I'm asking one that we need to consider
carefully. Who or what is it that we are
pursuing and giving our all to? All our heart, our energy, and
our efforts a home, a family, our jobs. Christ said where your
treasure is, that's where your heart is. In other words, whatever we value
the most is what we will give our lives to obtain or to keep
if we have what we've been looking for. Look at Colossians chapter
three with me. Colossians chapter three, who
or what is it that you are pursuing? Colossians chapter three, look
at the exhortation of the apostle Paul here in verse one. He says,
if you then be risen with Christ. Seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. In other words,
seek Him. Set your affection, that is,
your mind, your heart, on things above. What things? Christ, His
person, eternal life in Him. Not on things on the earth, for
you are dead. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. When Christ, our life, shall
appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. Christ, our
life, our life. Is he? I have a great
deal of confidence that the Lord has done a saving work in most
everyone here that's a rare thing to be able to say for a pastor
to be able to say but I do I have a great deal of confidence that
the Lord has revealed himself to most everyone here but we
need to ask ourselves that constantly now this is not speaking the
apostle Paul here is not speaking of some spiritual romanticism
or idealism something that cannot be obtained this is salvation
knowing a person, being taken up with a person, following a
person. This is salvation, loving and following a person. And just
as the first disciples forsook all to follow Christ, we are
commanded and exhorted to do the very same thing. It's no
different. The requirements are no different
for us. The world is perishing. I am dying. Christ is coming. So I need to I need to seek him,
I need to follow him. We must be like Jacob, who would
not let that angel go until he would bless him. And that's how
we need to seek after Christ and his salvation. I want you
to look with me back at Matthew chapter thirteen. This is the
story of a man who found what he was looking for, and the great sacrifice how he
sacrificed everything to have it. A very familiar story to
all of you. The gyms probably preached on
it several times, to you even. But I like this story. I know the parable of our Lord.
He begins this parable in verse forty-five. He says, now I don't
know the significance of the order in which our Lord gave
the parables here in Matthew thirteen there are several parables
and I haven't taken these in order but I feel impressed to
go with this one to bring this one but there's probably some
certain there's some significance to the order in which he gave
his parable nevertheless let's look at this one beginning with
verse forty five the Lord says again or he's telling them another
parable The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking
goodly pearls. A merchant man. Now, all of us
in here are in a way, we're merchants in this world. We are buying
and selling. The scripture says, Proverbs
23 says, buy the truth. Now, we're buying one of two
things. We're buying the truth. or else we're purchasing things
upon this earth. We're laying up treasures upon
this earth, or else we're laying up treasures in heaven for ourselves.
The Scripture exhorts us to buy the truth, though, and sell it
not. Christ in one place, he asks,
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? And many people
are giving a mess of pottage. for
their soul, and that's what this world is, a mess of pottage.
But all of us, in some sense, are merchants in this world.
I want you to look at three things in this parable with me. There's three subjects, three
objects. There's the merchant, there's
the pearl, and then there's this purchase. Look at the merchant
with me, first of all. Now, this man, he was a buyer
and a seller of many things. Wasted his life buying and selling
many things in the past, but now for some reason he was after
a goodly object. Perhaps somebody had aroused
his interest in pearls. Up until this time he wasn't
interested in pearls, he was interested in many things. This
is a perfect spiritual picture here. But somebody came along,
perhaps a neighbor or a family member or Whoever, I don't know,
but somebody came along and said, Joe. Now, this man was a merchant. He said, Joe, have you ever considered
getting into pearls? Ever considered buying and selling
pearls? I said, no. And the fella perhaps
had some on him, and he showed him some pearls. Now, the man
had never considered pearls before, but when he saw them this time,
he thought, boy, those are beautiful. Those are beautiful. Where'd
you get them? Anyway, this man created an interest in pearls
in this man. He was aroused to see the beauty
of pearls. He had never seen the beauty
of pearls before. And he saw that in pearls he could be made
rich. The things that he had pursued
before just didn't meet his needs. But he saw that pearls were the
one thing that he needed. And even so, the Holy Spirit
must create an interest in us. Perhaps he uses somebody, somebody
to create this interest in pearl. Perhaps you've given all your
life to the pursuit of whatever, but now you're interested in
goodly pearl. The Holy Spirit is the one that
must first create this desire in us, desire after God. Did
you notice he said, goodly pearls, goodly pearls, plural. This man
was seeking after goodly pearls. He didn't realize that one pearl
would meet his need. He was seeking after many pearls.
And, you know, in a sense, when God first works, begins to work
in a man, he seeks after spiritual things. This was me. I was seeking
after God's salvation. I was interested in the scriptures,
mainly many goodly things. I didn't know that one pearl
But these are goodly things, God, salvation, interest in the
Bible. But this man, he was aroused
to see the beauty in his need of pearls. And he began to earnestly
and diligently seek after pearls, earnestly. He didn't say, well,
if it's meant for me to have pearls, I'll have pearls. But
no, he went out to get some pearls. He went seeking these pearls. He said, I've got to have pearls. That's what I need. That's the
one thing I need. So he diligently sought after
pearls. And Christ said this. He said, you'll seek me and you'll
find me when you search for me with all of your heart. Not half-heartedly,
but when you go after me with all your heart. Now, this wasn't
a one-time look for this man, either. This was a continual
look, a continual searching after. He didn't just give it one day
and then give up. He saw the beauty of pearls,
so he went to get them. And he looked and he searched,
and the same holds true with us, with the spiritual merchant.
This is not a one-time look, but it's a lifelong seeking after
Christ, seeking after salvation. Well, not only was this man aroused
to see the beauty and his need of pearls, And not only did he
begin to earnestly and diligently seek after Pearl, but he had
a definite object in mind, goodly pearls. Now listen to this, if
this doesn't hold true. This man was seeking after goodly
things, goodly pearls. And a true seeker, if God the
Holy Spirit has begun a work in a man or a woman, They'll
begin to seek after God, after life, after salvation, after
peace with God. Not fake religion. This man wasn't looking for costume
jewelry. He was looking for good pearls,
goodly pearls. And, you know, there's a lot
of people, evidently, in this world that are satisfied with
Some sort of feigned religion out of feigned lips and some
sort of show of religion. They're satisfied with at least
looking good or maybe feeling good at times. Not me. I want the real thing. I'm not
going to be satisfied with fake, with costumed jewelry or fake
religion. I must know Him like the Apostle
Paul said. I want to know Him. I have a
definite object in mind. Just like this man. He was seeking
after goodly pearls. Just any old pearl wouldn't do,
a goodly pearl. And these pearls were an uncommon
object. There weren't many people looking
for pearls. If you go down the street and
ask people, what do you think about pearls? Most of them probably
would have, I'm not too interested in pearls, I like silver, I like
gold, or this and that and the other. Not too many people interested
in pearls. The same holds true today. There's
not many people truly seeking after Christ and his righteousness,
Pearl. The scripture says that most
people do not like to retain God in their knowledge, don't
like to even consider God. But this man, he did. And this man also was using discrimination
while he was looking. Now he'd probably, in this search
for Pearl, he'd probably been taken in by a great deal forgeries
and fakes. He probably went to one shop,
some pawn shop, and the fellow said he had some pearls. So he
looked at what he had. They looked pretty good. And
he studied them, stayed there a while, and studied them. But
eventually he saw that these aren't good enough pearls. This
doesn't meet my need. Doesn't meet my need at all.
And he went to another place. He went to some discount house
where they were selling them real cheap. And he saw after
a while that, that's not what I'm looking for either. And the
same holds true with you, perhaps. You've been many places, some
of you in religion, looking for pearls. But after a while, you
sit in a certain place and you begin to realize, this is not
what I need. This man's not preaching what
I need. I don't know what it is, but
it's not what I need. I'm looking for something that
satisfies. So you begin to listen with a discriminating ear. And
that man, when he was looking for these pearls, he began to,
after a while, he began to search out different places and he began
to listen very carefully to what the man was saying and what they
were showing. And even so, a disciple of Christ
or one seeking God and the Holy Spirit, when God's on his trail,
he'll give him an ear. He'll give him a discernment.
And he'll finally bring him to Christ, bring him to the gospel.
Scripture says, try the Spirit. Try the Spirit. Well, a merchant. So this merchant is one who is
aroused to see the beauty of pearls. He begins to earnestly
and diligently seek after these pearls. And it's a definite object. Pearls. That's the only thing
he's interested in. And it's an uncommon object.
There aren't many people looking for pearls. And even so, As I
say, not many people are really interested in Christ and his
gospel. And this man begins to use discrimination. He begins
to look very carefully and not listen to just anybody that comes
down the pike. He begins to use discrimination, true discernment. And even so, that's what we do
when we hear the gospel. When we turn on the TV or the
radio or whatever, we have a discerning ear. We listen for Christ in
the gospel. Well, look back here at verse 45 again. So that's
the merchant for the first forty-five. He says again, the kingdom of
heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. Who, when he found one pearl,
one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had
and bought it. One pearl. Now this man, like
I say, he went everywhere looking for pearls, plural, pearls. He was looking for good things.
He was, and many people, I sincerely believe, are sincere in what
they're doing. They're looking for good things.
You know, looking into the scriptures, reading the scriptures, going
to church is a good thing. Reading your Bible is a good
thing. Being a moral, upstanding citizen, upright citizen is a
good thing. But people don't realize that there's one thing,
one person who is needful, one pearl. This man, he didn't know
that one pearl would meet all his needs. He was looking for
many pearls. He found some pearls here and there. He found some,
but none of them seemed to satisfy him. But finally, one day, one
day he was walking down perhaps some little obscure street, some
little back alley, and he saw a little Little Packard in a
window. Pearls. We sell pearls. And the shop wasn't much to look
at. But he thought, well, I'll give
it a shot. I'll go in here and see what they've got. So he went
in. And when he went in, and he looked in that display case,
he saw something that he didn't see before. That pearl. And perhaps
somebody here, and it's the case with many people, They go looking
for something they don't know what. And perhaps one day, perhaps
you were riding down some obscure street, 40 West, and you see
some little half-built church house. It doesn't look like much.
And you go in, and the fellow behind the counter doesn't look
like much either. But he's got a pearl. Oh, he's got a pearl. He's demonstrating. And that's
the pearl that you need. The pearl is Christ. You don't
need many things, you need one thing, one thing. You need that
person, Christ. And that's the one pearl that
we have on display here every day, or every Wednesday and every
Sunday. And if only this world knew what
we have, this gospel that we preach. I want you to know some
things about this pearl now. That's the merchant, this pearl
being Christ. A pearl is an extraordinary thing. an extraordinary thing of beauty
and rarity. When this man saw this pearl,
he knew it was something special. He knew it was just what he needed. He didn't know before what he
needed, but he knew now, just as soon as he saw that pearl,
he knew, that's what I need, that pearl right there. It will
enrich me. That's what I need. That's the
most beautiful pearl I've ever seen. And even so, Christ, this
pearl, Notice this about pearls. Pearls are born miraculously. I'm sure you've read about pearls,
but they're born or they're created by a grain of sand entering into,
so to speak, the womb of a clam. A very ordinary thing, but out
of the womb of this very ordinary thing comes the most extraordinary
thing imaginable. And Christ, what did the angel
say to Mary when he planted, when the Holy Spirit planted
his seed in the womb of that virgin? He said, that holy thing,
that's an extraordinary thing. You call his name Emmanuel, God
with us. An extraordinary thing came out
of an ordinary thing. The Lord Jesus Christ came out
of the womb of that young Jewish maiden. And pearls, pearls also
are a rare thing, rare thing. Nothing quite like them. Over
in 1 Peter, he said, under you which believe, under you therefore
which believe, he's precious. Precious. That means he's rare.
Hard to find. He's precious. He's valuable.
He's rare. Rare things are usually hard
to find. You have to really dig to find them. Really dig to search
for them. And Christ is in this book. Take
some digging. Take some searching. Christ is
only found by digging through God's Word. And the pearl is
also a thing of exquisite purity and beauty. There's something
about a pearl. If you take a pearl, and it's
firm, it's hard, but if you take it and you slice into it, cut
into it, that thing is just as beautiful on the inside as it
is the outside. It's pure through and through,
snow white through and through. And that's the purity, that's
the holiness, that's the righteousness of Christ. He is pure, he is
perfectly holy and spotless, the Son of God. Now, not only
was this pearl remarkable to this man, not only was it extraordinary,
but when he saw this pearl, it was satisfying to him. Not only
was it remarkable to him, he saw the beauty of this pearl,
but it was satisfying to him. One look, it satisfied his need.
When he had it, it really satisfied him. But he knew that's what
he needed, that pearl. He was satisfied. He was the
pearl of his dreams, the pearl he'd been looking for. He saw
that pearl, he was pearl hunting Dave Robert. All other pearls
seemed to fade into insignificance next to this pearl, the pearl
of his dream. I'll tell you what. If God ever
shows you the beauty of Christ, everything else will fade into
insignificance. That's the song we sung. Fade,
fade, each earthly joy. All these other things are done
compared to Christ, aren't they? And this man saw that this pearl
was able to make him rich. Able to make him rich. Give him
everything he needs. And Christ has made unto us everything
we need. God has made him unto us. Everything
we need, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, the
wisdom of God, we see that in knowing Christ, we know all we
need to know to come to God. He makes us wise unto salvation.
Paul thanked God that young Timothy knew the scriptures that were
able to make him wise unto salvation. Christ is the Word, whom to know
is to have eternal life. Righteousness, we see in Christ
our perfect standing before God. provided righteousness that we
need to come before this holy God in order to be accepted by
him. Sanctification, made holy, but we're also set apart for
God's use, set apart for his use. Redemption, we see our ransom
in this pearl, in Christ. Ransom from sin, redeemed from
the law for salvation. So, not only did this man see
that this pearl was extraordinary and remarkable, And also, he had to have it. He wasn't going to leave that
place without this pearl. He had to have this pearl, no
doubt about it, with this man. He wasn't about to haggle over
the price. That man could have asked what he wanted, and he
did. He asked everything. But cost
what it may, this man was going to have that pearl. He wasn't
going to leave that shop without this pearl. All the beauty of
it. He saw it was everything he needed.
Cost what it may, he had to have it. He couldn't resist it. An
irresistible pearl. And that's what we speak of when
we talk about irresistible grace. We don't talk about men and women
trying to fight the grace of God. We talk about when the Holy
Spirit shows them the beauty of Christ, they see he's irresistible. And they're irresistibly drawn
to him. Can't resist him. Like my wife. When I was dating her, she was
the only one I wanted. Nobody else would do. I mean,
well, this sounds good, but if Rockelle Welch would have come
along, she wouldn't have done. She wouldn't
do. I had to have that girl. I was
irresistibly drawn to her. And it's the same way with Pride.
But there is no one else more beautiful than Pride. No one
else. altogether lovely one. And this man couldn't resist
him. He had to have him. And true seekers after Christ
are going to have him. You hear that? That's the promise
of God. True seekers, first of all, they aren't lukewarm. They
aren't lukewarm. They're really seeking Christ.
There's no doubt about them and no doubt about it with them concerning
their need. Give me Christ. John Chapman
said, Give me Christ or else I die. I've got to have him. He's the only one that'll do.
And true seekers, after Christ, aren't going to complain about
the cost. They're not going to complain.
His yoke is hard. His burden is heavy. His yoke
is hard. Oh, no. They're not going to
complain. They're not going to haggle about
the price. Now, they'll sit down and count it, count the cost,
see if they really want him or not. And when they really see
him, they'll see that they have to have him. And they find Christ
here this month. They must have him. Like Solomon
said, has anybody seen my love? Has anybody seen my... I'm sick
with love. I'm sick with love. And I'll
die if I don't get my love. And look at the purchase with
me again. Look at verse 46. This man, it says, when he found
this one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he
had. All that he had. Now, I'm sure
this man was just like us. He'd spent a lifetime accumulating
the things that he had. It had taken him a lifetime of
hard work to gather all his possessions and he was probably pretty comfortable
by this time. But right now, he was anxious
to get rid of everything. You think about that. He wanted
that pearl so bad, and he needed money fast. And so everything
had to go. He wasn't concerned about giving
up everything. He had his eyes on the pearl.
And his eyes on the pearl. He didn't really fret and worry
about what he had to give up. The house, the car, the furniture,
whatever, it all had to go. He needed money fast. He had
to have that pearl. He had a pearl on his mind. And
he was glad to get rid of everything for that pearl. That's the true
seeker, a sinner that sees his need of Christ. He's not going
to haggle over everything. Like a woman one time told me,
she said, oh, we have to give up a lot for Christ's sake. I told her, I said, it's like
trading dung for pearls. This is what it is. What's a
job? Some people have to give up a
job in order to go hear the gospel. What's a job compared to eternal
life? Nothing. For that matter, a husband
or a wife or a child. These things are very dear to
us, yes, but if we see that part of him, we see that he is more
dear and more precious. And we've got to have him. We've
got to have him. And in the end, we're going to
see that we didn't give up much, not much at all, to have this
remarkable pearl, this priceless pearl. And that's what it costs,
everything. You read it back there in Matthew,
didn't you? Christ, this priceless pearl,
will cost us everything we need. As I said, to start out, this
is not religious rhetoric. This is not spiritual idealism. But this is, this is figurative,
yes, but it's also actual. It's literal. Christ said, Whosoever
he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be
my disciple. That's what he said, didn't he?
He didn't say you might not be, or you'll have a hard time of
being my disciple. He said you cannot be. You cannot
be. Listen to the cost of discipleship. We've got to be willing, and
in a sense, Spiritually speaking, we must actually put away anything,
anyone that gets in our way, gets in the way of our relationship
with Christ and God. Everything has to go. The cost
of discipleship, first of all, it will cost us our family, our
friends, and our loved ones. That's what Christ said there, father and mother and children
and brother and sister and so forth. If any man come to me
and hate not father, mother and so forth, it'll cost us our family. Christ said, I've come to set
a man at barriers against his father. It'll happen unless your
loved ones are believers like you are. If they're not, it's
going to happen. Christ promised it. He promised
it'd come. I'm not Well, I know, we're just
not, we're not really, we don't really realize the cost, really. We really don't. How serious
this thing is. But Christ must be our first
mother. Must be our first. All others
come second. All others come second. Family,
friend, loved one, ourselves. Christ said you must forsake
yourself also. Your own self also. That is,
my pride, my ambition, all of my goals in this life for myself,
to win Christ. Paul said, he said, I count all
those things that are done, but rubbish. Forgetting those things
which are behind, forgetting all my past goals in this life,
I've got to know Him. I want to seek after Him, and
He's the one I've got to have. My self-worth, got to go. We must become as little children. face in our own eyes. Prejudices,
our religious notions, our preconceived notions of religion, our self-righteousness
above all else. Our self-righteousness has got
to go. Our goodness and morality that we think commends us to
God has got to go. Thank God it has. God has shown
us that. Our fame and recognition, we
must become fools for Christ's sake. We must be accounted by
people in this world as fools for Christ's sake. He said in
one place, woe is unto you if men speak well of you. A true
follower after Christ, men are going to call him a fool. Our
sinful pleasures, you know, there are pleasures in sin. And we'd be lying if we said
we didn't enjoy this world to a great extent. There are pleasures
in the riches of Egypt. But we've got to esteem the reproach
of Christ's greater, greater riches, greater treasure than
Egypt and what this world has to offer. You go where the gospel is preached.
You may have to give up a fine situation. A young person may
have to give up a prestigious school or something in order
to go where the gospel is preached. It's a rare thing, though, isn't
it? It's a rare thing. Many people leave Christ and
the gospel for a job. Very few people leave a job for
Christ in the gospel, and many people leave Christ in the gospel
for a person. Very few people leave a person
for Christ in the gospel. But possessions, possessions
have to go if they get in the way of our relationship with
Christ. Home, car, anything that keeps
us from worship, working too many hours. That's just the way
it is now. Worship, study, and communion
with God and spiritual growth, all these things have to be set
aside now in order to worship our God. And at least until we
get these things in a proper perspective and in their place.
And I believe that God will bless us with the ability to worship
Him. Somebody may say, well, man's
got to live, doesn't he? Got to make a living, don't you?
Well, you've got to meet expenses, yes. But having food and raiment
is all we need. And I just know, I know my own
self, that I have a hard time differentiating between what
I want and what I need. But food and raiment is all that
we need. It's all we need. I tell you
what, we need Christ. We need Christ. A man doesn't
necessarily have to make a living, but he sure ought to die and
meet our God, somebody may say, this is too hard, too costly.
Thank God I don't see that or hear that among you people. Somebody
may say, this is too hard, this is too costly, this is a hard
thing. And that's what they said to
Christ, didn't they? They said, this is a hard thing, who can hear
this? And they left. But not Christ's people, not
God's people. That's not a hard thing. Because
you've seen the pearl. You've seen the pearl. And you
need Christ too bad. You need him too bad. If you
truly love somebody, truly infatuated with somebody and taken up with
them, you'll make every effort to be with them. Every effort
to be with them. And never tire of hearing about
them, and that's the true secret after Christ. Don't make excuses
to be away. No, we want to be there. glad
when they said unto me, let's go to the house of the Lord,
let's go worship our lovely Redeemer. You know, when I was dating men
then, and many of you would say, what? You spent hours on end
with that person. You could, well, you would spend
hours and hours on end, smooching or whatever, just until you turned
blue. You couldn't get enough of that person. Couldn't get
enough of them. Why? You were infatuated with
them, taken up with them. You just wanted to be around
them at all times. And that's what this is all about. Like
I said, this is not religious rhetoric. It doesn't just sound
good. This is the way it is. This is
true discipleship. Forsaken all. That's what those
disciples did. By the power of the Holy Spirit,
now, there wasn't anything in them. But by the power of the
Holy Spirit, they were drawn and shown to see the beauty of
Christ. And they just dropped everything
and followed Him by His feet. Went walking after Him. Well,
you know, if men and women really knew the value of Christ, if they
really saw the beauty of Christ, the preacher wouldn't have to
stand up here and exhort and admonish urge and compel people. They'll be asking you. That's
what they do, really, don't they? They'll say, come forward now
and accept Jesus. They'll storm down the aisle.
If they really ever see Christ in His beauty and see their need
of Him, they'll say, there's water. Let me get in it. I want
to confess Him. What must I do to be saved? Yeah,
He's beautiful. I've got to have Him. Lord, save
me or I perish. Now, I tell you, you wouldn't
have to beg and beseech and urge and compel people to come to
Christ, if they see his beauty, they'll come running. They'll
come running. And this man, notice this with me, this man, he was
seeking pearls, and he found that one pearl, and he needed
it, and he bought it. He bought it. It's a simple matter,
he needed it, he had to have it, and he got it. He had to
have it, so he got it. But it was a well-considered
purchase. When he found out the cost, and the man told his wife,
I'm sure any rational or reasonable human being would have stopped
and counted the cost. Now, wait a minute. Everything?
Yeah. OK. He didn't think long about
it, because he saw the beauty of this pearl. It was a well-considered
purchase, and it's the same way with us. We sit down, Christ
exhorted us to sit down, count the cost, and I exhort us constantly
to things we pray for and seek after. Do we really want to?
Do we really want to be a disciple of Christ? Cost what it may,
do we really? Don't ask God to—Barnard used
to say, don't ask God to use you. Boy, I know the meaning
of that now. I know the meaning of that now.
I have a feeling I want to know it more and more every day. But
it needs to be a well-considered purchase. But, like I said, it
was an immediate purchase. He did consider it, but without
too much hesitation, he said, yeah, I've got to have it. I've
got to have it. He probably said this, now, that's
fertile. That's beautiful, and it'll meet
my every need. It's going to cost me a lot,
yes, but I've got to have it. I've got to have it. It might
not be there tomorrow. I'll take it. And the Scripture
says today is the day of salvation. Christ might not, the gospel
might not be preached tomorrow. Christ might come again tomorrow,
and it is too late. The scripture says some people
are going to be calling on him. Then it's too late. Now, today
is the day of salvation. Harden not your heart. If you
hear his voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation.
You wait around like old King Agrippa said to Paul. That sounds
real interesting, Paul. You almost got me persuaded.
No, this man, he was firmly persuaded, fully persuaded. Like Paul said,
I'm determined, I'm persuaded beyond the shadow of a doubt.
And this is what we preach around here. That if God persuades a
man, he's persuaded. He ain't almost persuaded. He's
fully persuaded that Christ is the one he needs. And it was
a joyful purchase. Oh, it cost him. It may have
hurt a little bit here and there, but it was a joyful purchase
when he finally had it in his possession. Oh boy, it was a
joyful purchase. No remorse. Like I said, he didn't
sorrow over what he'd given up for Christ. Not at all. Oh, he was glad to have that
pearl. No real sacrifice. And it was an enriching purchase.
This man, he didn't realize what this pearl was going to do for
him. He saw the beauty of it, yes. But he didn't fully realize
at first just what this firm could do for him. But now he
did. After he had it, oh, he was the
richest man on earth. And that's us. We may not have,
like that woman who had that little morsel of bread, you know,
didn't have much. That was all she had. But she
said, all this, and Christ too. Oh, my. An enriching purchase. He now, this man, had a hundred
phones. what he had before, a thousandfold,
a millionfold. That's what Christ said, didn't
he? Everyone that has forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters,
or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my
namesake, shall receive a hundredfold. A hundredfold. He even said,
in this life also, didn't he? He said, in the life to come,
yes, but in this life also. You know what that means? That
means if you've lost a child or a home or whatever, you're
going to have a hundredfold in this life. You've got, Christ
said, who are my, who is my mother? Who are my brothers? He said,
look here, I got a lot. I left my family in Asheville.
Oh no, I didn't. I got a big family now. Oh, I got mothers. This is my
mother, Roberta, my sister, my brother, and a big family. Houses, I got a house in Danville,
nice house, just built. New house in Danville, I got
houses in Ball, Louisiana, I got houses in Ashland, I got houses
all, what do I need with that old house I had to give up? I
got hundreds of houses. We say that, my house is your
house. We mean it, don't we? We mean
it. anyway are not strictly for our own use. God gives them to
us for the use of his people, for the furtherance of his gospel
and his kingdom. That brings me to this illustration.
You've possibly heard it before. But this man, this man went into
a, he was hunting for pearls. He was a pearl hunter, and he
went in this shop one day. And he saw the pearl he'd been
looking for all these years. This beautiful pearl. And he
asked the man behind the counter, how much is it? I've got to have
that pearl. Which one? That one. The big
one. In the middle. I've got to have
that one. How much is it? I'll give you whatever you ask. Well, the shop owner said, you
sure you want that pearl? Yeah. I've got to have that one.
Only that one will do. The rest of these pearls won't
do. That one will do. He said, well, it's going to
cost you everything you got. That's all right. That's all
right. I've got, uh, let's stay here. Everything? Yeah. How much
you got on you? Well, I've got, uh, I've got
$150. Okay. The man said, $150. Hey, all right. But let me, uh,
he said, let me keep $5. I need $5 of gasoline to get
back home. You got a car? I said, what does
it cost you a car? You didn't know you had a car?
I said, no, everything. Everything. It costs you all
your money, $150 and one car. I said, wait a minute. Wait a
minute. How am I going to get to work?
I've got to have a car to get to work. You got a job? Well,
I've said everything now. One job, $150, one car and one
job. I said, wait a minute now. I
got a house to pay. How am I going to meet my needs
to pay for my house? You got a house. I said everything. One house, $150, one car, one
job, and one house. I said, wait a minute now, where's
my family going to live? We got to have a place. You got
a family? I said everything. One family. I said, oh, wait a minute. This is a lot. The merchant said,
but I told you, if you're going to have that pearl, it's going
to cost you everything. Everything you've got. So the
man thought about it a minute. He said, OK. He saw that he had
to have that pearl. It was the pearl of his dream.
He had to have it. He said, OK. He got his wallet
out. handed him his wallet, all his
credit cards, his key, had the deed in his pocket, the name
of the deed, pictures of his family here. The man said, here's
the purse. He gave him the purse. He put
it in his bosom, he started to leave. The man, the shop owner
said, wait a minute, wait a minute, come back. So he came back. He said, here, take these things
back. But remember, those are mine. Those are mine. You sold them.
They're mine. I bought them. They're mine.
That pearl cost you everything you had. And those things are
mine now. But I'm giving them back to you.
I'm loaning them back to you. Now, if somebody, if somebody,
one of my friends comes into town, and he's a little short
on cash, You won't mind giving him some of my money, will you? Give him $50 of mine? You won't
mind. And if his car breaks down, friend
of mine, if his car breaks down, you don't mind loaning him my
car, do you? And then he said, and if he needs
a place to stay, he don't mind if he stays in my house, do you?
It's mine. Oh, no, no, no, I don't mind.
It's yours. And if I, up in one day, decide
I want one of my children, you don't mind, do you? Never mind.
No? They're yours. Thank you. That pearl cost you everything
you've got. But I'll tell you. Once you've
got him, you've got everything you need. You've got everything
you need. And just like that kind shop
owner, he gives everything back, doesn't he? He gives everything
back. But it's on loan. It's his, but
it's on loan. And if he asks for it back, you
won't mind, will you? Stand with me now, just a minute. I'm going to go ahead and turn
it off. I'm going to turn it back on.