If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to the book of Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Now this morning I'm really just
going to preach on one verse, but let me just introduce it
by going to some other verses. Verse 44 of Matthew 13. This is a continuation of Christ
speaking parables to his disciples. These are called the kingdom
parables. As it begins in verse 44 there
again, the kingdom of heaven is like, that's what he's talking
about. The kingdom of heaven that he's referring to is God's
sovereign rule and reign over his church here on this earth,
but not just his church, his sovereign rule and reign over
all things. And that's the way we have to
look at it. God is in control. And I know that raises a lot
of questions in people's minds, ethical questions, philosophical,
theological, but this is what the Bible teaches. All of these
questions cannot be answered to our satisfaction. All things
cannot be reconciled in our finite mind except as to say what the
Bible tells us, that God is high above us. His ways are past finding
out. We know that God is a sovereign
God. He's a good God. He's also a
just God. Scripture teaches that. God deals
justly with sinners. We all by nature are sinners.
And he's either going to deal justly with us by his grace through
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man in mercy, or he's
going to deal justly with us as we stand on our own two feet
in our own merits, which we have none. And that's the case, isn't
it? You're either in Christ, saved
by the grace of God, justified by his righteousness imputed,
that is charged, accounted, given, washed in his blood, as we say,
that's what that means. What can wash away my sin? You're
either in Christ, sealed and secure by the grace of God unto
salvation, or you're on your own, damned forever. That's the
only two choices you have. People say, well, you've got
a choice. Well, you do. Problem is, man by nature won't make
the right choice. Ain't that right? He won't do
it. And if we've made the right choice,
we know that it's by the power of God's grace. You see, God
doesn't save you because you're less rebellious and less stubborn
than other people. Mark it down. We're all in the
same boat, aren't we? Totally depraved. We have no
righteousness. We can't work one. And by nature,
we don't want it God's way. We want it our own way. And that's
the problem. That's pride. That's self-righteousness. That's
false religion. But the kingdom of heaven is
God's control over all things, especially his church. He's working
all things after the counsel of his own will. And as the Lord
reveals things of the kingdom of heaven as they develop in
the final days of life on this fallen earth, this last age,
that's what he's talking about in these kingdom parables. Here's
what the kingdom of heaven is going to be like during the last
age, the New Testament or New Covenant age. That's the time
between Christ's first coming and his second coming. So it
didn't begin today or with us, our generation, it began with
the apostles when they began to preach the gospel and God
spread it throughout the world. And so as the kingdom of heaven,
as things develop in these final days of life on this fallen earth,
there's much revealed in these kingdom parables and elsewhere
in the scripture that would bring a lot of sorrow to our hearts,
even despair. if it weren't for God's grace.
We just give up. Why not? For example, he teaches
in these kingdom parables that when the gospel is preached there
are so many people who will not believe it. Remember he talked
about in the parable of the seed and the sower, that's how he
started the kingdom parables. And he talked about there's the
wayside here who doesn't want to hear anything we've got to
say as far as the gospel is concerned. They're just not interested.
You may be sitting there today saying, I'm just really not interested
in what you had to say. I just hope you get through quick.
That's the way it is. I remember how I used to be that
way. That's the wayside here. Then he talked about the stony
ground hearer, somebody who latches onto it quickly. But then when
persecution comes over the word, and it will come, then they leave
it. They were never saved. They just
had a false profession. And then he talks about the thorny
ground hearer. That's the one who's got other
interests that take that person away from the truth. And then
he talked about the good ground hearer. And the good ground here
are true believers. That's the elect of God. That's
the sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the true church. And when
he calls them the good ground, it's not intrinsically good.
In other words, he's not talking about any goodness in us by nature. As if, well, we're better than
the stony ground here. We're better than the wayside
here. We're better than the thorny ground here. No, no, no. The
good ground is the creation of Christ by his grace in the heart
of faith. You must be born again. And so
what are we to do? Well, give up? No. We're to seek
the Lord. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. But there'll be so many who won't believe. But he also
teaches us two things. He teaches us that God always
has a remnant according to the election of grace. God always
has a people. As long as this earth is existing,
no matter how bad it gets, up until the end, you can always
know that Christ has some sheep out there who have not yet been
called into the fold. He's got a people. He chose them
before the foundation of the world according to the election
of grace. He redeemed them by the blood
of Christ on the cross by the redemption of grace. And he'll
call them by the Holy Spirit in the power of grace, regenerating
grace. And so we can take heart there.
Secondly, let me read you a passage. This is in 2 Corinthians chapter
2. And here's the fact of the matter.
And this is hard for us to see because we're so result-oriented. In other words, if we don't get
results, positive results, we think it's all failure. But see,
God has always said, my thoughts are not your thoughts and my
ways aren't your ways. God does things differently.
God is all wise and all knowing and all just and all good, and
we're not. But he says here in verse 14,
this is 2 Corinthians 2, the apostle Paul, He says, now thanks
be unto God, which always calls us to triumph, to have victory
in Christ and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by
us unto every place. What he's saying is this. When
I preach the truth, the gospel of God's grace in Christ, when
I tell you the old, old story, who Jesus Christ is, who is He? He's not just a prophet. He was
that prophet. He's really THE prophet. But
He wasn't just a prophet. He wasn't a martyr. He wasn't
just a good example. He is a good example. He's a
perfect example. But who is Jesus Christ? He's
God manifest in the flesh. That's what the Bible says. You
say, well, I can't understand that. Well, join the club. That's
not, that's not, listen, that's not to be submitted to your understanding. That's submitted to your believing.
We believe it because God says it. There's a lot of things about
this Bible, about the truth of God's nature that I can't grasp
with my little finite mind, and you can't either. But they're
true because God says it. How can God be totally, absolutely
sovereign in all things and still hold man responsible? He does. How do you know that? The Bible
says he does. You say, well, I can't wrap my mind around that.
I understand where you're coming from. But it's still true. It's
amazing, isn't it? But Paul's saying here, he says,
when I preach the good news of Christ and what he accomplished
on Calvary to put away all the sins of all his people and establish
the only righteousness whereby God can be just and justifier
of the ungodly. When I tell that story and preach
that word, I'm victorious. I triumph, I'm successful, whether
you believe it or not. That's what he's saying here.
Look at it. Verse 15, for we are unto God a sweet saver of
Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. The
saved are those who believe, those who perish are those who
don't believe. Verse 16, to the one we're the saver of death
unto death, to the other the saver of life unto life, and
who is sufficient for these things? This is a message that is so
astounding and miraculous and so far above us that who is sufficient
for these things? He says, for we're not of many
which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of
God in the sight of God speak we in Christ, some translations,
hey, of Christ. Doesn't matter, it's the same
thing. But here's what he's saying. As we progress throughout the
last days, there are going to be fewer and fewer who believe
this message. And if it weren't for God's word,
we'd go into despair. We'd sorrow. But he says this,
when we preach the gospel, we're successful no matter what. You
know why? Because God is glorified. Christ
is exalted. And God always has a remnant.
Now, as we rejoice over the spread of the gospel throughout this
age, we know also, according to the kingdom parables, the
next parable, which is the parable of the tares and the wheat, remember,
we know that as the gospel goes throughout the world, Satan is
busy sowing his tares. False Christians, that's what
a tare is. A tare was a plant that looked
like wheat, but it wasn't wheat. And when it grew up into Maturation,
it was poisonous. The seeds were poisonous. Called
darnel, if we transliterate it. But there's false Christians.
So we've got, as we preach the gospel, there are going to be
a lot of people who just don't believe it, but there's also
going to be false Christians, sown by Satan. Christians in
name only, who claim to be Christian, but who deny the doctrine, the
truth of Christianity. And so as the church continues
throughout this final age, throughout the world, Satan, his ministers,
they attack, they persecute, especially the early church,
we see that, read the book of Acts. Paul was hounded by unbelievers
and idolaters all of his life until in the end he was beheaded. Just about all the apostles were
martyred except for John, and he was put out on the Isle of
Patmos. And then as the church continues
throughout the final age, Satan and his ministers begin to infiltrate
and begin to spread their false doctrine, leading people to destruction.
And it gets worse and worse. You go into many so-called Christian
churches today, and you don't even hear the Bible read, let
alone preached. And when they preach it, they
pervert it. They don't preach the grace of
God. It's always some form of man's
works interjected into the scheme of salvation in some way, to
some degree, at some stage. Isn't that right? And think, how many people are
preaching even the issue, asking the question of questions? How
can a holy God be just and still justify the ungodly? The question
of questions that gets to the heart of the gospel. I was second
year into a seminary before I heard a preacher even pose that question. And it wasn't in the seminary
that he did it. A just God and a savior. What
does that mean? Why does that matter? Well, it's
the heart of the gospel. The moment I tell you that God,
as He is identified and distinguished in the Bible, forgives sin, there
is a big, major problem. And what is that problem? God
is a God of justice and He must punish sin. Now most preachers
will tell you, or most people will tell you, well God just
looks over that, He just denies that, He doesn't even look at
that, He's so much loving and merciful. Now let me tell you
something, God is loving, and God is merciful, and God is gracious,
but He's never loving, merciful, or gracious at the expense of
His justice. And any preacher who preaches
a message that denies, challenges, ignores the justice of God against
all sin is telling you a lie. And this lie is spreading. And
it comes in many forms, many false gospels. You see, we rejoice
as we look back in the New Testament, read the book of Acts, read the
epistles, we rejoice and see even in our time that there are
a few churches that we know of that are preaching the true gospel
and we have to stand firm for the truth of the gospel. We have
to tell men and women the truth. We don't buy into this lie that
false preachers are telling people. Lying about God, lying about
themselves, lying about Christ. We tell the truth on these things.
And we rejoice over the spread of the gospel throughout the
New Testament, but we realize at the same time, Satan is going
about to sow his tares. And those tares are false churches,
false Christians. And as the church grows throughout
the world, Satan has already, and his ministers, they begin
to attack, they begin to persecute. And as the church continues throughout
this final age, Satan and his ministers, they infiltrate and
they begin to spread their false doctrine, leading people to destruction,
and it gets worse and worse. We see that in our day. There's
so much religion, but so little truth. And the biggest lie that
false preachers tell people is that some way, in some stage,
to some degree, salvation is conditioned on man. That it's
all about man. That it's all about what man
does for or does in cooperation with God rather than what God
alone by his grace through Christ does for man. That beautiful
story in the Old Testament of the prophet Hosea, the book of
Hosea, where it talks about how Hosea married a wife and she
was a prostitute and she prostituted herself out to other men and
Hosea continued to love her. The message of that story is
a beautiful message of God's unconditional love and sovereign
grace in the salvation of his people because we, by nature,
all of us are like Gomer the prostitute. And at no time in
that story, at no time in that prophetic type of how God saves
sinners, was the salvation of that woman, Gomer, conditioned
on her, what she did, what she determined to do, her decision.
It was always a matter of her prostituting herself out to her
lovers, And Hosea loving her and caring for her in spite of
it. You remember in that story how when she began to age and
she wasn't able to support herself as well as she was in her youth
with her prostitution. And Hosea would care for her.
He would bring baskets of food and fruit to her and put them
at her doorstep. And you remember she'd open her door and she'd
see that food. And what would she do? She would attribute that
to her lovers. She'd say, oh, aren't my lovers
good to me? In other words, she didn't have
any idea that it was Hosea, her husband, who she had defrauded,
who she had sinned against, that was taking care of her in his
love. And that's the way we are by nature, all the time before
God the Holy Spirit brings us to a saving knowledge of Christ.
and brings us to faith in him and repentance of our dead works.
All the blessings that God gives us as his elect and his care
for us, we attribute it to an idol. We prostitute ourselves
out to idols. But God, with his great love
wherewith he loved us, see, in spite of us. You see, it wasn't
conditioned on us. It wasn't conditioned on our
turning to God. He turned us with cords of love. But the false message that is
spread today in the apostate church, the church here on earth,
as it appears to men, has been corrupted and will be more corrupted,
and it's falling away from the truth, the apostate church, to
the point where the true gospel dies down until it's barely heard,
and then the end will come. Now, does this mean that Christ's
true church has been or is being or will be defeated? And the
answer is absolutely not. Christ said to his disciples,
he said, he said, upon this rock, I will build my church. And remember
that rock there is not Peter, that rock is Christ. The church
is built on the rock of Christ Jesus. We stand on the rock,
Christ Jesus. And he said, the gates of hell
will not prevail against his church, his true church. God's
true people. His elect people, chosen by Him
before the foundation of the world, whose names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life, written there before the world ever began,
those whom Christ came to redeem by His precious blood, those
who are washed clean from all their sins by the blood of Christ,
those who are clothed in His righteousness imputed, and those
who, in point of time, God brings under the preaching of the gospel
and the power of the Holy Spirit gives them life and brings them
to faith in Christ, they will never be defeated. But here's
the point, and this is what these kingdom parables show, this is
what a lot of other scripture shows, this is what is really
shown in the book of Revelation. As God's judgment upon this ungodly
world Satan will be loosed to deceive the nations once again,
just like he was allowed to do so in the Old Testament. You
see, Satan was allowed to deceive the nations in the Old Testament.
And then Satan was bound. He was cast out. When did that
happen? When Christ died on the cross.
That's what the Lord said in John chapter 12 and in other
places. Satan was cast down upon the earth into the bottomless
pit, the scripture says. What is the bottomless pit? It's
this dark world. It's this fallen earth with all
of its false gospels and false religions, but Satan was bound
up for a while. That doesn't mean that he couldn't
work a little bit, but he was bound up for a while, and the
gospel began to spread out all over the world, and God saved
his people. He had to elect people out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And then he says
later on, Satan will be loosed again to deceive the nations
once again. Well, I believe that's taken
place and it's getting worse and worse. And Satan appears
to have won a victory, but there's two things that we have to be
assured of. Number one, Satan will not have victory over God's
true church. Now I've already said that, but
I want to emphasize it because that's what these next two parables
are really talking about. The parable of the treasure hidden
in the field and the parable of the pearl of great price.
You see, you see the progression here. how it's working. God is saying to his people,
he's saying, look, the gospel is going to be preached and many
will not believe. There'll be some. God has a remnant,
the good ground hearers that we talked about. Those whose
hearts have been made new by the Holy Spirit. And then he
says, Satan will sow his tares. There'll be false churches and
false Christians. And then he says, the church
which starts out very small, the grain of mustard seed, that's
Christ and his death on the cross from which the church came out
of. He is the founder, the creator. He's the foundation, the heart,
the head of the church. And it'll grow into a great tree,
but these birds of prey will lodge in its branches. That's
Satan attacking the church from without. And then the parable
of the leaven, the woman. who put leaven in the three measures
of meal, and it spread until the whole lot. That's Satan attacking
the church from within. There's a lot, you see, a lot
to be sad about, a lot to despair of, except for one thing. Number one, Satan will not have
any victory over the true church. And number two, Satan's victory
is short-lived. Satan will be destroyed and the
church, the true church, not the false church now, not just
those who call themselves Christian, but who are Christian in name
only, but the church will remain secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we read about that last week.
in 2 Thessalonians 2, where he talked about how so many will
be deceived by the deceiver. They will not receive the love
of the truth. But he said, we're bound to give
thanks always, brethren, always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what is it exactly
that seals and secures the true church? Well, let me state it
and then we'll go back to the parable in Matthew 13. It's the
sovereign grace of God through redemption by the blood of Jesus
Christ. We're under the blood of Jesus,
safe in the shepherd's fold, under the blood of Jesus, safe
while the ages row. And that's what these next two
parables talk about. These two parables, the parable
of the treasure hidden in the field shows the ground of redemption
and that's the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And then
the parable of the pearl of great price shows the fruit of redemption. I believe that refers more to
the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a sinner to bring
that sinner to see the value of Jesus Christ. So today let's
look at verse 44. where he says, again, the kingdom
of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field. There's treasure
and it's hidden in a field. He said, the witch, when a man
hath found, he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth
all that he hath and buyeth that field. Now this parable shows
the infinite, unconditional love of Almighty God for his elect
people and how precious and how valuable they are to Christ.
That's what he's talking about. And as I said, and we have to
be careful now in our thinking on this. The people of God are
called his treasure, sometimes his peculiar treasure. But we
need to learn to think right according to the scripture on
that issue. What is it that's valuable about
any of us? You see, the Bible teaches that
we're sinners. That we fell in Adam. We have
no worthiness. We have nothing in us or of us
or about us or that comes from us that recommends us unto God.
In fact, the scripture refers to us in some places as worms. Now that's not a popular message.
And the word worm, when it refers to us as sinners, is a wriggling
maggot. Christ referred to himself as
a worm, but not a wriggly maggot. That's the crimson worm, which
typifies the substitute, the death of Christ. But what are
we? We're wriggly maggots, you know.
Well, we don't like to be called things like that. You know the
old hymn, alas, and did my savior bleed and did my sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? There's
some people who want to change that. Because that doesn't comply
with our self-image, our positive thoughts toward ourself, man's
pride, dignity. Well, in the Bible, the scripture
says that man without Christ is nothing, less than nothing.
That man without Christ is nothing, is worthless. So how could he
call us a treasure? Well, here's what we've got to
see from the scripture. Any value that we who are sinners
saved by grace have has absolutely nothing to do with our intrinsic
worth or worthiness or some sort of goodness. In other words,
grace shows us that there is absolutely nothing in us or about
us or from us that would motivate God to save us or to do anything
good for us. It's all unconditional. We're
nothing. We're sin. But the treasure, the value of
a sinner saved by grace, and let me say this, a sinner saved
by grace is the most valuable thing to God. Now how? It all has to do with His glory,
not our worthiness, not our goodness, we have none. Not our righteousness,
it's His glory in the salvation of such worms, of such wretches
as we are. And that's why the true church
is called God's peculiar treasure over in The book of Psalms, Psalm
135 and verse four, it says, for the Lord hath chosen Jacob
unto himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. Now, that's
speaking prophetically and typically of the true church, the true
Israel, God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
Jacob describes our natural character. Jacob was a scoundrel who deserved
nothing but condemnation. Well, that's what we are. Israel
refers to those who have prevailed with God like Jacob did because
of Christ. In other words, that refers to
our status as sinners, unworthy, undeserving sinners saved by
grace. In other words, what we have
by way of grace in salvation, in way of justification, sanctification,
in way of security, we didn't earn it, we didn't deserve it,
we earned and deserve the opposite, damnation. Two times in scripture,
the church, God's people are called his peculiar people. Titus
chapter two and verse 14 and first Peter two, nine. It talks about how Christ gave
himself for his people that he might redeem us from all iniquity
and purify unto himself a peculiar people. And we're a holy nation,
a peculiar people. What does that mean? It doesn't
mean weird. Listen to this, that word peculiar, sometimes we translate
it purchased, and that's a good translation of it. But here's
what it means. It describes the property one
owned as a rich and distinctive possession, a possession which
is a very special status. Now what is that very special
status? It has nothing to do with how
valuable I am in myself. It has nothing to do with how
worthy I am within myself. It has to do with the glory of
God in the salvation of the worst sinners based on His righteousness
alone, His grace alone, His blood alone. In other words, so precious
are God's people to Him that He gave His only begotten Son. And that's talking about his
people. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son, that whosoever should believe within him should not perish
but have everlasting life. That world there is not all without
exception. It's his people all over the
world. Now he speaks here in the parable, this treasure, this
peculiar treasure, valuable because of the value
of the person and the work that it took to redeem them. The precious blood of Christ.
But this true church is hid in a field. Now you notice there
is a distinction here and you need to keep this in mind. There's
a distinction between the treasure and the field. Here's the field.
Now what is the field? The field is the world. We learned
that back in chapter 13, verse 38, when he was talking about
the parable of the wheat and the tares. The field is the world. And what he's saying is here's
this fallen, cursed world, and in that fallen, cursed world
is hidden his people, his elect. The treasure is hidden first
by the Lord under his providence and protection. Do you realize,
just like Hosea's Gomer, that long before we knew God in Christ,
he was taking care of us just like Hosea took care of Gomer.
He provided for us, he protected us, and he does it all, listen,
he does it all for his glory and to bring his people to that
point in time where he'll bring them to himself. They're hidden
from view. Look at Ephesians chapter two. Because by nature, that treasure,
those people who make up that treasure by nature, they're no
different from the world in their very nature as we're born into
this world. Look at Ephesians chapter two
and verse one. He speaks here, and you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. Now that
quickening is the new birth. You've been born again by the
Spirit. How do you know you've been born again? How do you know
you have spiritual life imparted to you? Because you look to Christ
and him alone, and his righteousness imputed for all salvation. But
he says in verse two, wherein in time past, you walked according
to the course of this world. just right with the world. According
to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. In
other words, this hidden treasure, by nature, was no different than
the children of wrath. And that remains so until the
Holy Spirit brings them under the preaching of the gospel and
calls them out, makes the gospel the power of God unto salvation. And when they're brought to faith
in Christ, they're even then hidden to the world. John wrote
in 1 John 3, 1, he said, the world will not know us. And they're hidden in the sense
of salvation of their souls, but not in the sense of spreading
the gospel, identifying with Christ and his true people. The
true church is the hidden treasure. And then the true church is found
and redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. It says here in verse
44, that which when he, a man hath found, the man there is
Christ, when he hath found, found his treasure. Now, Christ always
knew where his treasure was and is. He said that in several places. He said, my sheep hear my voice
and I know them and they follow me. He spoke of those, he said,
all that the father giveth me shall come to me. But by nature
as we're born into this world, we're all lost. We're the lost
sheep, you see. And he comes and finds his sheep.
He knows where they are. Think about it that one time
when he and his disciples were going to a particular area, and
he told his disciples that they must go through Samaria, which
was out of the way, and it was a way that no self-respecting
Jew would take, going through Samaria. Why did he go through
Samaria? Because one of his sheep was
there, the woman at the well. Read about it in John chapter
four. So he knows his sheep. And so when he found him, it
says he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he
had. Now, what, what all, what is
that he sold all that he had? He sold himself. Like in the
marketplace, everything he is and everything he has, the God
man substituted himself in the place of his people and paid
the price of their redemption. That's what he did. You see,
the treasure, again, is identified and distinguished by the value
of its owner and the price that he paid for it. And the price
that he paid was the price of his precious blood. He had to
suffer unto death. He gave himself an offering for
sin. And he was made sin. Our sins
were imputed to him, charged to him. And he brought forth
an everlasting righteousness of infinite value, whereby God
could be just and justify the ungodly. That's the legal transaction. That's the justification of his
people, which was in effect, before the world began, based
upon what this man, Jesus Christ, the God-man, would come and do
in time on the cross of Calvary. He made himself of no reputation,
the scripture says. He became obedient, even obedient
unto death, the death of the cross. That's the redemption
of the souls of his people by his blood out of the slave block
of sin. Just like everything, Jesus paid
it all. All the debt I owe. And that's
what he did. That's the foundation, the ground
of redemption, the blood of Christ. We're redeemed. Listen, the price
of redemption has nothing to do with anything that we do.
I've told you all the story about the man I heard on TV, one famous
preacher with a lot of followers. And he made the statement. He
said, what is the cost of forgiveness? And his answer was repentance. And that's not right, you see.
That's one of Satan's lies. You know, people believe the
cost of forgiveness is repentance. They believe it's confession.
They believe it's in doing penance. No, sir. No, sir. The cost of
forgiveness is the blood of Jesus Christ. The issue of salvation,
the ground of salvation is the righteousness of God in Christ
freely imputed and received by faith. If you don't have righteousness,
then you can not enter into the kingdom of God. Now that's right. You cannot stand before God and
be justified, be declared not guilty, be declared righteous.
You can't do it. And repentance will not bring
righteousness. Now, righteousness will bring
repentance. When you see your sinfulness
and see the glory of Christ in his righteousness, that's what
brings repentance. But he sold all that he had.
Everything that Christ is, he gave in the place of his people
as our surety. and our substitute. But notice
here at the end of this verse it says, and he buyeth that field. He bought the whole field. Now
what does that mean? Well, it's not that Christ redeemed
the whole world in the sense of redeeming the whole world,
every individual without exception from sin and bringing salvation
to all without exception. But here's what it means. In
redeeming his people, his treasure now, remember there's a distinction
between the treasure and the field. In bringing his treasure,
his people, in redeeming them from sin and securing their salvation
by his righteousness imputed to them, he also earned the crown
rights over the whole world, even this whole universe, he
owns it all. That word byeth there. It literally
means, this word byeth, it has to be determined by its context.
But it literally means to buy in the marketplace. It doesn't
necessarily mean to redeem from sin. It can mean that, in a few
verses it does. You can see, for example, in
1 Corinthians 6.20, you're bought with a price. And then other
places. But it simply means to buy and
sell in the marketplace. It's a word that's used in many
contexts, like for example, the money changers in the temple,
buying and selling, that's the word used for that. Usually,
not always now, usually when the word refers to the redemption
of God's elect by the blood of Christ, it's a stronger word. which is only used about four
times in the New Testament, and Galatians 3.13 is one of those
times. Let me read it to you where it
talks about Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us. It's written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. But here's the point. Over here
in Matthew 13.44. This bias, when he talks about
buying the field, means to secure the rights to someone by paying
a price and thus acquiring them as one's property. And he owns
it. Now, when Christ redeemed his
people by his blood, we became his, there's no doubt about it.
But he redeemed us out of the bondage and the marketplace of
sin and into everlasting life. That's not the way that he bought
the field. He just bought the crown rights
to that field. Let me read you some scripture.
Psalm 2 in verse 8 and 9, listen to this. The Lord said to his
son, in essence, ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen
for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth
for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. You see, He owns them, and His
judgment will fall upon them. But He didn't redeem them by
His blood. He redeemed His people. And let me read you another one.
This is Romans 14. Just to give you an idea of this. You see,
there's nothing in the Word of God that speaks of Christ redeeming
in the way of the redemption by blood unto salvation, everyone
without exception. But in redeeming his people,
this treasure, you see, he bought the crown rights and he owns
the whole world. Romans 14 and verse 9, for to
this end, Christ both died and rose and revived that he might
be Lord both of the dead and living. The dead there being
the spiritually dead. The living there being the spiritually
alive. You see Christ, the world belongs
to Christ. Now prove that to Philippians
2. Every knee's gonna bow. Every tongue's gonna confess
that Jesus is Lord. He rules and disposes of all
things for the glory of God and the good of his people. He's
the king of kings. He is the potentate, the scripture
says. Lord of lords. And that's what
that means in Matthew 13. He bought the field. He will
accomplish all that he set out to do. And his people are hidden
in him.