This morning I want you to turn
with me to Matthew chapter 13, if you would please. Here we look at a parable that
the Lord Jesus told, and in verse 45, we'll just look at two verses,
verses 45 and 46. The Lord Jesus said, 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, let me say here
in the beginning that I'm not trying to present something to
you this morning, some new revelation. There's no new revelation in
the scripture. My intention this morning is
to simply try to encourage you and show you that from this parable,
just how much God loves his elect people. And he loves them in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's something that every
believer struggles with. We see how that Christ could
love someone else, but we live with ourselves, don't we? We
know what our mind thinks and where our heart is so much of
the time. And how many times we've said,
Lord, how could you love a wretch like me? But in Christ, he does. And that's what makes the gospel
so beautiful and wonderful, is that someone did for me what
I couldn't do for myself. Now, this parable given by the
Lord, many interpret it to represent fallen men and women who earnestly
desire and diligently seek after Christ for salvation. But this
interpretation and this way of thinking, men and women believe
that in their seeking and in their finding, they somehow purchase
this pearl of great price. And no doubt that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the greatest gift that any man or woman could ever be
given by God. And that the Lord Jesus is far
superior to any precious substance like silver or gold or pearls. But we know that any man or woman
that has the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ hath life. Don't you love
the simplicity of that verse? He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son
hath not life. So I know that to have life eternal,
I've got to have Him. And no doubt that Christ is far
precious than silver and gold and pearls. But to believe that
in seeking and in finding this great pearl of great price, which
folks say to be Christ, in many ways implies that sinners are
rewarded by their efforts in their seeking and their finding.
Now many believe this parable is the teaching that somehow
by finding Christ, sinners can sell all that they possess, and
most of the time that's simply implies or suggests that they
forsook, give up, and sell out all their fleshly lusts and evil
ways, abandoning their worldly companions and compassions and
possessions, and somehow secure their own salvation by their
own doing. But that's not the teaching of
Scripture, is it? Now think with me on this. There
are several things wrong with that way of thinking and the
common interpretation of this parable. It doesn't take into
account the overall teaching of Scripture. First and foremost,
there's never been a natural man or woman, a sinner, that
has ever truly sought after Christ. Paul was very plain in Romans
chapter 3 verse 11. He said there's none that Understand
it and there's none that seeketh after God none None now sinners
ought to seek salvation in Christ a Depraved sinner needs to seek
God who commands them to do so and Isaiah 55 verse six says,
seek ye the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while
he's near. Yet a dead sinner in his fallen
state and condition never has and never will seek the Lord
for salvation unless God first does a work of grace in his heart.
It's just that simple. We can use Adam, the first sinner,
as our example. When Adam sinned against God,
what did he do? Did he seek God? No. He hid from God. When the Lord
called Adam, did he come and fall on the ground in shame and
cry for mercy and grace and forgiveness? You know, I have no doubt that
if he had, God would have forgiven him. But he didn't seek the Lord. He actually did just the opposite.
He fled from God's presence and he tried to hide himself among
the trees. That's pretty ridiculous, isn't
it? Try to hide from God. Genesis 3 verses 8 and 9 says
it this way, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife
hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees
of the garden. And the Lord called unto Adam
and said unto him, Where art thou? And of course, we know
it's ridiculous to think that God didn't know where Adam was,
but God called for Adam so that Adam might take responsibility
for his disobedience and confess his sin. But he didn't. No, he blamed it on Eve, his
wife. Fellas, we're good at that, aren't
we? And what did she do? She blamed it on the serpent.
The old blame game. We've been doing it ever since,
haven't we? What about Abraham, father of
the faithful? Did he seek God? Well, there's
nothing that I can find in the Scriptures whatsoever that support
that he did. Abraham was dwelling in the land
of the Ur of Chaldees. He was a heathen whose parents
were not only idol worshipers, but were idol makers. And no
doubt in my mind that Abraham was learning the family business.
He's going to be a top-notch idol maker. But God called him out. God intervened
in his life. Aren't you glad God does that?
He called him out. God sought Abraham. And Abraham,
he wasn't seeking God. And it's the same with all God's
elect. There's none that seek Him. Luke
19.10 plainly declares, for the Son of Man is come to seek and
to save that which was lost. Isn't that good news? There are
many professing believers who cling to their personal experience
and they'll say, well, now I know there was a time that I sought
the Lord. Well, who caused them to seek
Him? As we've said earlier in this
meeting, if we love Him because He first loved us, then it has
to be that we sought Him because He first sought us. I've never
seen a dead man or woman seek anything of you, and that's what
we are by nature, dead in trespasses and sin. Does the sheep seek
the shepherd? Of course not. When the sheep
was lost, the shepherd left the ninety and nine and he found
the lost sheep. And every time I read this in
scripture, it just warms my heart. He didn't say, OK, sheep, let's
go home. No, he picked him up and put
that sheep on his shoulder and carried him all the way home.
That's what the Lord does for his sheep. When they're lost,
He finds them and He carries them all the way home. And then
He calls His friends and rejoices that He found the one lost sheep.
Oh my, what a gospel. What a Savior. To teach that the sinner is seeking
Christ, the pearl of great price, is really to neglect the teaching
of Scripture, and it's to dishonor the sovereign grace of God and
the salvation of sinners. And there are many things that
a natural man will seek after, but salvation in Christ is not
one of them. Men will seek after pleasure,
they'll seek after wealth, they'll seek after the things of the
world, but there's none None that seeketh after God. Christ
is the sovereign seeker. He still seeks out poor, needy,
helpless, wretched souls. And He shows them their desperate
need of Him. Isn't that the case with you,
child of God? The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His, and
the Lord foreknew them that were His. And those that He foreknew,
He predestinated. And those whom He predestinated,
He called, He sought. And those that He called, He
justified. And those that He justifies,
He will one day glorify. And another problem with the
common interpretation of this parable is that men and women
who believe that they've sought the Lord and that they've found
the Lord Jesus, the pearl of great price, somehow sell all
that they have to buy it. Two major things wrong with that.
First, the Lord Jesus is not lost. He's never been lost. We're the lost ones and we're
the ones that must be found and must be given life and must be
made willing in the day of His power. And secondly, the second
thing that's wrong with it is how can it be that we sold off
when being dead in sin we have nothing to sell? What do we have
to offer God that God will accept? We know that it must be perfect
to be accepted. So we have nothing perfect that
we can offer God. So we have nothing to sell. We
have nothing to offer. And sinners are often described
in preaching as being bankrupt. Well, to be bankrupt, a man has
to have more debt than he has assets. You can't even file bankruptcy
unless you're more in debt than you have equity. We have no equity. None. You know the Greek and
the Hebrew word for righteousness is equity. We have none. We have no righteousness. We
have no equity. Isaiah 64 verse 6 says of us,
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses,
plural, anything that we think is righteous, are as filthy rags. And we do fade as a leaf, and
our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. What do you
suppose our filthy rags would be worth at market? I know they have the little auction
down the street here. I used to love to go to it all
the time. But what if I went down there and asked the auctioneer
to auction off my righteousness? I wonder what it would bring.
Nothing. Nobody would be interested. It's
worthless. I have no equity. I have no assets. We have no goodness. We have
no righteousness. We have no faith. We have no
ability. We have no will to come to God
unless God make us willing. I often think about that poor
harlot Gomer. as she stands on the slave block
to be auctioned off. Her youthfulness is now gone. Her natural beauty has faded
away. She's way past her prime. Her
lovers have stopped calling. Her lovers have stopped giving.
Her joy has turned to mourning. Her sweetness has turned to bitterness. Her life has become a heavy burden. She's put herself into great
debt and she's got nothing to pay with and nothing to sell. She's now sold her freedom and
she's in debt to her sin and her life's profession as a harlot
cost her more than she ever made. And now she stands on the slave
block. Friends, there's pleasure in
sin for a season, but then comes the suffering of affliction.
And it was her husband, Hosea, that redeemed her. What a picture
that is. Our heavenly husband, the Lord
Jesus Christ, redeemed us with His own precious blood as we
stood on the slave block of sin to be auctioned off. And we, like Gomer, have sold
our souls into the pleasure of sin. We owe a debt that we cannot
pay. We have no equity. You know,
in the terms of finance, if you owe more than something's worth,
they call it being upside down. You ever heard that? Every time
I ever went to trade in a car, they said, well, you're upside
down. I said, no, I'm not. I'm standing up straight. You're
upside down. Well, you know, that's a pretty
good term for us in our sin, isn't it? Upside down. upside down. By nature, we're
all upside down, sold under sin. And not until Christ, by His
grace, saved us were we made whole. For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves.
It's a gift of God, not by works, lest any man should boast. As we discussed yesterday or
the day before, I'm not sure, according to Isaiah 55.1, our
redemption comes without money and without price. Salvation
is not for sale. It's a free gift. And it can
only be given by God. Romans 6.23, love this verse,
for the wages of sin is death. But don't you love the buts of
Scripture? But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. May God give us the grace
and the knowledge to see the true interpretation of this parable. It thrills my heart when I think
about it. Verse 45, again the kingdom of
heaven is likened to a merchant man. Now there's no doubt in
my mind that the man who here was a merchant in this parable
refers to Christ. He's all through this 13th chapter
of Matthew. In verse 3, the sower who sowed
seed, that's the Lord Jesus. The man referred to in verse
24 at the beginning of the second parable is no doubt Christ. Verse
24 says, Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The
kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed
in his field. And verse 37 tells us who it
is. He that soweth the good seed
is the son of man, the field is the world, the good seed are
the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children
of the wicked one. So the man in this parable we're
looking at this morning, the merchant man, is also the Lord
Jesus. And we're told here that first
he desired and he sought this goodly pearl. The pearl had no
life to seek the merchant man. The kingdom of heaven is likened
to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. And we had found one
pearl of great price. He went and he sold all that
he had and he bought it. Notice that this parable implies
that the merchant man had set his heart upon this pearl. He
did. Before the foundation of the
world, he did. And no doubt in my mind that
this pearl represents Christ's church in its entirety. They
are the people the Lord Jesus Christ desired and set upon his
heart. And the church of God is one.
And this is something which all together passes our comprehension,
isn't it? What was there in us? As I said,
the poor, fallen, depraved, sinful creatures we are that would cause
the Lord Jesus to desire us. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And that's what makes it grace.
It's unmerited. It's undeserved. Did our Lord
not say, my delights were with the children of man? In the eternity
of the past, God's heart was fixed on us. His afflictions,
his affections, excuse me, went out to us. He who was rich for your sake
became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich. Substitution. He was made to be sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Substitution. So poor that He occupied a manger
so that one day you and I might occupy a mansion. so poor that
He had no place to lay His head in order that you and I, His
favored ones, might forever rest our heads upon His bosom. How much does Christ love His
people? He loves His church so much that He died for them. How
much did He give? He gave all. He gave all. No wonder Paul in Ephesians 5
says, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the
church and gave himself for it. Oh, how he loves those that he
died for and purchased with his own blood. Can you see that the
merchant man regarded this pearl as being of great price? Oh,
we don't see ourselves that way. Because in and of ourselves,
we're not. But we are to Him. This merchant man in the parables
sought the pearl. We're far off. Scripture says
we're far off. We're far off from Him. Has there
ever been a sinner that was nigh to Him in and of themselves?
No, all of Adam's race were far off from Him. That's a good definition
of what we are. We're born condemned, conceived
in sin. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies. We're dead in trespasses and
sin. Plum dead. And I was far off
when He sought me. I wasn't seeking Him. I know
that. Yet in sovereign mercy and in
sovereign grace at the appointed time of love, according to God's
purpose, Christ sought me and He bought me and He brought me
nigh to Him. He said, Come unto Me, all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you what? Rest. Do you have that rest? The Scripture tells us plainly
that Christ must need to go through Samaria. Why must He need to
go through Samaria? Because He had elect children
there that He must save. Joshua, which means Savior, must
send spies to Jericho to meet a harlot named Rahab. So she and all her family might
be saved. He must. How many times in the
Holy Scriptures do we see our Lord and our Savior seeking His
people? Was it by chance that our Lord
passed by the wayside where blind Bartimaeus was begging? No, it was no accident. There
are no accidents with God. He's the God of purpose. No accidents
with Him. Christ was seeking, for He came
to seek and to save that which was lost. Was it by accident
that our Lord stopped one day and looked up in a tree to see
a wicked tax collector by the name of Zacchaeus? Was that wee
little man just lucky? No, no such thing as luck with
a God who does all things after the counsel of His own will.
Our Lord said, Zikius, make haste, come down, come down. For today I must abide at the
house. God said I must. In order to save me, he must.
Did you notice that the merchant man bought the pearl? It was at the cross that our
glorious Savior bought the pearl of great price, which was paid
for in full by His own precious blood. Peter wrote, for as much
as you know that you were not redeemed or you were not purchased
with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of Christ as a lamb slain. without blemish
and without spot." 1 Peter 1.18-19. Beloved, the blood of God was
shed. I may have already said this,
but if you want to see something of your depravity, if you want
to see something of your horrific sin, it took God's blood to wash
you clean. Now, I want to just for a minute
or two consider the pearl itself. And I'll wrap this up. Way down
in the ocean's depths, there lives a little animal encased
in a shell called an oyster. One day, a foreign substance,
a grain of sand maybe, or a small particle of rock, intrudes and
it pierces the oyster's side, and God's given that oyster a
way of self-preservation. When that grain of sand pierces
the side of the oyster, a slimy substance called nacre, I think
I'm saying that right, N-A-C-R-E, nacre covers the wound and it
repeats that process over and over and over again. And one
layer after another of that nacre, or also it's called a mother
of pearl, is cast and secreted by that little animal from the
wound in its side until ultimately there's a buildup of what in
the end results in a pearl. I'm not making this up. You can
Google it or whatever. That's how they're made. So we
must conclude, first and foremost, that the pearl is a result of
suffering. The very thing that injured the
animal, that little grain of sand or that little piece of
rock, dead, inanimate substance, that intruded then was clothed
with a beauty that's not its own. It's then covered with the comeliness
and the beauty that came from the one that it injured. The
very thing that injured the oyster is the very thing that eventually
becomes the gem, the pearl of great price. Oh, I know you see
the picture there. Acts 2.23 says this, the Lord
Jesus Christ being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you, you and I, have taken in our hearts
and in our minds, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
I've heard so many people over the years say things like, well,
if I'd have been there when they crucified the Lord, I would have
stopped it. No, you wouldn't have. You'd
have been right there yelling at the top of your lungs with
the rest of them crucifying. Let's just be honest. That's
what we've done. We've wounded Him and we've killed
Him. And in return, He adorned us
with the beauty of His righteousness. Well, isn't that good news? That's
why we call it the gospel. We, His church, are the pearl
of great price. Christ paid that great price
for us. And child of God, I hope that
you're able to see that you're an object of value and beauty
only because it's Christ in you that makes you so. We're made
a gem, a pearl of great price because of Him. And when Christ
our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory." The only reason the child of
God is the pearl of great price is because of Christ in them.
Christ in you is the hope of glory. We're being conformed
to the image of God's dear Son. That beautiful pearl originally
had its home in the depths of the sea, amid the mire and the
filth, and that's where oysters congregate. They're the scavengers
of the ocean. Down in the ocean's depths, among
the mire, this precious gem was being formed. Well, that's where
he found me. My, my. And that's to remind
us of just that, and that's to humble us that by nature our
origin is in the filth and the mire and the ruin of the fall. That time that you and I were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel
and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope. How much? No hope. And without
God in this world, if you're without God, you're without hope.
If you're without Christ, you're without hope. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who
were far off, down in the depths of depravity,
were made nigh by the blood of Christ. This pearl of great price
being formed down in the oceans of death is not seen by the eye
of man. It's a secret formation. None
but God witnesses its spiritual formation. It's the same with
the church. The church which Christ is now
building, that body of which is now being formed, is unknown
and it's unseen by the world. I'm not talking about a visible
church or a visible church building and its congregations that are
found on every corner and every town. I'm talking about that
church, which is being built and formed with like the pearl
in the oyster. That one that God sees. That
little pearl hidden from the eyes of men is being fashioned
into a precious gem. That's what Christ's church is.
That's what God is doing with the church. The Lord Jesus is going to present
to Himself a glorious church, a glorious bride, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing. It shall be holy and without
blemish. Oh, that's good news to one that's
nothing but a blemish. So in closing, first a word to
you who are yet without Christ. May God use this parable to show
you once and for all that it's utterly impossible for you to
attempt and to purchase or to merit your own salvation by any
work or doing of your own. You can't do it. It's futile. It's impossible. And the pearl
in this parable is not the Savior who the sinner has to buy. You
can't buy him. He can't be bought. This pearl in the parable cannot
be bought. This is God's word to you. This
pearl has been purchased by Christ. God's chosen people are the purchased
property of God, but with a price. And does the Bible not declare
that you're not your own? You're bought with a price. And
the only thing that we have that gives us a right to eternal glory
is Christ in us. That's it. Nothing else. We're now pearls of great price,
not because of anything in us. I know you know that. You hear
your pastor tell you that all the time. And the child of God
is made to know that by God. You won't find a believer arguing
about their sin, will you? No, sir. I agree with you. That's
one thing that we all do agree on. The only thing we might disagree
on is which is the greatest sinner. Me and Gary have thought about
that several times. For me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain. And one day soon when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." That's God's Word. It's true. Believe it. Ask God to enable
you to believe it. He made His elect something that
He would desire and purchase as His own. Again, we see that salvation's
of the Lord and it's in the Lord. It's not only of the Lord, it's
in the Lord. He is our salvation. Salvation's
in a person. And that person is God's beloved
Son in whom God is well pleased. And the Lord said, Hear ye Him. Aren't you glad? Aren't you? Boy, I am. I'm so thankful. I'm
thankful that God crossed my path with the gospel, showed
me and taught me that I was a needy sinner. I mean, desperately needy. I didn't need just a little help. I needed life. And He was pleased
to give it.