Okay, brethren, let me ask you
to turn to Matthew chapter 13. We're going to look at the treasure
and the pearl this hour, and Lord willing, next hour we will
look at three applications of the blood. I'm looking forward
to both messages. They've both been
a blessing to me, so I hope they will be to you as well. Matthew
13, verse 44. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. And He says again, The kingdom
of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field, through which
when a man hath found, he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and
selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again the
kingdom of heaven is like unto 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. As we've done before in these
parables, we've looked to see first of all how the parable
applies to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then secondly how it applies
to the Lord's people. That's what we'll do this morning.
The first thing we're looking at is the treasure hid in a field. And first of all, God's elect
children are the treasure hidden in the field, the treasure of
God, the treasure of His Son, the treasure of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Throughout the Old Testament
Scriptures, the Lord is declaring that He has a people, that He
has chosen a people for Himself from among all the people in
the earth to save them out of the people of the earth. that
He's reserved for Himself before the world ever began. When He
promised to save a people, when He promised Abraham that He would
save a people, He told him to look into the sky and look at
the stars, and He told him that, He said, your children are going
to be more in number than the stars. He said, can you number
those stars? They're going to be a number
that you can't even count, Abraham. And throughout the scriptures,
we find that even amongst the household of Abraham, Abraham
had two sons. One was Ishmael. He had her by
a bondwoman. And Ishmael was the product of
Abraham, the work of Abraham. And Sarah, their idea of how
they would have the promised son. And the Lord said, Ishmael
is not the son of promise. And He cast Ishmael out. He said, Isaac is the son. Isaac was the promised one. Isaac
was given of God. Isaac was chosen of God. Isaac
was born of God. That describes the elect of God. It pointed to Christ the Lord.
We know that. Paul said, In Galatians, the
promises were made to thy seed, one seed, and that seed's Christ.
It's who Isaac pictured. But my point I'm making to you
is, it's not all the natural sons of Abraham were the children
of God. He said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. God chooses whom He will, and
He puts them in Christ before the world began. And He created
that nation, Israel, And he said, I did it to show
you how I save my people. I form the nation, I deliver
them out of bondage, I carry them through the wilderness,
I bring them into the promised land. And that's what our Lord
does. And his children are the treasure
hidden in the field. He said this, they shall be mine,
saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels. They're His jewels, they're His
treasure. In Deuteronomy 32, 9, the Lord's portion is His
people. Jacob is the light of His inheritance. The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto
Himself in Israel for His peculiar treasure. It means His chosen
treasure. It means the treasure He has
hidden. By divine electing grace, He
hid this treasure. And the field described here
is the world. We saw that before in one of
the parables. Look back at verse 38. The Lord is talking about
one of these parables and He says the field is the world.
The field is the world. God scattered He scattered the
children of Israel into the world, that physical nation. And He
said, when I send forth the Redeemer, when I send forth Christ the
seed, I'm going to gather them out from the four corners. His
elect, He's going to call them through the Gospel, through the
truth of Christ the Lord, and bring them to Himself. And He
manifests from the very beginning. You know, Abraham wasn't a Jew.
Abraham was in the land of, from Ur of Chaldea. He was, there
was no such thing as Israel at that time. No such thing as that
nation. And God's children all come from
Adam. All from Adam. Jew and Gentile. Male and female. All from Adam.
And all died in Adam. When he sinned, we sinned. When
he died, we died. and were scattered just as God
cast Adam out of the garden into the world. The nation was scattered
when God was done with it, Israel when He was done with it, and
now Christ has come and He's begun to gather His children
from the four corners of the earth. That's what the Scriptures
declare to us. That's what Christ has said the
Kingdom of Heaven is like unto. Again, here in verse 44, he says,
"...the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden afield,
the which, when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof
goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."
Christ Jesus is the man. God in human flesh. You can't
see God. He's Spirit. But He communicated
Himself to us in the Scriptures. He created a world to communicate
Himself to a people made of flesh. And He came in the flesh. And
He made us to behold Him in the flesh. to behold who He is. And we see the glory of God in
the face of Christ Jesus. And there's no difference between
a Jew and a Gentile who's spiritually dead. There's no difference whatsoever. The reason that the children
of Israel, the national people of Israel rejected Christ when
He came is because He wasn't what they imagined He would be
like when He came. He came as a baby in a manger.
He came from poor parents. He came through just a meek and
lowly way, and yet He's the King. But you know, God said that from
the beginning. You know where David was? David
is the King in Israel who typified Christ the King to come. And
you know where, when Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse? He
went to all the boys. Jesse said, take... Oh, this
must be the one you want right here. He's my big fine strapping
boy. And Samuel said, no, that's not
the one. And he went through all his sons to David. And David
was out there tending sheep in the back of the field somewhere.
And Jesse's thinking, you mean David's the king? God was declaring
from the beginning, my king's not going to be like anything
like you imagine with your feeble mind. And now he's not, he's
not, but he's the king. And he came for joy. The Hebrew
writer said, look unto the author and the finisher of our faith
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the
majesty on high, the throne of God. This treasure, for this
treasure, He came and He sold everything He had. Christ did. The Scripture says, you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet
for your sakes He became poor, that you, through His poverty,
might be made rich. It cost Him everything He had.
He came to this sin-cursed earth from heaven's glory. God came
down. He condescended to a people who
had no goodness in them. He condescended to a people that
had done nothing good, nothing to earn His favor. That's what
grace is. You know that? He was despised and rejected
of men. He was made sin for His people. The wrath of God was poured out
upon him. He poured out his blood. That
was the price of the purchase that had to be made. The wages
of sin is death. And he paid the wages. He paid
the debt that his people owed. And he died in their place. And
he bought them. He purchased them. And when he
did that, he bought the whole field. He bought the entire field. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him might
not perish but have everlasting life. He created the world in
the beginning and sin entered in by man. It didn't surprise
Him. But just as He makes all things new, He bought the world
and He's going to make the world new. He's going to make a new
heavens and a new earth. Everything is going to be made
new by Him. When He ascended on high, look at Psalm 2. I want
you to see this. Now, make sure you understand. He didn't purchase. He didn't
make satisfaction for everybody in this earth. He didn't put
away the sins of every person in the earth. He bought the field. He made satisfaction for His
treasure, for His children. But He did buy the field and
the deed. You know what happens when you
buy a field? You get the deed to it. That
means you own it. You can do whatever you want
to in that field. And nobody can tell you what
you can or can't do. He bought the field. He owns the world.
He said, all power in heaven and earth is given unto Me. Look
here now in Psalm 2 verse 8. This is what the Lord said. This
was spoken years before He came by David, and He was declaring
what Christ would do when He came. Look at this now, He says,
Verse 6, Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I
will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou
art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Now look at this next verse.
Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. It's
his. It's His, brethren. He said,
as thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He might
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. And the
Lord shall gather out His chosen, He shall gather out His redeemed,
He shall gather out His treasure, and not one's going to be lost.
Look over at Isaiah 43. Back in the days before there
were banks, Men often hid their treasure in the earth. That's
where this parable is coming about. This is something that
the Lord's disciples understand plainly. Men would hide their
treasure in the earth. And He's saying this is like
to a man that went and he found that treasure hidden in the field
and he bought the field. He bought it and he took it. You know, there is a sense in
which this treasure belonged to somebody else. When Satan
entered the garden and Adam sinned, the children of God, as the earth
stood in the earth, became the lawful captives of Satan. They
had to be bought. His head had to be crushed. The
wages had to be paid and had to be taken from him. And they
were taken from him. He's made speed to the spoil. He's taken the spoils from Him.
This is His treasure. But He hid this treasure. He
knows exactly where it is, and Christ will gather every one
of them out. Look at this, Isaiah 43, 4. Since
thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and
I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for
thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, I am with thee. I'll
bring thy seed from the east. I'll gather thee from the west.
I will say to the north, give up. To the south, keep not back.
Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the end of the
earth. Even everyone that is called by my name, for I have
created him for my glory. I have formed him. Yea, I made
him. See, God's going to save every
one of His people. Not a one's going to be lost. Nothing's ever taken Him by surprise. Sin didn't enter in and scare
Him. Satan didn't enter the garden and sneak up on God. He's been
in charge of everything. But now let's look at the second
thing here. The Lord Jesus Christ is the treasure of the believer.
He's the one pearl of great price. Look over at Colossians 2. Whenever
Christ begins revealing Himself in us through the Gospel, it's
like finding treasure in a field. Look over at Colossians 2. And
look at verse 3. He's talking about the mystery
of God and of the Father and of Christ. This is what I'm declaring
to you. This is a mystery. It's hidden. It's a hidden mystery, this Gospel
is. But when He begins to make you
to understand this, He says, this mystery of God the Father
and of Christ, you find out that it's in Him in whom are hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. all the treasures. Look over
at Luke 24, verse 32. Luke 24, verse 32. You see, this
Gospel's got to be revealed. It's by divine revelation. This is what's offensive about
the Gospel. It's that God's going to get
all the glory. God does the choosing. Man doesn't do the choosing.
God does the saving. Man don't do the saving. God
does the calling. And only then does a man call
on Him. God does the drawing and only
then will a man approach God. God has to reveal who He is in
the heart and only then does a man have wisdom. So then we
got none. Oh, we think we got some. We
think we're wise and nobody can tell us anything. But we're ignorant
of our own ignorance until God makes us to know who Christ is.
Those men on that road to Emmaus, they were walking along, and
Christ had come, and He had laid down His life, and He had ascended
back to the Father, or He had raised from the dead, and He
came to them on the road to Damascus. And He walked with them on the
road to Damascus. Our Lord does this now. He said,
where two or three are gathered in My name, I'm there in the
midst of them. And He walks with His people. He communes with
His people. And as He walked along, He talked
to them. Look at Luke 24, verse 31. And it says, verse 31, And their
eyes were opened, and they knew Him. And He vanished out of their
sight. He'd been talking to them about
the Scriptures. He'd been opening the Scriptures to them. And they
said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while
He talked with us by the way and while He opened to us the
Scriptures? This is how you get this hidden
wisdom and knowledge. It's by Christ opening to us
the Scriptures. That's right. Now this next parable
in our text, it may describe the singleness, I think it describes
the singleness of heart that God gives the believer, that
He creates within the believer. It describes the singleness of
heart. Verse 45, Again the kingdom of
heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. Matthew
13, 45. The kingdom of heaven is likened
to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. Every believer here will
tell you this. Weren't we like the merchant
man? We were trying to strike bargains.
We were looking for a deal. We were seeking some goodly pearls,
trying to get rich, and trying to set our nest on high so we
could be saved from poverty, saved from this world, saved
from God's wrath, saved from everything. We were trying to
do it ourselves. And we had what we thought were some goodly pearls.
We had a few treasures in this world that we looked upon and
we thought, Yeah, that's going to provide for me now as I go
through this world, through this earth. That's going to be my
safety. That's going to be my salvation.
We had some good religious goodly pearls. We thought, well, we've
joined the church or we've joined the synagogue or we've joined
this organization or that organization. We've joined this religion or
that religion. We got us a goodly pearl now. Oh, we got a whole
denomination behind us. We thought, well, we got the
Bible. We've been reading it. We've sought life in this, sought
what we ought to do and not to do, and we've been doing it.
We've been doing what we ought to and doing what we ought not
to do. A lot of goodly pearls. We're wrapping those pearls all
around us. Made a lot of change about our
lives. Decided we were going to straighten
up and fly right. But by God's grace, by His grace,
He came to where we were and He made Christ to be the one
pearl of great price. You ask a believer how valuable
Christ is to him. Ask a believer how valuable Christ
is to him. If you look at Ephesians 1. Ephesians
chapter 1. Look at verse 3. Old Paul was a Jew. He had a
bunch of goodly pearls. His mom and daddy had circumcised
him the eighth day. He had made a bunch of sacrifices.
He had gotten old enough and he thought he'd done a lot of
good things. He thought he'd kept the law. He had Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob and he was of the tribe of Benjamin. But then God made him to know
this one pearl of great price. And here's what he said. And
he's writing to Gentiles. He knows now this thing's not
about just a physical nation. He knows this is a spiritual
nation. He knows this is a heavenly kingdom. He knows this Jerusalem's
above, which is the mother of us all, which is free. And he
says this, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. You ask a believer, how valuable
is Christ? All spiritual blessings were
given us in Christ. All of them. All of them. According as He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world that we should be holy
and without blame before Him. You know what that means? That
means that when Adam fell in the garden, and I fell in Adam,
and I sinned in Adam, and I was born, conceived in sin, and came
forth from my mother's womb, speaking lies against God, walking
around all the days of my rebellion, haughty, and shaking my fist
at God, and thinking I knew who God is, and knowed everything,
and had to whirl by the tail on a downhill drag, Even then, I was before God,
in Christ, holy, and without blame. That's one pearl of great
price. If He didn't love me simply by
His grace, simply because He put me in Christ, He certainly
would have never loved me because of anything in me. This sinful wretch is accepted
by the Holy God, been adopted. Look at verse 5. Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, God
adopted me, His child, to Himself by Jesus Christ. I'm His son
because Christ is His son. That's a pearl of great price.
When Christ can stop being His Son, I can stop being His Son.
That ain't gonna happen. Ain't gonna happen. Oh, look
at verse 7. In whom we have redemption through
His blood. I have it. I have it. I have the redemption. He's purchased
me. He bought me. He bought the field.
He bought me. when he bought the field. I have the forgiveness
of sin. All according to the riches of
His grace. This pearl of great price. Look
at verse 11. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance. We have it. We have it. Our inheritance
can never be taken away because it's God who predestinated us
to have the inheritance, and this is Him who works all things
after the counsel of His own will. Before He made the first
grain of sand, the first grain of dust, before He spoke anything
into existence, He ordered all this according to the counsel
of His own will, and He did it all in His beloved Son, Christ
the Lord. And that's All my hope. All my
hope. And lamentations. And I tell
you, there had never been a person saved outside of this hope. This
was Abel's hope. This was Noah's hope. This is
the ark Noah was in. That's right. This is Abraham's
lamb that he brought when he was going up that mountain with
Isaac. that he saw caught in the thicket and took the place
of Isaac. This is that lamb. This is David's
king. He said, Thee, Lord, said to
my Lord, just read the Scripture. Thee, Lord, said to my Lord,
sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
He's the king. This is David's Lord. And in
Lamentations, Solomon, this is Solomon's Lord, he said, the
Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in
Him. You know, nothing will empty
the hand, your hand and my hand. Nothing will empty our hand of
fools gold until we meet this pearl of great price. Nothing. You'll hold on to a false refuge
to what you think is gold and silver and precious stones until
you meet this one pearl of great price." He says, when he found
one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had
and bought it. Our Lord said, where your treasure
is, that's where your heart will be. Where your treasure is, that's
where your heart will be. The rich young ruler came to
the Lord. And he had in his hands some
goodly pearls. He was rich. He was young. He had his health. And he was a ruler. That meant
he was a teacher in Israel. He was a scribe. He was among
the Pharisees. And he said, what good thing
must I do to inherit eternal life? And the Lord said, keep
the law. Keep the law in thought, word,
and deed. Keep the law and you'll enter
in. He said, I've done it from my youth up. And the Lord said,
one thing, thou lackest. one thing. You know what he was
missing? The one pearl of great price. And he loved those goodly pearls
and those riches he had in his hand so much he went away sorrowful
because he couldn't let them go. He couldn't let them go. But you know, Levi was just like
him. Matthew he was just like him.
He was a tax collector collector sitting at the receipt of customs
He was making he was robbing the people He was collecting
taxes for Rome and at the same time that he was collecting taxes
for him He would have been a good politician in the state of New
Jersey Because he's getting a kickback for everything he did That's
right. And he was making money hand
over fist, hand over fist, hand over fist, and Christ came to
him. And with one word, one command,
follow me, Christ opened up his eyes and made him to behold the
pearl of great price, Christ Jesus the Lord. And Luke said
he left everything. And then he rose up from where
he was sitting, and he followed Christ. And he had that big old
house, where he built from all that fraud, and he called all
his friends. Jew and Gentile, he called them
all into his house. Harlots and respectable folks
from the top to the bottom, from the most well-respected to the
most deplorable people, he called them all into his house. And
he said, come in here, I want you to meet the Pearl of Great
Price. And the Pharisees had their hands
full of all their tradition and all their traditions handed down
to them by men. And they looked at the Lord sitting
in that house with all those disrespectful people and those
people that they esteemed as nobodies and nothings because
they didn't measure up to what they thought was righteousness.
And they said, why in the world does He eat with publicans and
sinners? And he said, I didn't come to
call those that are whole. They don't need a physician.
You don't go to the doctor when you're not sick. He said, I didn't
come to call the righteous. If you're righteous, if you're
righteous by your law obedience, you're righteous by your will
worship, God didn't come to call you. He said, I came to call
sinners to repentance. And Levi said, That's me, fellas. That's me. And this is the pearl
of great price. And you can have the receipt
of customs. You can have your tax collecting.
You can have all your treasures you want to have. You can take
it all. I'm going with him. I got something that can't be
taken away from me. I told you this story. I like
to tell it to you. Borrowed this from Pastor Henry
Mahan. You all have met Brother Marvin
Stoniker. His daddy owned a fish restaurant
down in Alexandria, Louisiana. And he was there one time, and
there was a little boy there. And this little boy had a corn
cob. And he'd already eaten all the
corn off of it. And this butter was dripping all down his arm
and getting him all nasty. And his daddy was ready to go.
Parents were getting up, they were getting ready to go out,
and the little boy would not let go of that old greasy, buttery
corn cob. He didn't have any corn left
on it. It was all gone. He just was sucking the butter
out of that cob. And they tried everything they
could to get that fellow to let go of that corn cob, and he wouldn't
let it go. He just held on to it. The harder
they tried to get it out of his hand, the harder he held on to
it. And Mr. Stoniker walked up and he said,
can I try something? They said, sure. And he reached
from behind his back with a big old Hershey bar and held it out
to that little boy and he dropped that corncob like that and latched
onto that Hershey bar. When Christ makes Himself known
in your heart, you'll let go of that corncob. and you'll grab
the pearl of great price and you won't let go. I promise you
that. I promise you that. Where's your treasure? You still
holding on to your goodly pearls? Or have you found the pearl of
great price? Let me show you something back
there in Matthew 16 verse 25. This is how the Lord put that. He said in verse Matthew 16,
24, Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any will come after
Me, let him deny himself. That means let go of all your
goodly pearls. Let go of everything else that
you think is righteousness. Take up his cross. You're going
to bear some reproach for this. Folks don't like this gospel.
And you're going to suffer for it. That's all right. He said,
follow me. For whosoever will save his life,
hang on to his goodly pearls, he'll lose it. He'll lose it.
Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. You let go of that which you
think is life, for Christ you'll find life." And he said, for
what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world and
lose his own soul? For what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul? When you get to the end, all
your goodly pearls, they're going to be no good with God. You're
not going to be able to redeem your soul with anything you've
got. Not your will worship, not our
works that we've done, nothing. We're not going to be able to
come to God. He's going to get all the glory for saving everybody
that He saved. And that glory is going to go
to His Son. And look at it, He says, For the Son of Man shall
come in the glory of His Father with His angels. He's coming
again. And then he shall reward every man according to his works."
What does he mean by that? I thought you just said he couldn't
be saved by our works. I'll tell you what he said in
Mark 8.38. This is how Mark recorded the same incident. He said, Whosoever
therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of me and
my gospel. In this adulterous and sinful
generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when
he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Are you like Mary? He said, Martha, Martha. He said,
you combered about, careful about so many things. She was trying
to serve, serve, serve, serve. And he said, but one thing is
needful. And he said, Mary hath chosen
that good part which shall not be taken from her. The Apostle
Paul, he said, what things were gained to me, I counted them
lost for Christ. All those goodly pearls he had
as a fine upstanding Jew, getting, he was getting his marching orders,
his letters directly from the Sanhedrin. I mean, he was next
in line to become the chief of the chief. And when Christ made him to know
that he's the pearl of great price. He said, I count everything
lost for Christ. And he said, and everything I've
given up. He said, it's dung. That's all
it is. It's dung. Not worth anything.
It's refuse. It's worthless. Every bit of
it. And he said, I don't want to
be found in my own righteousness. I want to be found in the righteousness
of Christ. Where do you want to be found? Oh, if you don't have this Pearl
of Great Price, I pray. Here's my prayer to God for you. I pray God will not let you have
one minute's sleep. I pray He makes your life utterly
miserable. I pray He strips you of every
vain confidence you have, every vain hope you have, every vain
idea you have, every vain imagination you have, every foolish, ignorant
thought you have about who God is and how God saved. And if
He does that, and He makes you to behold Christ, you will say,
Clay, that is the best that anybody could have ever asked for me.
for God to do that for me. That's right. Now, if He is your pearl of great
price, look at Colossians chapter 3. If He is your pearl of great
price, you who know Him and believe Him, let go of the field. Just let
go of everything else you have. All your goodly pearls. This
is what he says, Colossians 3.1, If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. There's that hidden treasure.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also
appear with Him in glory. And he tells us there, put off
that old man with his deeds and all that envy and strife and
carry it on. And look down at verse 12. Put
on therefore, brethren, as the elect of God. You've got everything. All things are yours. You've
got nothing to fight with the folks over. Just remember, folks
that want to fight, argue, this is all they've got. all they're
gonna have. Don't fight and argue. Put on
therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved. put on bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one
another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." How did he forgive
you? Freely. Freely. You didn't have
to do anything to earn forgiveness. He said, forgive that way. Verse
14, he says, and above all these things put on charity, which
is the bond of perfectness. Perfectness. And let the peace
of God rule in your hearts. That's our rule. The peace of
God. To the which also you're called
in one body. And be ye thankful. Let the Word
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another in Psalms, Who's those psalms about? About Christ. And hymns, who's those hymns
about? Christ. Spiritual songs, who those spiritual
songs about? Christ. Singing with grace in
your hearts to the Lord and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all
in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the
Father by him. We got a lot to be thankful for,
don't we? And no reason to No reason to try to strive after
the riches of mammon. We got the pearl of great price. Amen.