John Thiel Mp3 The Gathering of the Jewels Conference
You will recall that when we were studying the subject of the formation of His jewels, I concluded with the quote from In Heavenly Places:
Their luster depends on the polishing they receive. They may choose to be polished or to remain unpolished. HP 267.3
Did you notice a choice? They may choose to be polished or to remain unpolished.
But everyone who is pronounced worthy of a place in the Lord’s temple must submit to the polishing process. Without the polishing that the Lord gives, they can reflect no more light than a common pebble. Christ says to man, You are mine. HP 267.3
You are now only a rough stone. ‘But if you will place yourself in my hands, I will polish you.’ Did you notice? ‘If you will place yourself in my hands.’ Can you see a choice? It’s your choice. But you will either remain a pebble if you don’t choose, or you will be a jewel and you will have a place with Him.
I will polish you, and the luster with which you shall shine will bring honor to My name. No man shall pluck you out of My hand. I will make you My peculiar treasure. On My coronation day, you will be a jewel in My crown of rejoicing. HP 267.3
Doesn’t this speak yearning in our hearts that we want to fulfill this for Jesus?
The Divine Worker spends little time on worthless material. Only the precious jewels does He polish after the similitude of a palace, cutting away all rough edges. This process is severe and trying; it hurts human pride. Christ cuts deep into the experience that man in his self-sufficiency has regarded as complete and takes away self-uplifting from the character. He cuts away the surplus surface, and putting the stone to the polishing wheel, presses it close, that all roughness may be worn away. Then, holding the jewel up to the light, the Master sees in it a reflection of Himself, and He pronounces it worthy of a place in His casket. Blessed be the experience, however severe, that gives new value to the stone.HP 267.4
This is the introduction to our study. It is a process that is severe and trying. It hurts human pride. It hurts human ego. We are egocentric people, and it hurts the ego. I lose my place; I have to find it again. What a rich mental exercise this statement has given to us. Out of the quarry of the world, rough stones, but He says they are of value to Him, even in the rough they are of value to Him. He mines precious ore from the quarry of the world. He has to take that stone into His workshop.
We are now in God’s workshop. Many of us are rough stones from the quarry. But as the truth of God is brought to bear upon us, every imperfection is removed and we are prepared to shine as lively stones in the heavenly temple, where we shall be brought into association, not only with the holy angels, but with the King of heaven Himself.7 CG 73.1
Wow! As shining precious stones after He has done His work in the workshop.
If we are in the workshop of God, He will beautify us and polish us, and we will be fitted for the heavenly mansions. CT 65
With those introductory statements, let us spend our time to be enlightened as to what this experience actually is. A practical experience associated with this cutting and polishing process. We already highlighted the fact that there are many varieties of jewels. To bring the jewels of God’s casket, into a complete lustre, each different kind of jewel receives different treatment. A diamond, we already knew, is cut into facets and then the grindstone is placed to them to polish those facets up. This also is to some degree done with the other crystal gemstones. But then you have other gemstones which have precious colours for such a thing as jasper, opal, those kind of stones, how are they polished? Do you know how they are polished?
God picks us up, but He leaves our choice to us whether we will permit Him to do this work because He sees that we are precious. We have seen that He regards us as having worth. He regards us as having worth but that worth has to be illustrated if we can use that word. It has to be brought out because that rough stone, you can’t see much of the value in it. He knows there’s value in it if it gets polished and cut against the brush, the grindstone.
They are put into a tumbler with harsh grit to tumble them until they become all smooth and then finer grit to make them really shine. Tumbled together with polishing grit. The pearls we know have been created already to bring out this beautiful lustre in the mollusc under the irritation of the flesh and finally, gold and silver. How is that purified in the furnace? Melted until all of the surface is heated it up and taken and the dross comes more to the surface and the more dross comes, the more it is scooped off until finally the person who is purifying it can see himself reflected in that molten mass. As we see here every different gemstone or jewel or gold is treated in slightly different ways.
We are seldom, in all respects, placed in the same condition twice. Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Daniel, and many others, were all sorely tried, but not in the same way. Every one has his individual tests and trials in the drama of life, but the very same trial seldom comes twice. Each has his own experience, peculiar in its character and circumstances, to accomplish a certain work. God has a work, a purpose, in the life of each and all of us. Every act, however small, has its place in our life experience. We must have the continual light and experience that come from God. We all need them, and God is more than willing we should have them, if we will take them. 4BC 1182.3
Here’s the choice again. What I read is to show exactly what we have sometimes expressed, and I’ve heard certain of the brethren express – we all come from different angles of experience. We are all different in our way and we are not going to be treated in the workshop exactly the same way. That’s what Sister White described here, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Daniel and many others were sorely tried but not in the same way because each gem is treated in a different way to bring it into that polished beautiful condition. That is a very important thing to remember that as we are all different and coming from different circumstances, our trials and our experiences will differ. Let’s start as we try to understand the experiences that we will go through in different ways if we are gold or silver that needs to be purified.
Gold or Silver
This is what happens to the gold and silver. This is another ingredient here of the different remnant people in the last days.
Zechariah 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
So what will he do? He will take a third part through the fire, refining them as silver and gold is refined. How? In the furnace of the fire. There are several other scriptures.
Malachi 3:2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: 3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
It’s a challenging statement. As we were reading already in the introduction, it is a unpleasant experience, because here it says, ‘but who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap, and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi’ in a furnace.
Much to think about here of the experience of this, and that’s what we’re trying to explore, what that really means. That is what that furnace of fire is actually depicting:
1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Our faith is to be the gold that is to be tried by fire, so that our righteousness by faith will come to its beautiful glamour at the end.
Isaiah 13:12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of oath.
In this scripture is portrayed a refining, purifying process, to be carried on in the hearts of men by the Lord of hosts. The process is most trying to the soul, but it is only by this means that the dross can be removed. 4BC 1181.6
Any dross that I have has to be removed by the fiery furnace if I am gold. To purify it, it is the only means that the dross can be removed. You know that you’ve got dross. We say oh but I’m not worthy, we say that. I am not as what I’d like to be. Well, you’d like to be? You’d like to be pure? Well, then submit to this trying process.
For this is the only means by which those things that you don’t think you’re worthy of can be removed.
The process is most trying to the soul, but it is only by this means that the dross can be removed. Of necessitywe must endure trials; for through these we are brought close to our heavenly Father, in obedience to His will, that wemay render to Him an offering in righteousness…. – {4BC 1181.6}
You can see that we need to understand this, that when we are in God’s workshop, which I’m going to be reading in a moment, where that really is, where the furnace is doing its work, where the other cutting and polishing are taking place, it’s in a certain place in his workshop, as we go through those experiences, we need what we are studying here to be able to accept it, instead of running away.
As a refiner and purifier of silver, He is beholding His children, watching the process of purification, until He shall discern His image reflected in us. Although we often feel affliction’s flame kindling about us, and at times fear that we shall be utterly consumed, yet the loving-kindness of God is just as great toward us at these times as when we are free in spirit and triumphing in Him. The furnace is to purify and refine, but not to consume and destroy. God in His providence would try us, to purify us as the sons of Levi, that we may offer to Him an offering in righteousness (The Southern Watchman, February 7, 1905). 4BC 1182.1
Oh how important this is to know, that as you are going through your purifying process, which is hard, a trial, He is watching the process. That’s when we are up in the mountains with Christ as we were singing, or down in the valley among the beautiful flowers. We are enjoying it, but then when we have to go down into the valley where there is darkness and suffering and trial, the loving kindness of God is just as great there to us as when we were in that higher position.
That’s the experience of the trials of life that we go through if we are gold in the heat and the furnace in his workshop. When it comes to rubies, opals, jasper, I already mentioned these ones are tumbling, rubbing with grit in between. Rubbing shoulder to shoulder with grit in between. Rubbing against one another. The stones are tumbling and rubbing against each other with grit in between. Where does this take place in the tumbler, in his workshop?
Instead of exposing and publishing one another’s faults. SD 100.4
This is the important thing now that I’m nearly missed out on as we are being burned and, in the fire, and purified as gold.
Instead of exposing and publishing one’s faults to others, you will put forth the most patient efforts to heal and bind up. A harsh, spirited man is unrefined force. He is not spiritual. He has not a heart of flesh, but a heart as unimpressible as a stone. His only help is to fall on the rock and be broken. The Lord will place all such in the crucible and try them in fire as gold is tried. SD 100.4
A harsh, spirited, unrefined person. Have you ever felt that somebody in your experience, harsh, unrefined, not very nice to you? When you meet that, that particular person, will go through experiences that will break him and then in the fiery furnace to be melted down. When He, God can see his own image reflected in them, He will remove them. The religion of Christ is to take possession of the whole being and give force and power to all our faculties, renovating, cleansing and refining. It manifests itself without parade and high-sounding words, but it is shown in an upright and unselfish life. I always like to read things that are taken from the metaphor to the reality. Rough, coarse, natured people must be broken and must be melted down. That’s what this is all about in the furnace of purification. We go now to the rubies, the opals, and the jasper, etc. the tumbling and the rubbing. Where does the furnace and the tumbling and rumbling take place? What is the workshop?
Some people seem to think that upon entering the church they will have their expectations fulfilled, and meet only with those who are pure and perfect. They are zealous in their faith, and when they see faults in church members, they say, “We left the world in order to have no association with evil characters, but the evil is here also;” and they ask, as did the servants in the parable, “From whence then hath it tares?” But we need not be thus disappointed, for the Lord has not warranted us in coming to the conclusion that the church is perfect; and all our zeal will not be successful in making the church militant as pure as the church triumphant. The Lord forbids us to proceed in any violent way against those whom we think erring, and we are not to deal out excommunications and denunciations to those who are faulty. TM 47.1
What is his workshop? His church, which has people in it that are not pure, that are not perfect, but they are stones that are being rubbed against each other. We are not to take the idea that in the church everything is going to be just so sweet. This is important that we do not, as it says, start dealing out excommunications and denunciations because somebody in the church is rough. Somebody in the church is speaking horribly and treating others that I love in a negative way. This is to be expected in the purification exercise.
Although there are evils existing in the church and will be unto the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin. TM 49.1
If there is imperfections and sin and faults in the church, how can they be a light to the world. Well, it’s the purification process and the light the people in the world can see these people are staying together even though they are having these rubbing experiences. You see it’s all so different the paradigm shift as we keep on saying isn’t that?
The church enfeebled and defective, needing to be reproved, warned and counselled is the only object upon earth upon which Christ bestows his supreme regard. TM 49.1
Here is the worth again. He loves his people even though they are faulty.
The world in a workshop in which through the co-operation of human and divine agencies, Jesus is making experiments by His grace and divine mercy upon human hearts. Angels are amazed as they behold the transformation of character brought about in those who yield themselves to God and they express their joy in songs of rapturous praise to God and to the Lamb. They see those, they see those who are by nature the children of wrath by nature, converted and becoming laborers together with Christ in drawing souls to God. They see those who were in darkness becoming lights to shine amid the moral dark night of this wicked and perverse generation. They see them becoming prepared by Christlike experience to suffer with their Lord and afterwards to be partakers with Him in His glory in heaven and above. that workshop of God’s purification is the church. TM 49.1
It’s to do with people in it that are imperfect, rubbing up against each other. Are you getting it? Next time you see somebody treating you or anybody else in the church, even the poor children are being buffeted a little bit, this is part of the polishing process. We must help our children too to understand that. That when they are being buffeted, take it quietly, you’re learning something. We are not to ask the people who are being rough – ‘can you be a bit kinder please?’
It’s a polishing process. It’s grit, it’s unpleasant but it’s there to polish us to take it all in as part of our training in Christ. Let’s explore some more of this experience, the actual experience as we are rubbing shoulders in the church in the workshop of God.
Psalm 55:12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: 13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. 14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.
Here is a scripture that tells us that we will suffer at the hand of people who are not perfect. People that we have precious harmony with. All of a sudden something goes wrong. It says here, I couldn’t even avoid it if it was an enemy. I could have hid myself but I’m right in the church and I’m suffering with these people who are mistreating me. Oh dear. It’s polishing.
If you go toward heaven, the world will rub hard against you, rub hard. You’re a precious stone. You’re going be rubbed hard. Show God honour. In the unpleasant experience of being rubbed up against the circumstances that surround us, both in the church and in the world, it rubs hard against us. It is in those circumstances that we are to be careful in every word and every action to show God honour. That’s why I say when one day we have to be in the courts, in the courts God’s people in Babylon have to see the beautiful refined gems so that they will come out and be part of that. It’s the way we behave and we’re learning through the rubbing heart of the world against us both in the world.
Now is our time of peril, our only safety is in walking in the footsteps of Christ and wearing His yoke now that’s.
Now is our time of peril. Our only safety is in walking in the footsteps of Christ, and wearing His yoke. UL 177.3
What were we singing in the hymn? We were singing, I will follow, follow on.
Troublous times are before us. In many instances, friends will become alienated. Without cause, men will become our enemies. The motives of the people of God will be misinterpreted, not only by the world, but by their own brethren. The Lord’s servants will be put in hard places. A mountain will be made out of a molehill to justify men in pursuing a selfish, unrighteous course. UL 177.3
Haven’t we experienced it? A molehill will be made into a mountain. Not only in the world, but in the church. And have we run away from it, or have we stayed under it, being polished? I’m glad some of us have come back. Ohers have stayed there, and the polishing continued. This is what happens in the church. Very important material to bear in mind all the way through. That this is what we will experience, and we must not regard it as something that shouldn’t be happening.
Christians are Christ’s jewels. They are to shine brightly for Him, shedding forth the light of His loveliness. Their luster depends on the polishing they receive. They may choose to be polished or to remain unpolished. HP 267.3
‘You are mine. You are going through this, you are part of my church and you must be prepared for this kind of experience’. The rubbing in the church against each other, how was that expressed that even brethren will say and do things to us that are hurting self. Oh yes, just self, that’s all, because Jesus Himself had a different attitude to that because He conquered self. That was in regards to the precious pebbles that are being polished. Now we come to the gemstones, rather the crystal gems, the diamonds, the emeralds, the topaz, these crystals. How are they processed? How do they become processed? Remember we read in the beginning that everyone has a different experience according to their own particular process? Whether they have been produced in the quarry of the world as diamonds or whether they have been formed into those precious stones that get polished by rubbing, whatever it is, how do these diamonds and crystals become processed?
All need much of the blessing of God, and here is the place to be tried. We are in God’s workshop. The cleaver of truth takes men and women out of the world, and they have to be refined and fitted for the Master. We must let the truth take possession of our hearts and then the work can be accomplished for us. 3MR 110.4
The process takes place as the truth takes possession of our hearts and the work can begin to be accomplished for us. What is the work as He takes us by the cleaver of truth from the world into His workshop?
The company of believers may be few in number, but they have been taken by the cleaver of truth as rough stones from the quarry of the world … to be fitted up by test and trial for a place in God’s heavenly temple, and they are very precious in the sight of the Lord…. Even in the rough they are precious in the sight of God. The ax and the hammer and the chisel of trial and test are in the hands of One who is skillful, and are used not to destroy, not to bring to nothingness, but to work out the perfections of every soul…. OHC 167.4
The axe and the hammer and the chisel – it’s in the hands of the one who is doing the work, in the hands of one who is skilful. A skilful facet cutter of a diamond. What we sometimes have to experience, the brunt of a hammer, of a chisel, the cutting, deep.
We are God’s workmanship. The value of the human agent depends wholly upon the polishing he receives. When the rough stones are prepared for the building, they must be taken into the shop, and hewed and squared. The process is often sharp as the stone is pressed down upon the wheel, but the rough coarseness is being removed, and the lustre begins to appear. The Lord spends not His time upon worthless material; only His jewels are polished after the similitude of a palace. Every soul must not only submit to this work of the divine hand, but must put to the tax every spiritual sinew and muscle, that the character may become more pure, the words more helpful, the actions such as God can approve (Letter 27, 1896). 3BC 1154.1
We have these faulty characters in the church that rub up against us, but these faulty characters these rough aspects, these characters that needs to be purified words, instead of words being rough and dictatorial against each other, have you experienced it? You’ve been rough sometimes. You’ve hurt somebody. The Lord is at work to change that in His workshop.
The divine Worker spends little time on worthless material. Only the precious jewels does He polish after the similitude of a palace, cutting away the rough edges. The process is severe and trying; Christ cuts away the surplus surface, and putting the stone to the polishing wheel, presses it close, that all roughness may be worn off. 3BC 1154.2
The divine worker spends little time on worthless material. There it is that’s been repeated again. It is worthful material that He is working on. Blessed is the experience, is that correct? Is that a blessed experience? Have you enjoyed that experience?
Blessed be the experience, however severe, that gives new value to the stone, causing it to shine with living brightness (Letter 69, 1903). 3BC 1154.3
That’s what it’s about. No matter how much suffering you’re going through in the church, it’s there to polish us and it’s a blessed experience, however severe. Why are we reading? Why am I spending this time to do this here? Because so many people have been shown that this is to happen and they walk away. They want a church where none of this happens. But if we are God’s true church, that is what happens because God is working there where in all reality is this cutting, what is it? In other sort of expressions that we can really identify.
The mighty cleaver of truth has taken you out of the quarry of the world. SD 319.3
You were rough stones with jagged edges. What were you doing with your jagged edges? Bruising and marring whoever you came in contact with?
By the mighty cleaver of truth God has brought His people, as rough stones, from the quarry of the world. These stones must be squared and polished. The rough edges must be removed. This is a painful process; but it is a necessary one. Without it, we could not be prepared for a place in God’s temple. By trial, by warnings, by admonitions, God seeks to prepare us to fulfill His purpose. If we cooperate with Him, our characters will be fashioned “after the similitude of a palace.” It is the specified work of the Comforter to transform us. At times it is hard for us to submit to the purifying, refining process. But this we must do if we would be saved at last (Letter 139, 1903). 3BC 1154.4
There is a work to be done to move off the rough edges. If you appreciated the value of the work that is to be done in the workshop of God, you would welcome the blows of the axe and the hammer. This is what makes people as much as I’ve tried to help each individual.
…your high opinion of yourself will be cut away by the ax and the hammer, and the roughness of your character will be smoothed off; and when self and carnal propensities are worked away, then the stone will assume proper proportions for the heavenly building, and then the polishing, refining, subduing, burnishing processes will begin, and you will be molded after the model of Christ’s character. His own image is to be reflected in the polished character of His human agent, and the stone is to be fitted for the heavenly building…. SD 319.3
This is the experience. As I said in the beginning, we must pay close attention that we do not become unnecessarily discouraged over these kinds of experiences. Trials are the avenues by which this polishing takes place.
The trials of life are God’s workmen to remove the impurities and roughness from our character. MB 10.3
Oh, how I experience this. Every day I have a trial with something or another that shows me, John, you’ve still got that German nature that is so impatient with things. If it isn’t perfect, you get impatient. The Lord wants me to become patient, and so He puts me over the ground again and again and again and again until I have become soft and gentle.
The trials of life are God’s workmen, to remove the impurities and roughness from our character. Their hewing, squaring, and chiseling, their burnishing and polishing, is a painful process; it is hard to be pressed down to the grinding wheel. But the stone is brought forth prepared to fill its place in the heavenly temple. Upon no useless material does the Master bestow such careful, thorough work. Only His precious stones are polished after the similitude of a palace. MB 10.3
Feelings are stirred and we want to give vent to them, then our faith is tried. Now did you get that? This is the experience that adverse circumstances stir our natural feelings and that happens in the church too, doesn’t it? Something is happening in the church and it stirs me and I’m watching and I’ve got to try and do something to stop it from happening. That is the very thing that as my feelings are stirred. I want to vent to them and that’s when our faith is tried that then we are to manifest not our natural reaction to the irritation that’s happening there. We are to manifest meekness and gentleness of Christ. Before I burst out according to my reaction to those circumstances, I must stop and realise, oh I could say this much nicer, I could do this in a much more gentle manner, in meekness and gentleness of Christ.
Not by one word are we to give expression to the feelings of the natural heart. HP 270.2
Not by one word. Somebody is doing something in the church. Somebody is irritating me, and I’ve got to try and correct it and outbursts a natural feeling. No, I’ve got to learn not to do that. This is part of the trial.
“If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body” (James 3:2)—the whole man. HP 270.2
That’s what you’ve got to do, bridle yourself. The whole man, what we want is to be under the control of Jesus. When some unpleasant circumstance is taking place in front of me, Lord, under your control, please show me the way, under the control of Jesus.
What we want is to be under the control of Jesus. We do not want our own way. I have heard some plead as an excuse for their wrong course, “You know that it is my temperament, it is my disposition, transmitted to me from my parents.” Yes; and they have cultivated it and educated themselves in it and thus excused all their wrongdoing. Instead of yielding to temptation, they should lay hold upon the arm of Infinite Power, saying, “I will come to God just as I am, and plead with Christ to give me the victory. I shall be more than conqueror through Him that loved me.” HP 270.2
If you examine carefully, it is usually somebody is crossing your way of doing it. It says we do not want our own way.
These are the living experiences. Whether we are gold or whether we are silver, or precious stones or crystals or pearls, all is designed for God’s casket of jewels. We’ve just gone into detail. And being an evening hour, it’s been a bit tedious, hasn’t it? But that’s part of the purifying process. To be able to sit there and listen to all this, How many times I’ve had to do it and when I’ve done it afterwards thoughts would come to me and I’m so glad I listened carefully no matter how tedious it was. We are all designed for God’s casket of jewels More than even a casket as gemstones in His crown of rejoicing.
Much better than just a casket of gems. It will be in His crown of glory. The question is, are you willing? Are we willing to go through all this that I have gone in detail of? If I will be willing, I will become a shining gem in the crown of God’s glory. May God confirm it inside of us is my prayer.
Amen.
