All right, we're gonna be looking
at just two short parables today in Matthew 13. Two very popular,
two very familiar parables. The parable of the hidden treasure
and the parable of the pearl of great price. And I'm sure
most of you, if not all of you, have heard messages on these.
But to get to the main issue of these parables, what Christ
is teaching here, We have to understand in the context of
the gospel what the gospel is and what it is not because there
are many false gospels. False religion and false gospels
plagued the early church. even in Christ's day, but especially
after he died and was buried and arose again the third day.
And we talked about his resurrection, you know, people met together
today, you know, celebrating the resurrection of Christ. Well,
we celebrate the resurrection every time we meet together.
It's not just a one-day thing. It's not just Easter. The word
Easter means atonement anyway. But we celebrate the resurrection
of Christ every day of our lives, and especially when we're met
together to worship in spirit and in truth. The resurrection,
when we think about it, why was he raised from the dead? Well,
it was because he saved, in his death, he saved his people from
their sins, he satisfied the justice of God against our sins,
and secured the salvation of his people. And today in the
main message at 11 o'clock, I'm gonna talk about judgment, because
the resurrection, I think most of you have heard it in this
light, There's a lot about judgment that's connected to the resurrection.
And I'll show you that from Revelation 14 and passages like Acts 17
that I quote all the time on our television program, quote
from this pulpit. But it has to be, these things,
the treasure hid in the field that he talks about. Look at
verse 44 of Matthew chapter 13. It says, again, the kingdom of
heaven. So now these parables are descriptions and definitions
of the kingdom of heaven. Well, what is the kingdom of
heaven? Well, it's not just pointing up in the air and saying, well,
there's the kingdom of heaven. No, the kingdom of heaven, Christ
told his disciples, the kingdom of heaven is within you. The
kingdom of heaven is the church, the true church, of which Christ is the foundation,
the heart, the head, the life of the church here on earth,
the true church. And that's his kingdom. It's
not just something future. Right here within God's people
who know the truth now, not in unbelievers, but in God's people
who know the truth, who have been given the gift of faith
from God, and it is a gift. That's the kingdom of heaven.
Well, what is it like? That's what Christ is doing in
these kingdom parables in Matthew 13 all the way through, all those
parables. He's telling them this is what
the kingdom of heaven is like. So he says again, the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field. Now it's hidden.
And what does that mean? Is God trying to play games with
us? Is he just trying to play hide and seek? No, what he's
telling us is that if you understand and are brought in by the grace
of God through Christ into the kingdom of heaven, it's a work
of God and it has to be revealed. Man by nature is not going to
find it. There's a verse of scripture
that I love to refer to because it's in Ecclesiastes. I didn't
mark it here. It's Ecclesiastes chapter three.
Most people, when they look at Ecclesiastes, if I can find it,
they think, in Ecclesiastes three, they think about the words, there
is a time to be born, a time to die, you know, time and time
and time. And that's a beautiful passage because what that's teaching
is that it is God who determines the time. God is sovereign over
time and eternity. And it's not, you know, I've
often said, God is not some kind of cosmic chess player. You make
your move and he makes his counter move and everything, we'll know
how it all ends in the end, you know, that kind of thing. God
determines the end from the beginning. That's Isaiah, said that. And you know what that means
now? That means God is sovereign in providence. God's not learning. He's not learning anything new
because he's omniscient. That means he's all-knowing.
He knows all. He determines all. And I know
that's a mind-boggling truth, and we can't understand it and
grasp it, but that's the way it is. God's not like some cosmic
janitor. We mess things up and he comes
behind us fixing it up, you know, that kind of thing. but he determines
the time. But look in Ecclesiastes 3 in
verse 11, listen to this, it says, he hath made everything
beautiful in his time, God has. Now ultimately, we look around
this world and we see some awful ugly things, don't we? I mean,
in the sinfulness of man, our own sinfulness, the flesh, We
can talk about that for days and weeks and months, but we
see some of, but God has made everything beautiful. Now, why
is that? Well, Romans 8, 28 tells us he works all things good and
bad to the praise of the glory of his grace for the good of
his people, those who are called and who love him. Well, and that's
by grace. So God has made everything beautiful
in his time. Also, he had set the world in
their heart. Now what that means is that every
person born, even fallen in Adam, born spiritually dead, that's
what the scripture says now. That's how we come into this
world. We are born fallen in Adam. spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins. Tim and I were talking about
this last night. You know your children when they grow up, you
don't have to teach them how to lie, do you? That kind of comes
natural. You don't have to teach them
how to be selfish and all that. That's part of our fallen nature.
That's why we need salvation by grace. That's why we can't
work our way into salvation. That's why we can't earn God's
blessings. They have to be given. And so
it says here, when he has set the world in their heart, even
fallen man has a sense of eternity. That's what that means, literally.
In other words, just about everybody wonders, even atheists, what
happens after we die? Is there a heaven? Is there a
hell? Is there an eternity? Or are we just snuffed out of
existence? Now that's exclusive to human
beings. Dogs and cats aren't around wondering
what's gonna happen after they die. Dogs and cats don't create
religion to answer that question. But man does and he's always
wrong. That's what he says here. Look, he says he has set the
world in their hearts so that no man can find out the work
that God maketh from beginning to end. Man can search, he can
ponder, he can philosophize, he can theologize, he can do
all these things, but he's never gonna find the answer until it's
revealed to him by God. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
Revelation. So back here in this parable,
he says the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in
a field. There's a treasure and it's hid
in the field. Now this parable illustrates
how precious and how valuable God's church, God's elect, God's
people are to him. We are, the Bible says, of the
true church, of the people of God, those whom God saves by
grace, those whom God chose before the foundation of the world.
That's what the Bible teaches. Now, people don't like to hear
that, but that's what God's word says. God chose the people, gave
them to Christ, put them in his hands, put them on his shoulders.
The Bible says the government is upon his shoulder. Isaiah
chapter nine, verse six. All of the salvation of God's
people was conditioned on Christ. And what did he do when he came
into the world? He fulfilled those conditions. He kept the
law perfectly. You didn't, I didn't, and we
can't now. If salvation's by the law, by
our works of the law, there's no hope for us because we're
all sinners. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That means we do not reach the
pinnacle, the mark that God requires. Well, what is that mark? It's
the righteousness of the law, the perfection of the law that
can only be found in Christ, his blood, his righteousness. And so This is his treasure,
those whom God gave to him before the foundation, those for whom
he died, he said he died for his sheep, and those who he redeems
by the blood, redeemed by the blood, and those to whom he reveals
himself. And they're precious to him.
And I've got several scriptures in your lesson that you can look
up. The world, looks at the true
people of God and calls them, as written in 1 Corinthians 4.13,
the offscouring of all things. The world hates Christ, hates
his truth, and hates his people. And that's sad. And we know that
because that's the condition we were in before God revealed
himself to us. And I remember it well. I remember
when I first heard the true gospel, I was in religion. I was a second
year seminary student. And I got so angry hearing that. But then God, as he puts a bridle
in the wild ass's coat, the mouth, and tames him by revealing himself
to him, brings us down. That's what we need. We're so
proud. We think we know it all. We don't
know anything until God reveals himself to us. But here it is,
this treasure, we are his treasure, his jewels, and it says here
in verse 44, that the witch, when a man hath found, he hideth
and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and
buyeth that field. Now the man there is Christ,
seeking his sheep, seeking his treasure, And when he found it,
now it's not that he didn't, you know, you can't, Brother
Mahan used to say, you can't make a parable stand on all fours.
Don't get overwrought with these things. It's not that he didn't
know where we were. You know, you think about Christ
in his earthly walk. You remember when he was going
through Samaria in John chapter four? And He made this statement. His disciples want to know, well,
why would you go through Samaria? Because no self-respecting Jew
would go through Samaria. Everybody hated the Samaritans.
That was a mixed breed. They were compromisers. They
were idolaters. Why would you go through there?
And Christ spoke this in John chapter 10. He said, I've got
some sheep in this world. And I know where they are. I'm
going to find them. He said, them I also must bring. He's gonna come to his sheep.
So when it says when he found it, it doesn't mean that he didn't
know where it was and he just stumbled on it. He purposely
goes to his sheep, the ones whom he redeemed, the ones who are
justified in God's sight, washed in the blood of Christ, clothed
in his righteousness imputed, accounted to them. They must
live. They must have life. They must
be born again. And so he finds his sheep, and
he hides them. We sing a song, he hideth my
soul in the cleft of the rock. What does it mean he hides us?
Not from view. He hides us in safety. He keeps
us. No sin can be charged to us. Now that doesn't mean we're not
sinners. We are sinners. But who shall lay any, Romans
8, what, 32 I think it is? Maybe 33, you can correct me
on that. But Romans 8, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Well,
that's God's view of us. That's not man's view of us.
We look at each other and we see all of our flaws, all of
our dirty laundry. We don't see into the heart,
I know that. Nobody can do that. Sometimes we don't even know
our own hearts, a lot of times. We're like the Apostle Peter,
you know, we think, oh, we'll stand firm no matter what, and
then the next day deny him three times. So we have our flaws. But you know, when God looks
at his people, he charges them with no sin, because their sins
have been charged to who? To Christ. And Christ put those
sins away by satisfying the justice of God in his death. That's what
his death is all about. It's not like what people are
told today. People are told today that the
death of Christ is just an expression of God's love. Well, it is an
expression of God's love for his people, his sheep, his elect. But it's more than that. It's
an expression of God's justice. against their sins. Because without
the shedding of blood, without death, the wages of sin, there's
no remission, no forgiveness, no pardon of sin. God must be
just. And he's going to be just and
holy and righteous if he damns a sinner or if he saves a sinner.
And if you've got a God who is unjust in any way, you don't
have the God of the Bible. You've got an idol. He's both,
Isaiah 45, he's both a just God and a Savior. He's both a righteous
judge who deals accordingly, according to justice and holiness
and righteousness and truth, as well as a loving, merciful,
gracious Father, Savior. And it's all because of Christ.
Think about Christ, how he loves his people. Herein is love, John
wrote, 1 John 4, 10. Not that we love God. We're not
the source or the cause of God's love, but that he loved us, who's
the us there, and sent his son to be the propitiation, the sin-bearing
sacrifice that brought satisfaction to God's justice, the propitiation
for our sins. And let me tell you something,
if he died for your sins, you're going to live forever. How do
you know that? God raised him from the dead.
That's what that's all about. I've got an article in the bulletin
about that, about his resurrection. It means that all the prophecies
and all the types and the pictures of the Old Testament were fulfilled.
It means the sins of his people, the debt which was imputed to
him, have been totally dealt with, paid for, wiped away, What
can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. See, it's not our faith and repentance
that washes away our sins. It's not our tears of remorse
or our reformations of life and attitude that wash away our sins.
Those things are the fruit and the result of our sins having
been washed away by one grant, the blood of Jesus Christ. And
once God reveals that to you, then you'll repent. He'll change your mind and your
heart. You'll stop thinking that it's
about you and you'll start thinking it's all about Christ. It's all
about grace. It's not what I can do for God,
it's what he's done for me. And it means that righteousness
has been established. All the righteousness that God
requires is found in Christ for his people. And it means they
will all be born again. Well, look here, it says that
when he found it, he hideth and for joy therefore goeth and selleth
all that he hath and buyeth that field. Well, Christ literally
sold everything he had, he sold himself. He gave himself a ransom. He gave up everything that he
was and is. He died on the cross. And he
bought the field. Now the field is the world. Now
does that mean that he bought and redeemed the whole world?
Well, if he did, the whole world's gonna be saved. But the Bible
doesn't teach that. What it is, it's like Peter said,
he's been made both Lord of the dead and the living. When Christ
died on the cross to redeem his people from their sins, he bought
the crown rights to rule over this whole world, the good and
the bad, everything, for the purpose of saving his people
out of the world. He's Lord, right now. Many people, most people don't
recognize it, but they will. Because one day every knee's
gonna bow and every tongue's gonna confess that Jesus is Lord. And the treasure will glorify
him. When he calls us a treasure,
we need to understand, it's not because of any inherent natural
value or goodness in us. And it's not even the right of
creation. Somebody said one time that, well, God created me, he's
obligated to save me. Oh, no, he's not. Jeremiah spoke
of that and Paul spoke of it in Romans 9. He's the potter,
we're the clay. And the potter has rights of
ownership over all of it, to do with them as he will. And
let me tell you something, however you see it, you can say, well,
God's unfair, God's unjust. Read Romans 9, there's your answer
to that. Basically, the answer is who
you think you are to argue and debate with God. You're a nobody. False religion spends its time
telling you how much of a somebody you are. But true religion spends
its time telling you who Christ is. And there's our hope. Christ, Christ, crucified. Christ the Lord, our righteousness.
So it's not because of any inherent goodness in us, for we have none.
It's not because of any inherent value in us, we have none. We're
sinners who deserve nothing, but death and hell. I tell people
all the time, if God ever gave any of us what we deserve and
what we've earned, it would be death and hell. What do you mean,
preacher? I mean salvation's by grace.
It's a gift. And the very next breath you
take is a gift from God. because he determines it. He
gives it, he can take it away. That's the God of the Bible.
So we're his treasure because of the glory that God receives
from the salvation of such people as us, as we are. God is glorified
in the salvation of a sinner. Think about it, because in the
death of Christ, And this is connected to his resurrection
too. In the death of Christ, we see how every attribute of
God's nature is honored and magnified, revealed, working consistently
together to do one thing, to save his people from their sins.
His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. All right, now let's go on to the next one,
verse 45. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is likened to a 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. Now that parable is showing how
Christ is so precious to his people. You know, Peter wrote
this. I've got this in your lesson,
1 Peter 2.7. unto you therefore which believe he, Christ, is
precious. And you who know Christ, you
know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about.
You know that your whole salvation is wrapped up singularly, simply,
totally in the glorious person and the finished work of Jesus
Christ. and what you do for God. And we should do a lot more than
we do for God. That's not for salvation. That's in thanksgiving and gratitude
and love for the gift that God has freely given us in Christ. That's the difference. The motivation
for obedience for a sinner saved by grace is not law. It's not
legal. It's not earned rewards. People
say, well, I'm saved by grace, but I'm working to earn my rewards.
Well, you're not a child of God. You're not a willing, loving
bond slave. You're a mercenary. That's what
a mercenary does. He works or he wars for pay. My friend, the Bible doesn't
speak of rewards plural. for God's people, it speaks of
reward singular. And what is that reward? It's
the reward of grace given us. And I'll get to that in just
a moment. But here, this pearl of great price, it says this
man, he was seeking goodly pearls. Now what is that but a sinner
trying to earn his way into God's favor? Seeking goodly pearls. These goodly pearls are things
that he thinks will recommend him unto God. Goodly pearls,
but not perfect. It can be religion. Oh, he can
join a church, he can get baptized, he can give his heart to Jesus,
as they say, he can give his tithe, give his time, all of
that, trying to make himself righteous in God's sight. Those
goodly pearls. But then one day the Lord comes
along and in saving grace by the Spirit, he shows that man
his utter depravity and sinfulness. And the fact that no matter how
good he tries to be or whatever achievement he makes, it still
falls short of the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in one pearl, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the
Pearl of Great Price. And I want you to turn to Philippians
chapter three. I wanna show you an example of
it that you're familiar with, but let's look at it anyway.
Philippians chapter three. This is the Apostle Paul relating
how God brought him to see this Pearl of Great Price. Brought
him to see the glory of God in Christ. He starts out, look at
verse three. of Philippians 3. He says, for
we are the circumcision. Now he's talking about spiritual
circumcision there because he's talking to Gentiles here too,
believing Gentiles and believing Jews. And the Jews, you know,
the unbelieving Jews, if any Gentile came into their circle,
that male had to be circumcised because they thought that was
the initiation into the kingdom. Well, they were wrong. That's
legalism. That's works. And Paul said,
well, we're the circumcision. Circumcision of the heart. Paul
described it in Romans 2, 28 and 29. That's the new birth. We're the children of God. That's
what he's saying. Which worship God in the spirit. Some translations capitalize
spirit and say that's the Holy Spirit. Well, that could be true.
We worship God as the Holy Spirit guides us in the word of God.
But it could be in our spirits, the new life that God's given
us. We worship God from the heart. We don't have the playthings
of false religion chalked up all over the place. these visual
aids that people put so much significance on, like they're
spiritual. Well, like the Catholic Church
and their statues, and they think there's power. We're gonna be
taking the Lord's Supper. There's no power in the wafer,
the unsalted or unleavened bread. That's a symbol. It represents
the body of Christ. There's no power in the cup that
we partake of. It's a symbol. The power is in
Christ. There's power in the blood, not
in the wine. But we take that because they
represent the body and the blood of Christ. So we worship God
in spirit, through our hearts, through the word, sincerely. And it says that we rejoice,
or boast, or glory, or have confidence in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh. No confidence in ourselves. But
now look in verse four. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof,
he might trust in the flesh I more." And here's the goodly pearls
that Paul was seeking as a lost religionist. Circumcised the
eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee. That means he went
above and beyond the call of duty. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, he went about stamping out what he saw as heresy. Touching
the righteousness which is in the law blameless. Now those
were the goodly pearls that Paul was going about to seek when
he was lost. But look what happened. Verse
seven, but what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for
Christ. What happened, Paul? He found
the pearl of great price. He found Christ. Yea, doubtless,
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of
all things, and do count them but dung. All those goodly pearls,
they're worth nothing, they're dung. That I may win Christ and
be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith or the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. He
found the pearl of great price and everything else went by the
wayside. He repented of all those other
things and he looked at Christ. Well, one more point and I'll
close. Look back at Matthew 13. It says that he went and sold
all that he had and bought it. Well, is that teaching that we
can buy salvation? And of course the answer is no,
we can't buy salvation. Well, what's it telling us? Number
one, there is a price to be paid. Salvation towards us is by grace. But somebody's got to pay the
price. I often use the analogy of our modern day politicians
wanting to forgive student debt. Let me tell you something, that
debt's not just going away. Somebody's going to pay it, and
you know who's going to pay it? Us Americans. He's just imputing
it to us. That's what he's doing. Well,
there is a price to be paid for our salvation, and it's a debt
that has to be paid, and who paid it? Christ did. And how
much of it did he pay? 90%? And then you paid 10? No, he paid it all. Jesus paid
it all. All the debt I owe. And you know
what? He gives that price to us. Redemption. And we bring it to
God. And we didn't work for it. We didn't earn it. We didn't
deserve it. But we have it. Why? Because
he died for us. And how do you know that that
debt's paid? He arose again from the dead. And what does the Bible
say in Romans 8, 10? The body is dead because of sin.
We know that, don't we? But the spirit is life because
of righteousness. Well, look at Isaiah 55, and
we'll close with this. Verse one. It says, ho, everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money. That's us, isn't it, spiritually?
Come ye, buy and eat. How am I gonna buy and eat with
no money? Yea, come buy wine and milk without money, without
price. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread? Why, in false religion, you're
spending your money and you're getting nothing from it. And
your labor for that which satisfied not. Hearken diligently unto
me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incidentally, in the Old Testament,
fatness means health. Incline your ear, come unto me,
here and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. That's Christ. Christ paid the price, he gives
it to us. He that spared not his own son,
how shall he not with him freely give us all things? What does
the Spirit teach us according to 1 Corinthians 2.12? The things
that are freely and fully given in Christ.