John Thiel mp3 The Gathering of the Jewels Conference
Proverbs 23:23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
May the Lord impress us simply with the importance of doing this, buying it, buying the truth, and buying understanding and instruction and wisdom. Indeed, Jesus is my pearl. He is my precious. This became so meaningful to me because I used to call my wife my precious. Now that she’s gone, Jesus said all the good you saw in her was me. Now that she’s gone, ‘I’m still here’, He’s my pearl. He is my precious. I love Him but what is involved many times, we become affectionately involved with someone but we don’t realise what is involved. That’s why so many marriages fall apart. They don’t realise what’s involved. That’s why many Christians fall apart because they don’t know what’s involved.
We like the thought of what we have studied over the last three studies. We have occupied our minds with the worth of humanity because God regards humanity as His treasure, as His jewels and those are wonderful thoughts. I get a wonderful sense of worth that God actually regards me as His treasure. But during this hour of worship, I want our full attention upon the one central jewel through whom we become jewels or through whom we are polished and produced into something delightful. The pearl of great price being Jesus Christ. This is delivered by Him:
Matthew 13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
This parable, this story, metaphorical story, is what the kingdom of heaven is about, that the merchant man goes and looks for precious pearls and he finds one that is the best that he has ever seen and he spends his whole fortune in buying that one pearl. That’s what the kingdom of heaven is about. And we are focusing here on that one pearl that is described by the Spirit of Prophecy?
The blessings of redeeming love, our Saviour compared to a precious pearl. COL 115.1
Our Saviour compared the redeeming love as a precious pearl. Hence his lesson by the parable of the merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Christ himself is the pearl of great price. In Him is gathered all the glory of the Father, the fullness of the Godhead. COL 115.1
Oh, to let that sink in. He is God Himself in human form. That’s why He is so precious. He is in God’s image. He is the fullness of the Godhead and He is there among the human race.
He is the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person. The glory of the attributes of God is expressed in His character. Every page of the Holy Scriptures shines with His light. The righteousness of Christ, as a pure, white pearl, has no defect, no stain. COL 115.1
Are you picking something up now as we are proceeding? Every page of the Scripture has to do with the light of the Godhead in Jesus Christ. That’s what we were just reading. The righteousness of Christ.
No work of man can improve the great and precious gift of God. It is without a flaw. In Christ are ‘hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ Colossians 2:3. He is ‘made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.’ COL 115.1
Every word is weighty here. That’s all part of the Pearl.
1 Corinthians 1:30. All that can satisfy the needs and longings of the human soul, for this world and for the world to come, is found in Christ. COL 115.1
Everything. Oh, how meaningful that is to me.
Our Redeemer is the pearl so precious that in comparison all things else may be accounted loss. COL 115.1
As we let this sink in, we want to ask ourselves, am I in this picture? Am I the merchant man that is prepared to sell everything; to purchase this great pearl? Obviously, all our meditations regarding jewellery pertaining to human beings is indeed a study into metaphorical detail. We’re looking at a pearl, at the jewellery and we admire the pearl and it’s a metaphorical representation of what we should do with the privilege that God has given us in giving to us the pearl of great price, Jesus Christ.
What is a metaphorical application? Or what metaphorical application does a pearl have in reference to Jesus? We’ve already been reading that a little or not only to Jesus but to human beings for that matter because we’ve described how human beings are also pearls, the worth that has been given us. A pearl is something that sparkles and shines, if you ever look very closely at a pearl, it sparkles and shines with subtle colours and swirls of white, pure white pearl with subtle shimmering’s of colours, very subtle.
It’s an interesting experience to look at such a beautiful pearl, as was described in our reading there. No flaw, absolutely smooth and white with these subtle colours swirling in it and as you look at such a thing now, we’re look where we’re trying to get the metaphorical experience here. As you look at such a beautiful pearl, you go through a sense you go through an experience of especially if it’s yours or if it’s going to be yours that you’re going to sell everything for. I’m wealthy if I’ve got that. Is that right? You go into an experience of deep inside. This is mine. What a beautiful wealth I have got here. A sense of wellbeing of wealth. This is why I said in the beginning, we must know what it means to have this pearl.
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. The Review and Herald, March 19, 1895. Ev 186.3
She’s talking to the ministers here and this is when you have as a minister, discovered this pearl, you want others to discover it and how are you going to help them to discover it?
Thus will the sinner be attracted to Him who is represented as the Chief among ten thousand and the One altogether lovely. The cross of Calvary is a pledge to us of everlasting life. Faith in Christ means everything to the sincere believer. The merits of Jesus blot out transgressions, and clothe us with the robe of righteousness woven in the loom of heaven. The crown of life is presented before us as the honor to be given at the end of the conflict. These precious truths are to be set forth in living characters.—The Review and Herald, March 19, 1895. Ev 186.3
Because a pearl is represented as a metaphorical thing for Jesus, we are to, and I admire in my ministry, in trying so hard to lay out before us the precious, sparkling, shining aspects of Jesus, as it says, that it is to be revealed of the preciousness of Christ as a precious gem that sparkles and shines. How? By the precious truths that are to be set forth in living characters. That’s the hardest task; to be able to communicate these things so that the people hear them and don’t just hear them as cliches but that they can see by the presentation that there is something here that sparkles and shines and that keeps children occupied instead of looking at each other, looking to Jesus and concentrating in the divine service upon him. This is what as we concentrate on the experiences that Jesus is trying to communicate to us, it’s something that’s got to sparkle and shine. It’s to do with truth. The pearl is something that sparkles and shines with those subtle colours.
We have been reading this now and as we’ve been talking about it, it’s something to do with experience. Indeed, the experience of looking at a pearl that becomes mine, something very precious. I know you children, you like to fuss around for rocks, don’t you? When you’ve found a precious rock, you go, ‘Oh, isn’t that nice?’ That’s what we’ve got to do with Jesus, to so look and marvel at the beautiful sparkling colours, metaphorically speaking, symbolically. It’s to do with an experience when we study the Bible. Jesus is to be an experience to be communicated and presented.
Salvation is a free gift, and yet it is to be bought and sold. In the market of which divine mercy has the management, the precious pearl is represented as being bought without money and without price. In this market all may obtain the goods of heaven. The treasury of the jewels of truth is open to all. ‘Behold, I have set before thee an open door,’ the Lord declares, ‘and no man can shut it.’ No sword guards the way through this door. Voices from within and at the door say, Come. The Saviour’s voice earnestly and lovingly invites us: ‘I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.’ Revelation 3:8, 18. COL 116.3
Gold tried in the fire. How did the pearl form? Through irritation in the flesh and it developed, or the purification of gold tried in the fire or the pressure in the fire of a diamond that is created under this terrible experience and there comes this beautiful product. It is an experience and it has to do with an experience of truth, not just an earthly pearl. It’s truth that is the pearl as we have been touching so far, Jesus is the jewel of truth. Of course. Isn’t that what He said?
John 14:6 I am the way, the truth and the life.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God
As we’re talking about this jewel, this pearl, it’s to do with the truth that is part and parcel of that person, Jesus Christ, the Word. That’s what we were reading there. Every page of the Bible is resplendent with this great valuable pearl. As we research the Word in the Bible for truth, you could only experience exactly what I experience. I’m preparing Sabbath School lessons, I’m preparing divine services, but not doing it for the sake of preaching to you, but of course I have to share it with you, the point is, I am making an experience with the mind of the universe. This is our privilege and I’m blown away. I’m overwhelmed with the enormity of the beauty of the glory of Jesus, of the mind of God; truth.
Christ was the originator of all the ancient gems of truth. Through the work of the enemy these truths had been displaced. They had been disconnected from their true position and placed in the framework of error. Christ’s work was to readjust and establish the precious gems in the framework of truth. The principles of truth that had been given by Himself to bless the world had, through Satan’s agency, been buried and had apparently become extinct. Christ rescued them from the rubbish of error, gave them a new, vital force, and commanded them to shine as precious jewels and stand fast forever. Christ Himself could use any of these old truths without borrowing the smallest particle, for He had originated them all…. CTr 225.4
Gems of truth every little truth is a gem that you’d make an experience with. The reason why in modern times in which we are living today, the Bible doesn’t have an attraction to people, it’s just a book. But I tell you something, it’s much more than just a book. Because Satan has displaced these gems of truth that are in the book. With all the errors twisting and turning around us today, the Bible is just another one of those, right? That’s what we’re hearing. Well, that’s what Satan’s work is.
The Framework of Truth
Jesus, the pearl of great price, is the truth that is found in researching the scriptures and letting Him drag them out of the rubbish of all the thoughts and humanity confusions that Satan has generated.
Christ is the truth. COL 110.1
Just as He said – ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’
Christ is the truth. His words are truth and they have a deeper significance than appears on the surface. COL 110.1
You’ve got to look close at the gem. It doesn’t always show you on the surface. Even as we saw the colours of the diamond, I had to look a bit closer because I didn’t see it first of all and then. ah there it is, because it doesn’t always come straight out at you. You actually have to look deeper into the gemstone there. All the sayings of Christ have a value beyond their unpretending appearance.
Minds that are quickened by the Holy Spirit will discern the value of these sayings. They will discern the precious gems of truth, though these may be buried treasures.—Christ’s Object Lessons, 107, 108, 110. HB 41.6
Buried under a heap of rubbish of worldly theories and philosophies, it’s sad what Satan has done, but as we were reading all this, connect the dots, connect each little point. If the truth is to be found in the Word and it is to do with our experience of the preciousness of Christ that sparkles and shines, namely gems, pearls, what do we pick up here? It has to do with life. Whatever has to do with your life, that is what you and I value, don’t we? I want to have a purpose and a reason for living. I want to have a life that is meaningful. Isn’t that the problem in the world? People are coming to the realisation of what’s the meaning of anything here. Well, look at the experience of this truth – it sparkles and shines. It has to do with your experience that sparkles, that is going to sparkle as a result. It is life. We clearly perceive that the rendition of a life in Jesus Christ is what this pearl is. Life. Isn’t that also what Jesus says? ‘I am the way, the truth and I am the life.’ The reading of God’s truth, the contemplation of the truth as it is correctly set by Jesus Christ as gems that He has originated, He then comes to earth and He says, ‘I am the life.’
Children, think about it, Jesus was the life of a little child to be obedient and to concentrate on what He wants to say to us, you see, Jesus was that. Just imagine Him sitting here as a little boy. You would have looked at Him and thought, why is He concentrating so closely on the divine service? He’s only a child. People have said to me – children can’t understand what you’re teaching. Yes, they can. You can understand the beauty of a pearl, can’t you? You love collecting gemstones. This is all concentrating and looking carefully at what the Bible is. In John 8 this is Jesus speaking and He is saying something beautiful here that we want to get our minds around to comprehend by looking carefully at it.
John 8:31 Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him.
What does he say?
John 8:31 If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and what will you know? And you shall know the truth…
Is that all?
John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Have you ever been bound down and thought, ‘I wish I could get out of this hole, out of this particular experience. I’m not happy here. I’m bound. I can’t help myself. I keep on doing the wrong thing. I’m in trouble.’ And then the truth comes to you and you go, ‘Oh, I’m free.’ And then you discover another thing that you’re bound to and you study again and, ‘Oh, I’m free again’ and there is a joy.’ That’s what Jesus is all about. He says, ‘If you continue in my word, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.’
John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Free indeed, not just an imaginary freedom. People build castles and live in those castles and you know, they’re just castles of imagination, not reality, but this is reality. This is truth. This is an experience that is worth building your life upon. It’s worth selling everything. As Jesus said, what happens in the soul who takes the truth? The truth shall set you free, because as you study the truth, you will make an experience. And what is the experience – John 17:23. Remember the experience of looking at a literal pearl? You make an experience. Wow, this is beautiful. Now we’re looking at it in reality,
John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them.
The glory which thou gavest me. Isn’t it a glorious thing to look at? A beautiful pearl?
John 17:23 That they may be one, even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, That they may be made perfect in one.
Jesus is uttering something here that is available to us through Him the pearl of great price if you follow the truth, if you follow the Word, you will discover something inside of you, Christ in you. In Colossians 1 this is a great mystery, and you can’t experience the mystery until you follow the word closely. It takes a little while to discover, this gem inside of you, Christ in you. The apostle Paul knows it by experience and I testify I know it too.
1 Colossians 1:25 Wherefore I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfil the words of God, even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints.
Did you pick something up here – a mystery? Oh wow, did I have that experience when I was ministering in the Reform. I was upholding this beautiful mystery of Christ in the atonement and what did they say? You know, when I showed that Jesus was in our sinful flesh and all that beautiful detail, they said, ‘John, Jesus did not have sin in the flesh. You are dealing with a mystery. It’s a mystery. The nature of Christ is a mystery. Therefore, don’t preach it.’ That’s what I was told. But what does the Apostle Paul say? What’s it saying? ‘I am a minister of that gospel, even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest.’
What does manifest mean? It’s shown. It’s open. It’s not a mystery anymore. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is? What is the mystery? Christ in you the hope of glory. That’s the mystery. And that’s what Jesus said, ‘I in them and thou in me.’ This is the experience that is available to us.
1 Corinthians 4:6 For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge.
Treasure where? In this body, earthly body, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. God can shine into our dark body and He can illuminate our heart. As you study the truth as it is in Jesus, as you study the detail of the gem, the detail of that sparkling shining pearl, you will discover things that have to do with your inward self. The very things that people are struggling with in the world today. They need to have this truth that will illuminate them on the inside, and they will discover life, the real life. I tell you brethren and sisters, friends, you want to have this. If you’ve just got it in your head and you haven’t got it in your heart, Jesus isn’t there yet. But when He’s inside, wow. Just as Jesus, the Word is the pearl or the treasure, He Himself is the pearl and the treasure, it is the believer who takes this.
2 Corinthians 3:2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: 3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
What’s the apostle talking about? The truth that the Apostle is preaching, the truth that is coming to us through Jesus Christ, that truth is written, it’s experienced inside of you and we become a letter, an epistle the way I live, the way I find joy, the way of my attitude in life, it’s all that which Jesus has put in there and it shines out. People read you. Have you ever heard people say, I mean we’ve had it in our testimony times, that people say you must be a Christian because it’s written all over you. There is something that shines out of the face, out of the eyes in every one of His children.
If you are Christ’s follower, He sends in you a letter to the family, the village, the street, where you live. Jesus, dwelling in you, desires to speak to the hearts of those who are not acquainted with Him. SC 115.1
Are you acquainted with Him through the truth? Has he become part of you? This is where the children of God, His believers, the believers in Him, they actually communicate through their disposition, through their life, through their attitude. It says in every one of His children He sends a letter.
Perhaps they do not read the Bible, or do not hear the voice that speaks to them in its pages; they do not see the love of God through His works. But if you are a true representative of Jesus, it may be that through you they will be led to understand something of His goodness and be won to love and serve Him. SC 115.1
It must be the experience of the child of God. It must be inside of them for others to hear and to see. They will ask questions and then they’ll go, ‘wow, this is something I’ve never known about God.’ We are to be gems for Jesus. What is the truth? What is this truth that sparkles and shines that made Jesus such a pearl so precious to our experience? Recall what I have often read. We are now just spending a little bit longer to actually explore what it is that sparkles and shines to my inward soul.
The only way in which we can gain a more perfect apprehension of truth… DA 494.4
these words are well chosen, apprehension to apprehend something. You’ve got the truth now and you can receive it inside of yourself. Is doing what?
…is by keeping the heart tender and subdued by the Spirit of Christ. The soul must be cleansed from vanity and pride, and vacated of all that has held it in possession, and Christ must be enthroned within. Human science is too limited to comprehend the atonement. DA 494.4
Too limited.
The plan of redemption is so far-reaching that philosophy cannot explain it. It will ever remain a mystery that the most profound reasoning cannot fathom. The science of salvation cannot be explained; but it can be known by experience. DA 494.4
Here’s the experience again. Now what’s the experience by which it can be known? This gem. What is it?
Only he who sees his own sinfulness can discern the preciousness of the Saviour. DA 494.4
Did you catch that? If you want to see the pearl that sparkles and shines, you’ve got to know what a wretch you are. You’ve got to know how sinful you are, how unworthy you feel. You’ve got to know that. And then as you look at it at this truth, you will make an experience and that sparkles and shines. Let’s go on and exploring that. I’m not going to go into a long Bible text reading but the points that I’m making here are Bible texts that you can read. When your true sinful condition vividly comes up before you, how do we know our true sinful condition? The law tells you what a wretch you are, the Ten Commandments. Do you examine yourself in the Ten Commandments? You see it? I’m a dreadful person and as you continue to realise if you’re trying have your children You know what that’s like. You’re trying to do what the Ten Commandments and you fail. You know that experience? How do you feel? You feel rotten, don’t you? Am I ever going to change? I keep on doing the same thing again and again. I know I shouldn’t be doing it, but I do it. You know that experience? Now you’re pretty close to discovering the pearl. Let’s follow it carefully. ‘I am so prone to fall.’ What’s the statement? ‘He reveals to us the things that we would have done if we had opportunity.’ You got that? I’m not doing it, but if the right circumstances come about, I’ll do it. That was the hardest thing for me to discover. You think, ‘man what sort of a wretch am I’. The sense that comes to me of my condemnation, the power of passion that arises within me when something…
Colossians 2:3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
hidden in him What’s that? Wisdom, knowledge.
As you read the Bible, you are to discover what is hidden in Him. What is hidden in Him in reference to my sin? What is hidden in Him? What do you read in the Bible? What do you see relevant to your hopeless condition as you look at Jesus? What do you see? That He was in all points tempted like we. Did you believe that? You know, some people don’t believe that. In how many points? In all points. You know, I’m quoting Scripture. He was in all points in Hebrews tempted like as we. In how many points from within and from without? I got that from the church. No, He was not tempted from within. Oh yes, He was. He was tempted within himself just like you are. He was in all points tempted like as we are.
What else? He was made to be sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. I’m seeing myself with my sinful condition. He was made to be sin that I am despairing about. He was made to be that the experience that I am making. Jesus made what? How was this expressed in the Bible? He is crying my cry. What do you feel when you are overwhelmed with a hopeless condition? How do you feel about how close is God to you? ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ Who said that? ‘My God, my God! Why has thou forsaken me? Why did He say that? Because my sins caused Him to say that. They were in Him. He is shedding tears. What tears? You know that beautiful statement, ‘I too have wept,’ Christ’s object lessons. The tears that you are pouring out, ‘I know I too have wept.’ He is saying my words! Who knows His own sinfulness can appreciate these things. Only he who knows His sinfulness can see the precious pearl and say, ‘What? This is mine? That God of the universe has joined himself with me to such a degree?’ And there He is, all who have sinned must die, He is with me, and I am in Him dying my death.
It didn’t stop there, did it? He rose again to a newness of life. Here is plaintiff cry. He is trying to get this across to us just like the preacher is trying to get it across to us right now. But so many times I’ve preached these things, and it just does not sink in. He is saying in these words. He is saying, Is it nothing to you? Are you just passing by and not ignoring what this is all about?
Lamentations 1:12 Is it nothing to you, all ye 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. 13 From 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. 14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.
I in Him, die with Him and He rises again. What does it mean? What does it mean?
Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
This is not my fabrication. What does it mean when I die with Him because He dies with me, with my sins? What happens next? Those words together with Him, I was in Him with my sinfulness and Jesus experienced me. I died with Him but I’m in Him and He is risen. Who comes up with Him? The one who knows His sinfulness. That’s what Jesus says; ‘If you follow me in my word, you will be set free.’
We will overcome our sins when we occupy ourselves with this gem, with this pearl that sparkles and shines in experience, your experience and Christ’s experience. The beautiful gem, what a story. What colourful meditations there are in this to stand up and become together with Him, rising to glory and sitting in heavenly places with Him. Does not this sparkle and shine? Is not this something to sell everything for? To give up everything for that? The pearl of great price. Let us embrace this and with Him become the treasure of God, His own son. That’s what sparkles and shines.
It has to be your experience, and I hope and pray that under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this is my greatest prayer that you can pick it up in your experience. I love you all. I want you to find what I have found in Jesus, the reason why I’m weeping is because there’s so many people I’ve loved and I’ve laboured for that they missed the point. They didn’t continue to follow Jesus together with me. Oh yes, I’m a sinner. They can pick out my sins and they walk away because they’re not looking to Jesus, but they’re looking to me. But I represented Jesus as the wonderful Saviour for me. I still stand here today, I haven’t given up no matter what my past has been. I tell you I’ve suffered under my past, but Jesus hasn’t given up on me and neither will He give up on any one of us if we don’t walk away. We keep on looking at that pearl, keep on staying there until He is in me and I’m in Him.
May God bless us in the contemplation of the detail of us being His jewels and what He is doing to finally imprint us into His or transfer us into His crown, into His diadem, for eternity to be with Him.
Amen.
