Turning your Bibles with me to
Matthew chapter 13, I'm continuing through this chapter preaching
on the kingdom parables, the parables of the kingdom, those
parables that the Lord spoke to his disciples concerning the
mystery of the kingdom of heaven. Remember, a mystery is not something
that we look for clues or gain clues and figure out. A mystery
in the Bible is something that God must reveal. In other words,
if we know the truth about this particular subject, the Kingdom
of Heaven, it's because God has revealed it by His Spirit and
His Word. And that's what it is. I've entitled
this message, The Mystery of Redemption. Look at verse 44
of Matthew 13. Last week I dealt with this verse
on the treasure hid in a field. He says in verse 44 again, the
kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field, the
which when a man hath found, he hideth and for joy thereof
goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field. Now,
I believe that parable there, that parable of the treasure,
speaks of Christ, who is the man, who found his treasure,
which is his church, called treasure, not for any inherent value within
us as sinners, because we have no value, we have no worth, we
are, as far as a relationship with God, we're worthless. Now,
that's what the scripture teaches. I know people don't like to hear
that today, but that's what it is. But Christ, he calls it a
treasure, not because of any inherent value in the treasure.
Treasure is a word that doesn't have to have inherent value.
Because you've heard the saying, one man's trash is another man's
treasure. So it's only valuable to someone
because of something particular. Well this treasure, the elect
of God, The sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ, they're valuable
to him because of his inherent value. And what it took for him
to redeem his people from their sins, his blood. There is a fountain
filled with blood drawn from whose veins? Emmanuel's veins. And what it accomplished for
his people, righteousness, not the righteousness of men, but
the righteousness of God. There's nothing more valuable
than Christ and his righteousness. And that's what it took to redeem
us. And he says he went and he sold all that he had. That's
a way of saying that Christ gave everything that he is as God
in human flesh. He gave himself. The Bible says
in Romans 8 that God, how shall, in that he gave us his son. He
gave his son, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?
There's nothing more precious, more valuable. Worthy is the
lamb that was slain. You see, our salvation is based
not on our worthiness, but on his. And he buyeth that field. Now, here's the sixth parable. Look at verse 45. This is the
pearl of great price. Now what the treasure hid in
the field speaks of is the ground or the foundation of our redemption.
That's the death of Christ to redeem his people from their
sins. And in that transaction, he bought the whole field, which
is the world. I'll talk a little, I dealt with
that last week, but I'll talk a little bit more about it today.
But look at verse 45. He says, 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 he bought it. That's the sixth parable, the
parable of the of the Pearl of Great Price. There's eight parables
in these kingdom parables. And this one is parallel with
the treasure hidden in a field. And the reason for the mystery
of redemption, that I've entitled this the mystery of redemption,
is because they set forth both, as I said, the foundation of
redemption, which is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, His
work alone, to redeem his people, his chosen people, his sheep,
his church. And this is redemption by his
blood, which results in the eternal salvation and final glory of
his people. And somebody says, well, he bought
the whole field. We learn from Matthew 13 and
verse 38 that the field here is the world. In what sense did
he buy the world? Well, in what sense did Christ
buy the whole world when he redeemed his chosen people? It's not what
false religion tells people and false gospels of today tell people
that Christ died to redeem everyone without exception and is trying
to save them if they'll let him and they'll cooperate. That's
not the kind of redemption he has for his people. It's not
some kind of a blanket pardon. that he issues out and it's only
good if you add your faith or your repentance or your obedience
in some way. It's not that Christ redeemed
the whole world in redeeming them from sin and bringing salvation
to all without exception because he didn't. The scripture says
that. If Christ redeemed by his blood the whole world out of
the bondage of sin then the whole world shall be saved. But that's
not the case. In redeeming his people from
sin and securing their salvation, here's what it says, he bought
out of the marketplace, and that's not redemption by blood buying
that field, that's redemption by power. He bought out of the
marketplace the crown rights to rule over the whole world,
even this whole universe. How do you know that? Well, the
scripture says it. We could go to so many scriptures
here, we don't have time this morning to do all that, but he
was made both Lord and Christ. He said to his disciples before
he sent him out into the world to preach the gospel, he said,
all power is given unto me under heaven. Now, we can look at it
this way, as God who Christ is, the second person of the Trinity,
the Son of God, as God absolutely considered. He always had power
and authority over this universe. But here he's speaking of his
mediatorial work as God-man, as the redeemer of his people,
he's been given the crown rights over this whole world. He rules
it all. He's on the throne. Hebrews chapter two says, we
see all things are under him. He controls it all. He's the
king of kings. He's the Lord of lords. The king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord to turn it as he will. He's in
control. And how did he gain that right
as God-man? Through the eternal redemption
of his people, his church, his sheep, through the shedding of
his blood. And that's what it's talking
about. I mentioned last week that that word buyeth there,
he buyeth that field. It's a word that generally means
just something you go and buy in a marketplace. It does not necessarily mean
to redeem in the sense of redemption by blood and salvation. But it's
simply buy and sell the money. It's the same word that Christ
used when he described the money changers in the temple who were
buying and selling. There's a few times in the New
Testament, in context, it means redemption by blood. For example,
Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6 20, you're bought
with a price. It's not just you're bought,
But you're bought with a price. What was the price of the redemption
of God's people? The blood of Christ. In the book
of Revelation, chapter 5 and verse 9, where they were singing
a new song. saying thou art worthy that is
the lamb to take the book and open the seals thereof for thou
was slain and has redeemed us unto God by thy blood out of
every kindred tongue and people and nation. That word redeem
there is the same word by here but he says you have redeemed
us to God by thy blood. That's redemption unto salvation.
That's the ground of our right standing with God in Christ. Usually when the scripture speaks
of redemption by the blood of Christ, it uses a stronger word.
It's the same word here, but there's two letters put on the
front of it. X. E-X. You know what E-X means? It means out of. In other words,
when he speaks of redemption by the blood of Christ, for example,
in Galatians 3.13, listen to this, Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it's
written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. In other words,
we're redeemed out of something. What are we redeemed out of?
We're redeemed out of the bondage of sin, out of the marketplace
of sin. And we're put into the kingdom
of God's dear son permanently and cannot be put back into bondage. Those X words, I like them. You
remember when Christ was on the Mount of Transfiguration? I think
it was Peter and John stood there and they saw that great vision
of the Lord speaking with Elijah, the prophet, who represented
all the prophets of the Old Testament. And then Moses, who represented
the law. And it says, they spoke of his
decease, which he should accomplish in Jerusalem. That word, decease,
If you were to translate it from the Greek into English, you know
what it would be? It would be Exodus. Exodus. Redeemed out of the bondage of
the law. How? By the blood of Jesus Christ. So back here in Matthew 13, 44
in the hidden treasure. What it means is that through
Christ, and always remember this, in that little parable, in that
little verse there, verse 44, there is a marked distinction
between the treasure and the field, isn't there? The treasure
is his sheep. The good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. He said, I know my sheep. They
hear my voice. He says he keeps, he preserves
his sheep. And then there's the world. There's
the world. And that word byeth the field
there, it means to secure the rights to someone by paying a
price and thus acquiring them as one's property. We sing a
song sometimes called This is My Father's World. What part
of it is his? Huh? All of it. All of it. The song just talks
about the beautiful things. But even the ugly things belong
to him. He's in control. All things work together. Which
things? Hey, all things work together
for good to them that love God, who are the called according
to his purpose. He's in control. So when it talks about redemption
by blood, it means to redeem out of, from something. out of
the slavery and bondage of sin. And it describes how Christ entered
into the marketplace of sin and at the cost of his own life purchased
us, his people, his sheep, his church unto himself, the redeemed
of the Lord, that we might be brought into the glorious liberty
of being children of God, righteous in him, washed in his blood. But never forget that in doing
that, He bought the rights to control this whole mess. And
you know what, I say mess because that's what it looks like to
me. How about you? But it's not a mess to him. You know everything.
Think about it. Isn't this mind-boggling? Do
you know everything is going according to God's plan? I mean,
that is mind-boggling, isn't it? We have a hard time accepting
that, but it's true. Well, the world belongs to Christ.
He rules and disposes of all things for the glory of God and
the good of his people. Never lose sight of that. And
I always look at this parable. Here's the treasure now. The church is not a treasure
to the world. In fact, in Hebrews chapter 11,
when it talks about the persecution of God's people, it says the
world counts God's people as trash. Basically, he doesn't
use that word, but it's a similar word. But God says the world's
not worthy of you. Why? Because of his glory. And so we know that his treasure
is his people, his peculiar treasure. Remember that last week? Out
of the marketplace and we're hidden in Christ. Now, as we
come to the parable of the Pearl of Great Price, the parallel
parable What are we speaking of here? I believe we're speaking
of the fruit of redemption. The treasure hid in the field,
that's the ground of redemption. That's the work of Christ. That's
his righteousness imputed. What is his righteousness? It's
the merit of his obedience unto death to keep the law and to
satisfy justice. That's the ground. I believe
that these next two verses, the Pearl of Great Price, is talking
about the fruit of redemption, which I believe is the gospel
coming to be the power of God unto salvation to God's people
by the power of the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Now, let me
say this at the outset. Some claim that the Pearl of
Great Price is, again, speaking of Christ seeking his sheep.
in other words they would say look at it again verse forty
five again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man so
they say the merchant man would be christ seeking goodly pearls
and when he finds the pearl he sells everything and buys and
that's the church i don't agree with that now they can make a
case for that in a lot of ways but i don't agree with that and
i'll tell you why first of all it says here the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls now when Christ
Jesus came to this earth to seek and to save his people he was
not seeking goodly pearls the Bible says he came to seek and
to save that which was lost the Bible says that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save what? sinners of whom I am chief. Nothing good about us. And like
I said now, this treasure, the treasure in that first one, verse
44, a treasure doesn't have to have inherent goodness or worthiness
or value. One man's trash can be another
man's treasure. That treasure is only valuable
to him. A pearl does have inherent goodness, inherent value. It's a rare thing. Christ came
to save sinners, not good people. Now, the case could be made,
well, they're not good in themselves, but he makes them good, and we
could talk about that. But here's a second reason. In
the Bible, sinful men are represented as seeking goodness by their
works and their religious efforts. Man's efforts to find goodness
in himself. Here's a merchant man seeking
goodly pearls. To me, that's a great picture
of man in his sin trying to find goodness where it is not. You
remember the episode in Matthew 19 where the rich young man came
to the Lord and he said, good master, what good thing must
I do to have eternal life? What did the Lord say to him?
He said, well, why are you calling me good? There's none good, but
the Father, which is in heaven. What was he teaching that young
man? You don't know what goodness is. You don't know what it is. You don't know how high that
standard goes. You can't imagine it. And so
he told him, he said, we'll keep the law. And the man said, well,
I've done that from my youth up. He said, no, you haven't.
Let me put it to the test. Go sell everything you have and
give it to the poor and follow me. If anybody ever tells you
they're keeping the Ten Commandments, just look at them and say, all
right, go sell everything you have. Give it to the poor and
follow Christ. Right there proves they're not
keeping the Ten Commandments. You say, well, I'm trying. The
Bible doesn't say anything about trying. The Bible says do and
live, disobey and die. Somebody said, well, this merchant
man, he's seeking goodly pearls. Yeah, he's seeking goodness where
it's not. That's the natural man. The natural
man will not seek the Lord. There's none that seeketh after
me, he said. They'll seek a god, they'll seek
religion, they'll seek morality, they'll seek reformation. And
they think that's goodly pearls. In the treasure parable, it was
a man. Here it's a merchant man, somebody
who's trying to buy and sell. Man thinks he can buy and sell
salvation, but he can't. And again, Pearl speaks of inherent
value. Only the Lord Jesus Christ and
his gospel has any value in this matter in the kingdom of heaven.
The truths of the everlasting gospel. Sometimes we as believers
will lose sight of how valuable what we have is. This pearl of
great price. Christ, his person, his office,
his righteousness. But one says, well, look, he
says that he sold everything they had. Look at verse 46. He's
seeking goodly pearls. In other words, he's seeking
goodness where goodness is not. That's man by nature. He's not
seeking the Lord now. You know, man who seeks the Lord,
that's a person who's being brought to seek the Lord by the power
of the Holy Spirit, isn't it? But it says in verse 46, now
listen to me, it says, who when he had found one pearl of great
price, there's only one pearl of great price, he went and sold
all that he had, and he bought it. Now it says he bought it.
Now that's the same word as buyeth in the treasure parable. It doesn't
mean to redeem by blood. It means like he goes into the
marketplace and buys it. And somebody says, well, if he
buys it, we know man cannot buy salvation. So that must be talking
about Christ. But listen to me and what I want
to tell you. And I want you to turn to Isaiah
chapter 55. In what sense Does this person
who finds this pearl of great price sell everything that he
had and buy that one pearl of great price? In what sense? And
it's not that he buys salvation. We can't buy salvation. We can't
pay the price. We can't provide the redemption
price. We don't have the wherewithal.
We don't have the means. We're in the negative column
in that sense. We're sinners. We don't have
anything to buy with. We don't have anything to recommend
us unto God. So in what sense does he buy
salvation? It's in the sense of a prophecy
that we find in Isaiah 55. Look at verse 1. Listen to what
he says. Ho, every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. He that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat. Now if you go to any store in
town and you walk in and you find some piece of merchandise
that you want, and you take it up to the counter and you say,
I want to buy this, and they say, OK, that'll be $20. And
you say, I don't have any money. How far are you going to get?
They won't let you have it, will they? They'll say, no, Mr. or no, ma'am,
I'm in business to make a profit here, and I've got to have money
for this. But here, in the prophecy of Isaiah, and this is a gospel
prophecy, this is a kingdom prophecy, here's the command. If you thirst,
come to the waters. He that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat. Come and buy it, but you don't
have any money. Look at it, verse 1. Yea, come,
buy wine and milk without money and without price. In other words, it's free. What's this talking about? Free
grace. Look at verse 2. Wherefore do you spend money
for that which is not bread? You'll spend money for things
that won't fill you. You're looking for goodly pearls
and there are none. You think there's goodly pearls
all over this place. He says, wherefore do you spend
money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which
satisfies not, hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which
is good, and let your soul delight in fatness, in health. That's
what that means. Verse three, incline your ear,
come unto me here, and your soul shall live, and I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
What are the sure mercies of David? Well, here's what I know. That's speaking of Christ, the
Messiah, the Son of David, according to the flesh. It speaks of mercy,
which you can't buy, you can't earn, you can't deserve. And
it speaks of sureness, which has nothing to do with anything
we have or anything we are or anything we do. Because if it has anything to
do with who we are or what we have or what we do, it is not
sure. In fact, let me take that back. It is sure, sure to fail. Talking about Christ. Now go
back to the parable. Here's a man, a merchant man.
His whole life is buying and selling. That's what a merchant
man does. That's how he makes his living. That's all he knows. If I'm going
to get something, I've got to pay for it, got to bargain. Isn't
that a perfect picture of false religion? That's what they're doing this
morning in false gospels. They're buying and selling and
they think they're getting goodly pearls. And that's what we were by nature.
Fallen in Adam. Merchants. You might notice in
the Bible that anytime you see merchants, it's always evil people. I'm not saying anything about
you businessmen or anything. But I'm talking about in this
context. Remember in Revelation, the merchants who follow the
great whore? It's all about buying and selling, and it carries over
into the religion. It's a religion of works salvation. He does something for you, you
do something for him, and then bam, you got it. Isn't that what
it is? And he's seeking goodly pearls,
just like man in his darkness, man in his depravity. Just like
Adam and Eve, when they fell, what'd they seek? They sought
to cover their nakedness. Just like Cain, what did he bring
to God? The works of his hands. Just
like the Tower of Babel, what were they doing? Trying to work
their way into God's favor. Trying to impress God with their
works. Like people today, preachers stand at the ends of an aisle
and say, God has done everything, Christ has done everything he
can do. Now the rest is up to you. That's a merchant man seeking
goodly pearl. That's a sinner. And there's
no hope. He said, well, I've got many
goodly pearls. He may be like the Pharisee who said, I thank
God I'm not like other men. That's a goodly pearl to him.
I fast twice in a week. There's a goodly pearl to him. I give tithes of everything and
more. That's a goodly pearl to him. And then what happens? Well,
if he's one of Christ's sheep, the Holy Spirit brings him under
the preaching of the gospel. And what does he find out? He
finds out that all those goodly pearls that he thought was valuable,
that he thought he could buy and sell salvation and its blessings
with, that he thought could recommend him unto God, they are totally
worthless. And he finds the pearl of great
price. One pearl, not many pearls, one
pearl of great price. Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and raised from the dead. And he sells everything that
he has and buys that one pearl. It's not that he paid for it,
he didn't have anything. He's like the fellow back there in
Isaiah, come ye, buy without money, without price. That's
right. You say, well, that doesn't make
sense, preacher. I don't care. He doesn't have to. That's the way grace is represented.
We gain it, not through our merits, not through our works, not through
our wills, and it's free. Let me give you an example of
Philippians 3. Look at Philippians 3. Here's the apostle Paul talking about his past. when his name was Saul of Tarsus.
And Saul of Tarsus was like a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. And
for a long time in his life, he thought he'd found many goodly
pearls. Look at verse five. Here's a goodly pearl to Saul
of Tarsus. Here's a man in darkness. Here's
a man in self-righteousness. Here's a man who's ignorant of
and not submitted to the righteousness of God in Christ. Circumcised
the eighth day. I thought that recommended me
unto God, Saul would say. Of the stock of Israel, I'm a
child of Abraham. We be Abraham's seed. See all
these goodly pearls that he sought in his life? Of the tribe of
Benjamin, that's an honored tribe. A Hebrew of Hebrews, pure blood.
Touching the law of Pharisees, somebody who went above and beyond
the call of duty. Concerning zeal persecuting the
church that he thought the church was was heresy and he persecuted
Touching the righteousness, which is in the law blameless. Nobody
could rightly accuse him in his outward character and conduct
But then what happened now? He found one pearl by the power
of the Holy Spirit He found one pearl of great price and what
happened now listen to but what things were gained to me all
those goodly pearls and Those I counted lost for Christ, the
one pearl of great price. You see it? Everything that I thought was
goodly, I found it was badly. Pardon my English. Yea, doubtless,
verse 8, I count all things but loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I've suffered the
loss of all things, all those goodly pearls. They're not goodly,
they're evil. And do count them but dung. Think
about it, you think you've got a pearl that's worth something
and you find out it's not even worth dung. And you know what
dung is. That I may win Christ. It's a
great example of what's being taught in that parable, the pearl
of great price. This is the result. This is the
fruit of redemption. Saul of Tarsus was a sinner saved
by the grace of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, justified
by the righteousness of Christ imputed. How do you know that?
Right here. That I may win Christ and be
found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the
law, all those goodly pearls, they're gone. They're done. But
that which is through the faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith. He found one pearl of great price.
My whole salvation is wrapped up in one pearl of great price.
That's Jesus Christ and his righteousness. Let's conclude. Turn back to
that passage that Randy read. And here's what he's talking
about. Matthew 6. The Lord here teaching, he said,
well, Don't be fooled now. Where your treasure is, that's
where your heart is. Isn't that right? Your treasure's
on the things of this world, that's where your heart is. But he said this, And you know
when he talks about take therefore no thought for the morrow, when
he says don't take any thought, what he's talking about is anxiousness,
anxiety, worry. That's what he's talking about.
He's not telling us don't think about the things that we have
to deal with here on earth. We have to think about it. But
he's saying don't be so wrapped up in this world that we lose
sight of the one pearl of great price. And here's what he says
in verse 33 of Matthew 6, but seek ye first the kingdom of
God. And how do you do that? And his
righteousness. Now, what righteousness is that
talking about? Man's righteousness? No, that's
one of those goodly pearls that if you ever see the one pearl
of great price, you're going to call it dung. Isn't that right? Get rid of, I'll sell all that.
You know, you know, you know why I believe it says that, that
that he sells all that he had on those worthless pearls, because
there's a bunch of people who'll buy them. Because they still
think they're worth something. Now that doesn't mean, don't
get crazy on this parable, that doesn't mean we go out and sell
false religion or anything like that. It's just simply teaching
this lesson that in light of Christ, Jesus Christ, the God-man,
In light of his precious blood and his righteousness imputed,
there is nothing worth anything but him. As far as my right relationship
with God, he's all and in all. So he says, seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be
added unto you. Let's bow in prayer. Heavenly
Father, we thank you for showing us the one pearl of great price.
Jesus Christ, his blood and righteousness, which is everything, who is everything
to us. We thank you for showing us the
worthlessness of all that this world has to offer, and showing
us the worthiness of the lamb. For it's in his name we pray,
amen.