Sacrifice offer in step to God. Christ Jesus is my all in all,
my comfort and my love. And now, now the chorus, now
the chorus. I found the pearl of greatest
pride, my heart loved to sing for joy. That's a good meal. Okay, thank
you. Matthew 13 now. Thank you for the water, John. No, I've got some. You just put
it out. I know what I've got. I'm thanking
you for it. Matthew 13 and read verses 44
through 46. Then the kingdom of heaven is like
unto treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found,
he hide it. 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. And once again, we're going to
look at two parables together, because I believe they go together. Now, he said in verse forty-four,
the kingdom of heaven. And every parable, he begins
that way, the kingdom of heaven. And we looked at that Sunday
morning, how that he's talking about God's spiritual kingdom. how that God, through so great
a salvation, brought his people into his kingdom. That's what
he's talking about. He's talking about the making
up of his kingdom and what all is involved. And he said it is
like great treasure, like a treasure. Treasure, the word treasure,
means something of great value. Great riches. When you think
of a treasure chest, you think of vast riches. Unsearchable and uncountable
riches, don't you? Something of great value. That's what this treasure is
that he's speaking of. And in a minute, we're going
to look at what that treasure is. But first, we're going to
do like John Hill does. We're going to tell you what
it's not. What is not treasure? Our Lord said, do you remember
in his Sermon on the Mount, lay not up for yourselves treasures
on earth. So there are treasures, or what
men and women think are treasure, valuable things, that are not
treasures at all, but they could be called fools' gold. You know what fool's gold is,
don't you? In Virginia, oh, surely not. Iron pyrite is, isn't that the
scientific name for it, iron pyrite? I remember when we first
moved here, I was out digging in the yard, you know, building
that first house, and I struck gold. Ever seen it? We don't have that in Kentucky,
do we, Virginia? I struck gold. And I thought, my, my, look at
all of it. I had to ask somebody about it.
That's fool's gold. It's of no value whatsoever.
It looks like gold. You may think it's gold, but
you won't get a thing for it. Fool's gold. So these false treasures
of the world are anything and everything in this world. Everything
in this world is a false treasure. In other words, it may look good.
It may be appealing. Someone may think it's of value.
But it's of no value. Anything. Everything. God led Solomon. Well, old scriptures
have been a private interpretation. God wrote the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes,
two whole books that are full of this subject, that vanity
of vanity. All flesh is vanity. Now, what's the conclusion of
the matter? And the Lord willing, if you want to read ahead of
time, Sunday morning for the message, I believe we're going
to look at Ecclesiastes 11 and 12. beginning with about verse
7 of Ecclesiastes 11 and all the way through chapter 12. I hope your children will be
here. I hope young people will be here. Chapter 12, you know,
is the one that begins, Remember now thy Creator in the days of
thy youth. And what is youth? Anybody under 60. That's our Sunday message, Ecclesiastes
11 and 12. But anyway, the Lord wrote those
books for us to read concerning all that is in this world. It's
all vanity. Vanity means of no lasting value. No real value. It's empty. It leaves you empty. No value. False treasures of this world
that people esteem highly as treasures are money. Everybody
wants money and everybody thinks that money will bring happiness
and contentment and so forth. Nothing could be further from
the truth, is it? Illustration. Why do millionaires
and even billionaires keep working? They want more money. It's just
not enough. The pursuit of money becomes
in itself their joy, that pursuit of money. And those that have
a great deal of it only want more. And if you just open your
eyes, you'll see that they're not happy people. They're not
happy people. Fame, the next thing that men
and women esteem as something great and that they want is fame. Rich people that are filthy rich
generally want fame, don't they? More than even riches. Who was that billionaire that
ran for president? Ross Perot. Why would he want the headache
and all that? It's the fame. It's to be the most powerful
man on earth. Earthly fame is vanity. The most famous person on Earth
will quickly be forgotten. Quickly be forgotten. Does anyone
know who John Tyler was? Anybody? Dan, do you know who
John Tyler was? Anybody? Anybody in here think
they know who John Tyler is? Nobody? He was the 10th President
of the United States. The most powerful man on the
face of the earth. And nobody, I didn't agree with
him. He was right before another fellow
you know well. Was it William Martin Van Buren? Very few people. Zachary Taylor? You don't know these guys. And
we really don't care, do we? They were president of the United
States. George Bush will be forgotten
in just a few generations. Well, the ones who people think
are infamous may not be forgotten. No, it's a fact. The scripture
says so. It doesn't matter who it is. They will be forgotten,
especially us who are lowly peons in this world. will be quickly
forgotten by nearly everybody except our closest family and
friends. So fame is vanity. Relationships. Relationships. People think if they can just
find the right, whatever, husband and wife. And I have to laugh
at these magazines you see on the shelf in the grocery store,
you know? You look at them, too. You wish
they weren't there, don't you? But you look at them. I hope you
don't buy this thing. At any rate, if you look at those,
it'll tell you how Liz Taylor has finally found happiness.
True love. You laugh, don't you? But it's
the case with all of them. They're all looking for true
love. Found it now. Finally, I found my soul mate.
Yeah. That's the reason there's no
husband and wife relationship in heaven. Christ is going to
be our husband. Christ is now the believer's
husband. Possessions, doesn't matter what
they are, they quickly become old and commonplace, don't they? The old saying, you know, is
one man's junk. You see, all of our treasure
doesn't matter. This is so fresh on my mind. I've been moving our junk around
from place to place now for a while. And some people still have some
of my junk in storage. And people just lose it for me.
I've saved me some trouble. But it was a treasure at one
time, wasn't it? Things we had to have. And we
get it, and it quickly turns into junk, doesn't it? And the
old saying is, one man's junk is another man's treasure, isn't
it? Well, it will soon be that man's junk, too. And he'll sell
it in a garage sale. And it'll be passed on and on. Why? Because these things are
temporal. Nothing that's temporal can give
you any lasting happiness or whatever. Our Lord said, Don't
trust in anything. Don't try to find happiness in
anything than a moth. can eat up. A mall you ever had a wool sweater
a favorite wool sweater sure you have to put it in in storage
and go back later than the cold all in. And one time I you know we were
first married I put Mindy's favorite wool sweater in the washing machine
or dryer or something you know. And you know then it was a baby's
sweater. And He used to wash everything. You men did the same thing. Wash
everything. Sam told me. He said all his
clothes were pink. All his white clothes. Moths
corrupt. Moths. Anything that moths can
eat up is sure not a treasure. Rust. Man, I have had every automobile
you can think of. What happens in just a little
while? Rust, and you can't get ahead of it. Rust thieves. If you don't have too much to
worry about getting stolen, then, you know, they can come
into your house and take it away. Look at Proverbs 30 with me.
Proverbs chapter 30. Now, I believe, I really believe,
and I've seen it the years I've been on earth, I've seen it,
that I believe that God's people, most of God's people, the vast
majority of God's people, will never really, truly be rich in
this life. Never. Now, I know we're rich
comparatively, compared to people in Mexico and so forth, but healthy
rich is what I'm talking about. I don't believe God's people
ever be real rich until maybe they're old and then they're
too old to enjoy it. Isn't that right? Too old to enjoy it. They just
give it to whoever and they waste it. That's what the scriptures
teach us. Save up all this stuff and then
give it to an unwise whatever, son-in-law or son or whoever
and they blow it. That's what the scriptures teach
us. But because God's people, really,
their true desire is this. Look at Proverbs 30, verses 8
and 9. This is the heart's cry of every
true believer. Verses 8 and 9. Proverbs 30,
remove far from me vanity and lies. Lord, remove it from me.
I don't want to pursue things that are of no value. Give me
neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient.
Give me what's necessary. And that's the way we live, man.
That's the way most of God's people live. They live dependent. You couldn't do without that
next paycheck, could you, Sam? And anybody in here couldn't.
That's the way it is. That's the way it is. And look
at the next part. Feed me with food convenient
for me, lest I be full. that is rich, and deny thee,
and say, Who is the Lord? You get rich, a lot of money,
and all you think about is spending. It's just human nature. Moses, the Lord through Moses,
warned the children of Israel, didn't He? When you come into
the promised land, you're rich and so forth, and have all these
things, take heed that you don't forget the Lord. Forget where
you came from. and look at the next time, but
they also don't want poverty, lest I be poor and steel. Bring an approach on God, you
know. We want to be able to pay our bills, don't we? Does that
mean bring an approach on our Lord? So, now turn, look over
to Ecclesiastes 7, just a few pages over. Ecclesiastes 7, There's
a passage that says, if riches do increase, and they do. We
all have more than we did a few years ago. And the older we get,
the more we will accumulate. And so we are rich and increased
for good. But he said, the scripture says, if riches do increase,
set not your heart on them. Be wise, don't set your heart
on them. Because he said, riches
have wings today. Ask the people during the Depression. Those whose hearts were set on
those things jumped off buildings. Their whole life was wrapped.
This was their life, so when they lost it all, they had nothing
to live on. But Christ is hungry. Rich or poor, Christ is still
rich. Ecclesiastes 7, look at this.
Verse 14, in the day of prosperity, be joyful. And this is what we're
going to look at in Ecclesiastes, that God has given us things,
all things richly to enjoy. And in the day of prosperity,
enjoy, enjoy, be joyful. But in the day of adversity,
consider, look at this, here's the goodness of God, the wisdom
of God. God hath set the one over against
the other. to this end, to this purpose,
that man should find nothing after that. And I think we get
that old saying, you can't take it with you. I think we get that
from a verse like that. God in His wisdom has given us
both prosperity and adversity so that we won't find here any
lasting happiness. We won't find anything here.
The joy is cancelled out by the adversity. And adversity is cancelled
out by the joy, so one won't be totally down again. And on
and on it goes, until finally we say, I want a house. Take
me home, there's nothing for me here. Right? Whom have I in heaven but thee?
So that brings me to my next point. What is true treasure?
What is true treasure? Valuable riches. And we sung
about it. Scripture calls the true treasure
the unsearchable riches of Christ. Unsearchable riches of Christ.
Scripture says, in Christ are hid all the treasure of wisdom
and knowledge. Let me tell you a few ways how
he is, and I won't even touch the hymn of his glorious dharma
here. Here's a big word, but it's a
good word. Intrinsic. His intrinsic work,
meaning everything that he is, everything about him is of great
value. Great value. Christ throughout
the scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ is called gold. fine gold. It says the word, but he's talking
about Christ. Silver, Proverbs 8, and we read
that in Proverbs 2, didn't we? When he's talking about wisdom,
whenever the Scriptures talk about wisdom, he's talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Wisdom. Throughout the Proverbs,
throughout Ecclesiastes, in him are hid all the treasures of
what? Wisdom. Wisdom. Whenever Proverbs speak of wisdom,
they speak of Christ. And we read how that the things
that are promised to us, to those who treasure Christ, did you
catch it? Some of the things, understanding,
discretion, deliverance, happiness, long life, pleasantness, and
so forth. The things that people want.
The things that people seek. That's what people want. Smart people want to be wise,
want to be smarter. Well, the wisdom of this world
is foolishness. You don't know Christ. Everybody
wants to be happy. And there's nothing, there's
no happiness in a world that's dying. Whenever there's death
all around, there's no happiness. Christ is life. He's the heaven's
son of life. Unending, eternal life, abundant
life, life more abundant. So Christ is this treasure, gold,
silver, you know, precious stone. And we're going to look at one,
if we get to it. But precious stone, there's the
old saying is, diamonds are forever, isn't it? Well, it's about the
most enduring thing you can think of. You men buy your wives a
diamond, or ought to, and they may be passed down through generations. Some of you ladies have diamonds
that belong to your grandmother, that belong to their mother,
and so forth, don't you? It's a durable substance, but
even those may last. But nevertheless, these things
are what God likens because of And all of those things,
you think of gold and silver, what do you think of? Beautiful
things. Everything you adorn yourself
with is gold and silver. Gold and silver. You men don't
buy your wives cubic zirconium, do you? Damn sure you don't.
I don't. But, you know, you think of brilliance,
don't you? You think of something beautiful
and adornment and all that. Oh, Christ. Scripture says He's altogether
man. He's brilliant. You know, He
clothed Himself in flesh. Didn't, while He was here. He
clothed Himself in human flesh. I like to think of it as a plain
brown wrapper. But He went up on that mountain,
and that's what you read about. Peter said, We were up there. And He peeled back the veil. We saw His glory. John said we
saw and beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of intrinsic worth, value, grace, and truth, God. All together
the Loving of one another. Revelation 1 describes how He
really looks and how we're going to see Him someday as He is,
countenance as the sun shines in the sky. What is more glowing
and beautiful and brilliant than the sun itself? Huh? The sun
in the sky. Christ is called, and we just
read it, a Son of Righteousness. Now, He's gold, He's silver,
He's precious stones like that pearl. And all of these, who
made gold? Where does gold come from? Folks, there's not one single
man-made substance on this earth that compares to anything God
made. Not one thing. Not one thing. Name something
that is better than what God has made. Nothing. No stone,
no anything that outshines God's precious stone. And what a picture
that is of how there's no human being ever compared to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He came from above. He's that
wisdom that comes from above. He said, I'm from above. Incomparable in beauty and he's
brilliant. And Christ is our treasure because
if you have him, he makes you rich. You are rich. You are rich. Like treasure makes
one person rich. We become rich. Now the Proverbs
says, there's he that maketh himself rich, but has nothing. And that's those who make the
things of this world their treasure. They have nothing really. What
do they have? Dust, pools of gold. But there are those who
make it themselves poor and are rich. Rich toward God,
Barbara. Rich toward God. Someday we're
going to see just how rich we are. Huh? Rich toward God. I love that story of Abraham's
servant, you know, went to find a bride for Isaac. I love that.
And, you know, he went and was trying to tell that young woman,
Rebecca, about his master, Abraham, the father and the son, the master's
only begotten, well-beloved son, trying to tell her about his
old man. And he brought a few things with
him, two camels. Then he's trying to tell her
about the richest man on earth at the time and his son, who
was the most wonderful man, the most eligible man, the most desirable
man that a woman could have on earth. And here's this old fellow,
and he brought a few camels and stuff. He said, you're just going to
have to go back with me. I can't, you know, here are a few jewels,
but he's got gold. And that's what Paul said when
he came back. He said things unlawful. Unlawful. Treasure. Rich toward God. Rich. And here's a few things. Spiritual
riches. Faith. And I'm going to write an article
on this because faith, if you have any faith, it's wonderful.
It's a great gift. But if that faith grows, it just
It just builds, it gives things, adds to your faith virtue, the
virtue of knowledge and so forth and so on. It makes you rich
in ways that the world has no idea. Faith is the key. That's where
it starts. Because it's trusting in God. And happiness comes from faith.
Real faith. Ain't that? Nobody's happy out
there who doesn't know God. God's not going to let them be,
Kelly. I'm not going to let a man be happy who's hit rebel against
him. I'm sorry, but those that know
God, they're going to gradually, they're going to become more
and more content with Him. Joy, Christ said nobody's going
to take it. The world, the joy that people
get out of things is easily taken away. It passes understanding. The peace that God's people have
passes understanding. They can die whatever death it
may be that the Lord sends them. They have peace. And the world
doesn't know anything like that. You mark the perfect man. The end of that man. It all starts
with faith. Wisdom. Real wisdom. So that, you know, a man with
very little education He can have more wisdom than the seers,
the diviners. Right? And on and on. It makes us rich toward God.
And if you have a treasure, you can pay all your debts off, can't
you? If you find a great treasure,
Sherry, you can pay everything off with it. I got miserable. I got good miserable. All your
debts are paid off. We owe God a debt we cannot pay. His glory, Christ paid it. We owe God a debt to His justice. We've sinned against Him on every
hand. We've broken every law. It says, A soul that sins will
surely die. Christ paid that debt, all of it. And on and on
we go. And we talked about fame. Let me ask you a question. Who
would you rather knew you? Everybody in the world or God? Now really, what if everybody
in the world knew you and thought well of you and thought highly
of you, but God didn't? He said, I never knew you. What
if nobody knows you? Enter in, my beloved. I knew you before you formed
into Mary. I knew you. Fame? What is fame, Nancy? Fame,
true fame is being known by God. Fame, all right. And an eternal, we talk about
a relationship, a husband. He'll never leave you. Our Lord
said that. He said, your mother and father will leave you. I
won't leave you. He said, where's the bill of divorce? I'll give
you. Doesn't matter what we do to him, he'll not divorce us. Boy, that's a good husband. We've
been unfaithful on everything. And true happiness. So Christ
is our treasure. Go back to the text. But it says
he's hidden in the field. He's hidden in the field. Verse
44 of our text, he's hidden in the field. I was determined to
shorten up these messages. You see, can you do it? No, you couldn't. There's too
much here. Dave, there's too much here. What would you have had me leave
out just now? That was the world. This is not
the world. Because in verse forty-four, he says, you buy the field. You
sell all you have to buy the field. We don't buy the world.
No. The field is this right here. God's Word. The field. The field. And God's Word, in Him are hid all
things. But they're hid from the wise
and the prudent. They're hid from the natural
man, and they're hidden in this vast field, this vast field of knowledge,
wisdom and knowledge. Christ is there. He's there. He's hidden in the jungle until
God shows Him to you, until God reveals Him to you. And then
you see Him on every line of just about You see, like that,
I love that Proverbs 8, I quote it all the time. Verse 8 says,
all plain to him that understandeth. It's all real plain to him that
understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. In other
words, if you know, you know. If you can see, you can see.
If you understand, you understand. And that's about the best way
I can put that. It's all plain to him that understandeth. Those
who find not, those whom Christ, I told you about that, those
pictures, that something is hid in the pictures, you know? And
I hate those things. I never can see them, Hannah,
I never can see them. I don't know what my eyes, that
R.K. I had done, Steve, at that scholar, I never can see them. People try to say, look, look,
I can't see it. I wish I could. But, buddy, I
see the picture in here, plainly. And you try to show it to the
world, they don't see it. They don't see it that way. It's all plain to them, understand?
Plain. He's hid in this field, but he's
hid from the natural man, hid. There's no beauty in him. You see, God, those that are
seeking treasure find it. Those who are seeking Christ,
he said, if you search for me, seeking me, you shall find me. When you search for me with all
your heart, those that are searching for just happiness for happiness
sake, those who are searching for, you know, whatever for its
sake. But those who want to know God,
those who want to know truth, those who want to know what salvation
is, will find Everyone. Everyone. But people
aren't interested. They see no beauty in Him. Oh, He's hid in a field. He's
hid in a field. And that's the Scriptures. Word
of truth, where Christ is hid. Now, in verse 44, He says, when
somebody finds this treasure hid in a field, it says, He hideth
it. What does that mean? He hideth it. Well, I know you ladies have
lost something of great value too. Perhaps one of those rings
I was talking about. You lost that. What did you do
when you found it? I know what you did. Didn't you? Pulled it up to your bosom.
Yes, you did. Yes, you did. It was your mother's
ring that meant a lot to me. No, it's not your life. I know
that, but it's still. But that's what that means. Hide it. Pull
it inside of your very heart and bosom and say, Oh, this is
mine and I'm not going to let go. And put it in a place for
safekeeping. That's what hide means. That's
what he meant. And he that keepeth my commandments. He that keepeth
my word. It doesn't mean those who are
perfectly obedient to it. It means those who lay hold of
it as something they don't want to lose. And they hide it or
as they put it in a place for safekeeping. And where is that?
David said, Thy word have I, quote the rest of it, hid where? In my heart. And that's what makes it treasure.
Where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. Where your
heart is, that's where your treasure is. Christ is in your heart.
It's going to stay there. It's going to stay there. Hidden
in the heart, David said. And for joy, it says, for joy
he hideth, for joy thereof. Goeth and selleth all that he
hath, and buyeth that field. You've got much Scripture. And when you really... Now, religion
won't make you sell everything. Religion won't make you sell
out. Religion won't make you willing to lose anything. As
a matter of fact, religion will promise you all this stuff, and
will rarely mention Christ. It's a shame to speak of those
things done by the innocent. But you can advertise some meeting
on those issues, awful subject, and get thousands of people to
come. And I'll tell you who will come when you say, I'm going
to talk about the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He might get a handful, but they're people who love Christ. He's their treasure. They'll come every time you preach
it, they'll come. Yes, God will bring them, those
who love His Son. Well, where am I? And it says here, for joy. They sell all that they have.
This is what Paul meant when he said, I count all things but
loss for the excellency and the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my
Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. But he
said, you know what it was that I thought that was gain to me?
Manure. Manure. That's what it is. Manure. compared to this pearl,
and that brings me to the next pearl. And, you know, buying
the field is to buy the truth and sell it not. Sell it not. God's work. You know, this is
our most prized possession. Our most prized possession. All
right, he said in verse forty-five, the kingdom of heaven is like
unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearl. Most everyone whom God works
on God begins dealing with, he makes them seekers. He makes
them begin to seek, as it were, goodly pearls. In other words,
they're seeking for something, but they don't know what they're
seeking for. See, if you don't know that Christ is everything,
you don't even, you're not really looking for Christ. I mean, right? But you're seeking for something
and you don't know what. God makes people, his people,
discontented. He makes them discontented wherever
they are, especially in religion. He makes it grow old to them
and unsatisfying to them until they start seeking, they don't
know what, goodly pearls, you know, peace. peace with God, they begin to
feel like their center. God, they want peace, peace of
mind, peace of conscience, peace of heart. They want forgiveness
of sin, but they don't know where to find it. Goodly pearl, pearls,
plural. The knowledge, you know, they
want to know, you know, they never, there's no real knowledge
in religion, is there? Especially, certainly not in
this world, but not in the world's religion. That's double-darkness. Wisdom, morality, you know, people
begin to look for morality. They want to clean up their life.
I can recall in my life how the Lord led me to be discontented
with the lifestyle and want to clean up my act, you know. That's
good. Goodly person, decency, you know. You want to become a decent,
honest, respectable citizen, you know. and goodness and stability
and faithfulness and loyalty and all these things. Goodly
pearl, not knowing. All these things when you find
one person. All your search is done in Him. All these things. All these things. And her dad, Ed Ballard, He that
being dead yet speaketh. It's a good illustration of this.
I've told you this story so many times. It's just perfect for
this. He was a well-respected deacon
and member of a local so-called Christian church. That was his
title. The biggest giver. Because he was a hard-working
man and earned a lot of money. And he gave a lot of money. He
was a very generous man all his life. The Lord began to make him discontented. And he went to his so-called
preacher one time and told him, and this is exactly his words,
he said, I don't know what I'm not hearing, but I'm not hearing
something. That was his words wasn't it?
He said, I don't know what I'm not hearing, but I'm not hearing
something. And I want to hear what I don't
know what I'm not hearing. He said, I want to hear something,
you know, from God's hellfire and damnation or something. All
he heard was that syrupy sweet, you know, that stuff. And won't
answer any problem anybody has. Won't answer any problem that
anybody has. No such thing. And he became discontented, and
he wanted to hear something. And here's what these hirelings
do. Here's what hirelings do. Hirelings
say, and he said, well, I'll do better next Sunday. You come
back. And he started crying, didn't he? He cried. His biggest
giver was about to leave. And he actually cried, and he
said, please don't leave, Ed. He said, I'll do better next
Sunday. Can you imagine me, well any
true preacher, telling somebody what doesn't happen, oh please
come back, I'll try better next time. Can you imagine that? Well, anyway, he came back and
he said, that would be a little bit better. I think he might
have said hell or something. But anyway, it went right back
to the same old, we can't help but tell what you've seen and
heard, and if you've seen nothing, you say nothing. And he went
right back to it, so Ed left. And another man he worked with,
Ed Stephens, told him, he said, you come up. You need to come
up and hear the gospel preach, the truth preach. Hear my pastor
preach the truth. You need to come up there. You'll
hear something. And he started coming, brought his family, a
nine-year-old girl and them in. And God's providence is so
wonderful. And anyway, he started sitting
there and listening, and he said to his family, on the way home,
he said, he still wasn't hearing anything, but he knew the man
was preaching from the Bible. He was at least preaching from
the Bible. He was saying something. Though Ed hadn't heard it yet,
but he was seeking it. He couldn't be further. And then
one day, he heard about the purge. His eyes opened, his ears opened,
his heart broken. He said, I see. I see. Ah boy, he found that pearl,
you see. It's for those who are seeking
goodly pearls. And that's God's, that's what
God does. One pearl. There are all these goodly pearls
together. One pearl in Christ. person becomes
a new creature, only in Christ. We can resolve to do better all
we want, but we want to pay. But in Christ, we're holy, unblamable,
unapproachable in God's sight, and that's what really matters.
And He creates us in the image of Christ, conform us to the
image of Christ. We can't do it, and He can, and
He does. In Christ are all good things,
love, real love. You'll find You'll find a God
that loves, and I mean He loves, loving His own, He loves Him
to the end. And what that means is He saves
all. You'll find a love that really loves, that loves all
the way into glory. Greater love hath no man than
this, laid down in life. Substitutionary love, that's
what we're talking about. Joy, unspeakable, full of glory. Joy,
peace. on all these things, wisdom,
and on and on, righteousness, sanctification. On and on we
go. When found, it says in verse forty-six, just like the treasure,
when found as one pearl of great price, the man went and sold
all that he had and bought it. Our Lord said, except you deny
yourself, that is, sell out. You've got to sell yourself.
Self has got to become nothing. Everybody in Christ's church
is a nothing. I'm nobody. I sell out. If I sell family, Christ says,
who will it be? Your husband, your wife, your
mother, your father, or me? Every time. That's what he said. Lies are on the sand. Who do
you have? And quite often, the Lord, in
mercy and grace, gives you both. Gives you both. Well, family,
friends, you will definitely lose your old friends. But you'll
find friends. You see, in Christ, And that
doesn't just mean in his person itself. That means his church,
which is the body of Christ on earth. You will find love. You
will find true love. We were talking about that, weren't
we, after last Sunday, that God's people love each other. I mean,
they really love each other. They don't go around saying it
all the time. They don't go around saying it all the time. It kind
of cheapens it, doesn't it? We ought to say it more than we
say it, but they don't go around saying it just for the sake of
saying it. But they love each other. I mean, they really love
each other. You feel it, don't you? And those of you who were
in religion before, you know how that, what a sham that was. And the world, that's an old song, take the
world but give me the Lord Jesus. And it says, He sold all. that
he had and bought it. Can I tell you that illustration
one more time? You've heard it many times, Jerry, but it's the
best I've ever heard. I've never forgotten it since
I heard a man tell it thirty years ago. He said this man was
a pearl seeker. He valued pearls. He was looking for pearls, and
he went to this place and found a gray pearl, a beautiful pearl,
the most beautiful pearl he'd ever laid his eyes on. It was
very costly. As a matter of fact, it was so
costly, it didn't have a price on it. That's, you know, you've
done that, haven't you? The things that don't have a
price tag probably means you can't afford it. But he saw this
pearl, and he had to have it. And so he went in, asked the
proprietor about the Perl, and the man told him about it, his
authenticity, and his purity, and where it came from, and so
on and so forth. And the man said, Well, I've
got to have it. And he said, How much is it? And the man said, It'll cost
you everything, Lord. And the man looked at the Perl, He said,
I got to have it. I got to have it. It'll cost
you everything. So the man dug in his wallet, pulled out his
wallet, and he had money in there and money stashed. He pulled
it all out and handed it to the fellow. All of it was about $5. The man said, well, I said everything. The fellow said, well, I need
five dollars for gas in my car. The man said, oh, you've got
a car. It'll cost you your car. I told you everything. Everything.
It'll cost you everything. The man said, I can't give you
my car. How am I going to get to work?
Oh, he said, you have a job. You earn money. It'll cost you
your job. The man said, well, how am I
going to pay for my house? You got a house? It'll cost you your
house. The man said, well, how's my
family? You got a family? It'll cost you your family. I told you, everything
you own. And the man said, I got to have that pearl. And then the man, the proprietor, said,
OK, I'm giving it all back to you on loan. It all belongs to me now. It's all mine. All your money,
your car, your home, your family, it's mine. And I'm longing it to. Now, he
said, when I need some of your money, Or someone I know. You won't mind giving them my
money. Or if one of my own needs a ride
somewhere, you won't mind taking them in my car that I gave you. Or if they need a place to stay,
you won't mind opening up my house and putting them up in
my house for you. And if I take one of my children,
you won't mind doing that. You've got a great purpose. You
get everything back. That's the way it is. Isn't that
a good illustration? Best I've ever heard. Christ
said, forsake all that you have. He said, but he's at half. Didn't
He tell Peter and the boys? He said, no man hath forsaken
houses and lands and whatever it is, but will not receive a
hundredfold now in this life and in the life to come, life
after life. He's never beholden to anyone, Nancy, never. He always
repays with interest. And whatever you give, He's good. He's a goodly person. Okay, stand with me. Our Father, thank You for
Your Word. It is indeed a vast storehouse
of knowledge and field, and we see in Thy Word great treasure,
a pearl of infinite value. The Lord Jesus Christ calls us
to set our affections on him, this great pearl, and make us
willing, willing to forsake all for him. Let nothing and no one
take our eyes off of him is our prayer. In Christ's name, amen. You're dismissed.