appear to Him, so great is the weight of guilt which He must bear, that He is tempted to fear it will shut Him out forever from His Father’s love. DA 685.2

Don’t leave the lid on it, brethren, and sisters. Take the lid off and let it rip then see whether God forsakes you. Jesus was there and is there as a high priest. It’s just like present tense to Him. He’s the great I Am and He cries to us; ‘Look, look what I have done in taking upon myself your misery, your disobedience, your damnation. As I experience this, look at my suffering. Ponder upon it and marvel at this great love.’

As I introduced to you, we must let the imagination expand on this in reference to myself and to Jesus. Nothing that I have experienced is not experienced by Jesus. Nothing. My sins were real to Him. Even though He never committed it and here it says it beautifully. You know how it says in the scripture, the Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of us all and He cries. You hear Him speaking to you in this dilemma of discovery.

Lamentations 1:12-14. ¹²Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger. ¹³From above hath He sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: He hath spread a net for My feet. He hath turned me back. He hath made me desolate and faint all the day. ¹⁴The yoke of my transgressions is bound by His hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon My neck.

Do I feel that still in memory? It’s just really choking. ‘Is it nothing to you that I am in the dilemma with you? I am numbered with the transgressors in Gethsemane.’

Lamentations 1:14 ¹⁴He hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

Let your imagination describe this scene to yourself. This is you and me when we take the lid off. My sins are what?

Psalms 40:12 ¹²My sins are more than the hair of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me.

Have you ever been stressed out so much that your heart’s failing? The Lord’s given me all this so I can preach this way. I have had that. It’s a terrible sensation. The heart just keeps on going, and you know, from medical knowledge, that if it keeps on going like that, you’re a dead man. I didn’t go to the doctors to heal. The Lord promised me that I will strengthen your heart. But I had to go through this experience, and I’ve gone through many experiences so that I could understand what Jesus went through so that we can share with each other and unless we are converted as ministers, we cannot help the people this way. But when we’ve been through it together with Jesus, then we can help the people this way and they will be truly converted. not just professedly so. Here it is that we are to gaze upon this pearl of amazing mercy in the description that is just painted here in front of us. What was Jesus there? He was the pearl of great price for my release that I don’t have to feel that I am alone and hopeless. God has not forsaken me because He didn’t forsake Jesus. What did Jesus die of?

Psalms 40:12 ¹²My sins are more than the hair of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me.

Imagine all the evil works you might have done, all the sins you can conceive. They come upon you as a terrible, choking thing. The evil words, remember? A thought expressed becomes a thought created and then the thoughts continue until it becomes an action. The evil words, the evil thoughts, the evil words of every son and daughter of Adam press upon his divine soul. Though the guilt of sin was not His, in other words He didn’t commit the sin, His spirit was torn and bruised by the transgressions of men. If He drank the cup of suffering, He must open His breast to the griefs and woes and sins of humanity. His breast. What’s behind His breast? The heart. He must open His heart to it, and you know what it’s like when your heart plays up, you go, ‘I’ve got to try and protect it.’ No, He opened it and He let it tear His heart. It gave Him such blood pressure that this heart ruptured at the cross. If the angel would not have come to comfort Him, He would have died there. Because His blood pressure was so high that the serum was being pushed through the pores. That was high blood pressure. Nobody has ever had high blood pressure of that nature. But Jesus because His sins, which He owned as His, which you are meant to own as yours, own them. Let them take their toll, and you will find Jesus very close to you. In this, because what did we read in Isaiah, this knowledge that Jesus had, was the knowledge that satisfied Him. Why? Because He wants to justify us. He loves us. That was what He paid to purchase His pearls, amazing truth. This is a time for imagination, time to let the word of God take its full impact in our soul. This is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. My doctrine shall fall as the rain. This is it. Take it in, brethren, please. Don’t pass it off. Take the lid off. Let it take its course.

Psalm 88:3-5 ³‘For My soul is full of troubles: and My life draweth nigh unto the grave. ⁴I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength: ⁵Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.’

This is what he experienced.

Psalm 88:6-7 ⁶‘Thou hast laid Me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. ⁷Thy wrath lieth hard upon Me, and thou hast afflicted Me with all thy waves.’

This is Jesus’ speaking. Jesus was counted among them that go into the pit that has been totally cut off from the hand of God. He died what we would have had to die if we wouldn’t receive this. Here is the total hopeless dismay that you will experience when you take the lid off. But watch, watch Jesus and gaze and admire Him as you experience yours with Him. His final climax in this whole experience and what does He do by which, you gazing upon it, He will do with you? You’ve got to gaze upon it. It’s got to be part of you. It’s got to be part of me. There He is on the cross, surrounded by the darkness, the appearance of God’s total rejection of Him.

Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God. DA 756.3

When you’re in that state, that’s what you wanted to keep the lid on. You don’t want to go down that path. Jesus did forsake of God.

Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe. In those dreadful hours, He had relied upon the evidence of His Father’s acceptance heretofore given Him. DA 756.3

He didn’t feel it then. It was memory He remembered how God was with Him. Can you remember where God has been with you? Even in the darkness of your past life, have you seen Him close to you? You are in the darkest, darkest hole. Jesus was there and He remembered how He had relied upon the evidence of His father’s acceptance here to forgive Him.

He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. DA 756.3

What’s that? Justice demands death, doesn’t it? I’m dead now. But His mercy and His great love.

By faith, He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. DA 756.3

When you don’t even feel anymore and that’s why it says, feeling or no feeling. If you’ve got no feeling for God anymore, no feeling for the right anymore, no feeling for anything anymore, that’s how Jesus was.

By faith. He rested in Him whom He had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father’s favor was withdrawn. By faith. Christ was victor. DA 756.3

Not by feeling. The feeling came when the light shone because He had broken through the darkness with faith. Here’s the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments and the faith of Jesus. This is the faith, brethren, and sisters, because we can’t look at anything good in our life, nothing. We are but dust and worse than dust, the offscouring of the earth, that’s what’s written about us. The other ones are all very prideful saying, we have the truth, we are God’s church and all that sort of thing, and here are these poor offscouring people who are exactly in the position of absolute hopelessness. They are the ones that Jesus, is satisfied that he has experienced them because they have taken the lid off and have admitted to their total depravity. Whatever comes in the future, remember, depravity, depravity is me and you can only conquer depravity by beholding this beautiful gem. This is what has kept me. This is why I’m still standing here and I’m praying and hoping that wherever you may find yourself in the future. You may meet, you will meet, and I’ve said this before, I’ve said this to people in Perth, you will meet this whether you admit to it now or not. It will come to you if you stay with this message and if you stay with this message and you meet this depravity, don’t be like the Pharisee. No, no, I’m not like that. See that poor sinner over there? I’m a reformer. That poor sinner over there, that public. ‘Thank you, Lord, for not making me like him.’ You know, we do that subconsciously. I’ve caught myself doing it and I knew I shouldn’t, but I’ve done it. But when the Lord chooses you, you can’t do that anymore. then you can have compassion for the most depraved sinner because you feel like one of them. Just open the package a bit more and look at that beautiful pearl.

Psalm 16:1 ¹‘Preserve Me, O God: for in thee do I put My trust.’

Right? I’m in this deplorable state. ‘Look, I’m experiencing this and now I’m crying to God to preserve me. Now I’m breaking through by faith and now I’m battling against this negativity in.’

Psalm 16:8-10 ⁸‘I have set the Lord always before Me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. ⁹Therefore My heart is glad, and My glory rejoiceth: My flesh also shall rest in hope. ¹⁰For thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.’

Who’s speaking? Jesus. He knew that He was going to die and when He recognized God’s mercy and He by faith broke through, He said, ‘this is it, preserve Me, O God, for in thee I put My trust. No matter how corrupted I feel, I’m going to trust you.’ What does it say in Psalm 51?

Psalm 51:17 ¹⁷Broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Psalm 16:8 ⁸I have set the Lord always before Me because He is at my right hand. He broke through by faith.

He knew that the Father was by His right hand and as He took that by faith, the darkness disappeared, and the light shone in His face. 

Luke 23:46 ⁴⁶And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, ‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit:’ and having said thus, the darkness was gone and He died.

This may be yours and my experience. In the time when I take the lid off, in the time when I admit that I have secret things there that are marring the glory of God in my life. It’s going to kill me at last. Don’t cover it. Let it come forth and then you will meet the pearl of great price in greater dimension. You will gaze upon it the way we’re just doing right now. You know, as I share this with you, it just absolutely thrills my soul. Nobody can take this joy from you.

Psalm 40:1-3 ¹I waited patiently for the Lord; and He climbed unto me, and heard my cry. ²He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. ³And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.

When you’re down there. Trust Him like that.

Psalm 40:4 ⁴Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth not the proud nor such as turn aside to lies.

This must be our experience. Such contemplation gives you profound hope with strong crying and tears in the days of His flesh.

Hebrews 5:7 ⁷With strong crying and tears, He cried unto Him who could save Him from death, and He was heard.

When you cry, when you take the lid off, and you see and admit to all the sinfulness that even you didn’t want to admit to. When you cry to the Lord and take the lid off, you will cry as Jesus cried and you will have Jesus crying beside you and you will have Jesus the High Priest coming close to you. He’s pleading my case right now and I cannot walk away from Him. I cannot ignore this wonderful love when He cries so plaintively, is it nothing to you? Can I go on doing the things that I’m so weak in stopping? The power of this is so monumental that you cannot continue, you must go with Him. We tentatively reach out for this hope but soon we fail again. We’ve heard this before and we’ve made a little submission and we say, ‘wonderful, praise the Lord’, and then I go forward and whack, I fail again. There’s still hope. Does the pearl still shine in the darkness of the knowledge of mishandled information that I have received, and I failed again? Does the pearl of Christ still shine in my heart?

1 John 2:1 ¹My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

The pearl still shines, and we may stumble and fall many times, but we will rise again.

Realise and ponder this.

Hebrews 2:17-18 ¹⁷Jesus was there, our high priest, still there, touched with the feelings of all our infirmities, still pleading for me and if I’m still there, that’s why He’s been holding back the winds of strife. ¹⁸Because I’m still in this plight, and He’s holding it back until finally He’s got us through it all.

This information is not just wonderful doctrinal information. This is to be explored and experimentally entered by every single one of us. He was in all points made like unto His brethren so that He can be a faithful priest. Our advocate, what does He say?

“If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.” How careful is the Lord Jesus to give no occasion for a soul to despair. 7BC 948.2

How careful. He doesn’t want you to despair when you have sinned again. Can you see Him pleading? Can you see Him as your high priest? I don’t want to lose you. You have miserably failed. You’ve discovered, you’ve taken the lid off, you see how wretched you are. Now you’ve seen the pearl of great price, and you just love Him and then you go along and spoil it again. How many times have you spoiled it? He is careful to give you no occasion for despair.

How He fences about the soul from Satan’s fierce attacks. If through manifold temptations we are surprised or deceived into sin, He does not turn from us and leave us to perish. 7BC 948.2

Surprised and deceived into sin. Many times, as we have seen the pearl of great price, we stand there and say, ‘yes, I’m never going to do this again’ and then Satan comes from an angle that I didn’t expect. ‘Whoops. Oh, no.’ Now it’s gone. Now it’s finished. I’m over. No. He says He’s very careful. He fences us about. He does not turn from us to leave us to perish. No, no. That is not our Savior. Christ prayed for us. He was tempted in all points like as we are and having been tempted, He knows how to succor those who are tempted. Isaiah, remember, by His knowledge, He shall justify many. By the knowledge that He knows that you and I are suffering under.

The blood of Jesus is pleading with power and efficacy for those who are backslidden, for those who are rebellious, for those who sin against great light and great love. 7BC 948.5

I’ve seen the pearl. I’ve admired it. It’s become very precious to me, and I’ve sinned against it still. His blood is bleeding still.

Satan stands at our right hand to accuse us, and our Advocate stands at God’s right hand to plead for us. He has never lost a case that has been committed to Him. We may trust in our Advocate; for He pleads His own merits in our behalf. Hear His prayer before His betrayal and trial. Listen to His prayer for us; for He had us in remembrance. 7BC 948.5

Oh, brethren and sisters, can’t you feel it? Can’t you sense the Lord? The ministers are to weep between the porch and the altar for God’s people and they can’t weep unless they themselves have been through it and they’re weeping for others that they can see are going through their own dreadful mistakes. Deceived into sin, surprised by it, have had wonderful fellowship together and then they fall and now, when Satan comes and says your case is hopeless and you really feel it is, think, think of Jesus. His case appeared hopeless to Him too and He is there not wanting you to despair, no matter where you’ve gone, no matter how far you’ve fallen. He wants to plead your case and lift you out. In our effort to live a pure, sinless life, we will only conquer by what I have shared with you. This is an enabling truth. Will we not sell all that we have to attain this treasure?

Everything, open, take the lid off, let it go out. There’s no value in it and I’m talking to you about my experience where I’ve still got those little temptations there that I still want to pursue deep in my inward sinful nature and Jesus is there and I go, ‘oh no’, and then comes the next one and the next one and if I would not have what I’m sharing with you here, I would no longer have any hope and that’s exactly what Satan wanted to throw at me, amazed in the presence of Jesus of Nazarene, the Nazarene. I was amazed. This is living precious material, and we need to ponder it, we need our imagination to explore it, we need to see it in all its facets and as we do, we will be victorious. In that I may know Him in conclusion.

This goodly pearl represents the priceless treasure of Christ, as does the gold hid in the field. TMK 83.2

That’s what it represents, the goodly pearl.

Then what is it, what is it to buy the eternal treasure? TMK 83.3

How do you buy it then? Remember I said you give up everything. Well, here it tells you. How do you buy it?

It is simply to give back to Jesus His own, to receive Him into the heart by faith. It is cooperation with God; it is bearing the yoke with Christ; TMK 83.3

That’s what it means to sell all to have Him.

It is lifting His burdens. The Lord Jesus laid aside His royal crown, He left His high command, He clothed His divinity with humanity, in order that through humanity He might uplift the human race. He so appreciated the possibility of the human race that He became man’s substitute and surety. He places upon man His own merit, and thus elevates him in the scale of moral value with God. TMK 83.3

Christ is the atoning sacrifice. He left the glory of heaven. He parted with His riches. He laid aside His honor not to create love and interest for man in the heart of God, but to be the exponent of the love that existed in the heart of the Father. What a difference, right? Jesus paid the price of all His riches. He assumed humanity. He condescended to a life of poverty and humiliation in order that He might seek and save that which was lost. Through the grace of Christ, we may strengthen and be mature, so that though now imperfect, we may become complete in Him. We have mortgaged ourselves to Satan, but Christ came to ransom and redeem us. We cannot purchase anything from God. It is only by grace, the gift of God in Christ that we are saved. So, sell it all. What does it mean? Just give over, that’s all it means. Take the lid off, release, that’s how you buy it. May God grant us to embrace that which sparkles and shines as a pearl in His wonderful word, never let it go.

Let your imagination spend much time for your own soul.

Amen.