Now in Matthew 13, we were talking about how that the Lord is our treasure in Song of Solomon. He's called the lover of our soul, and it speaks of how earnestly we seek Him. Even in this world as believers, we seek His face, we seek His comfort in trouble. We seek Him as our refuge when we see no other hope. When we feel lost, we seek to be found of Him. Seek Him in every way and in everything. Remember, Paul spoke of the gospel.

He said, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. And that's the second hiding of the treasure in our text. We found the hid treasure and now it's hidden in vessels of clay. We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, in a vessel that doesn't appear on the outside to be any different from any other vessel.

And yet in the sinner's heart, in the heart of his elect, the Lord Jesus is shining in his glory. It won't keep his blessed ones from finding him, though it be hidden in vessels of clay. I walked in this field, as you did, probably for a good while before I found the treasure. And the Lord, I walked around blind.

And the Lord revealed to me that in this field There's something worthy, there's something valuable, there's something priceless. The Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Ephesians chapter 3 with me. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 8. Unto me Paul writes in Ephesians 3.8, "...Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, the treasure.

We tell forth of Him who is the treasure. There's nothing in this world that can be called a treasure. when the man discovered the treasure in the field. You'll notice in the parable of the pearl, which we'll talk about Lord Willem next week, it says he found the pearl of great price. We can call it treasure, we can treasure up things of this world, but they're not treasures. There's only one priceless treasure in this world.

It's the unsearchable riches of Christ. It's the depth of the riches of both wisdom and knowledge. It's in Christ. It's the unsearchable riches of God's grace in Christ. We will never know the extent of his value to the soul that he first loved. and to make all men see. To make all men see. Now, I can't make you see, but by these means God make you see. He'll make you see.

What is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God? You've got to know God to find the treasure. It's hid in Him who created all things by Jesus Christ. to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. Christ is the power and the wisdom of God.

And it's manifold, it's limitless. According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. It was God's purpose all along. to reveal His Son in all and in me and in you by His grace if you're His. It was always His purpose. All of this is according to God's purpose. It's not left up to anything else. It's according to His purpose. It is a faith that it might be by grace that the promise might be sure to all them that believe.

Not up in the air, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. He's revealed it to us so that, you know, I found that God's preachers are really not bold in a whole lot. Usually they're unassuming. You know, I think men like Frank Tate and all my friends in the gospel, we're not bold in the things of this world.

But when it comes to the gospel, we can be bold because the Lord has revealed the truth to us, and there's no question about it. There's no debating it. There's no arguing about it. We just boldly declare what God said, access with confidence. What I speak about by God's grace in this pulpit is not my opinions. My opinions are no better than than in infidels that are reprobates.

But what God has given His people to say, His preachers to say, is spoken confidently and boldly because God has revealed it. And it's according to His purpose and grace that by these means it's conveyed. Wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory, For this cause, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Everything we need, we fall on our knees before God and ask for it. that he would grant it unto us.

That's such a simple truth, but look how this world operates. It's not like that. It's not like that, but with us, it's got to be like that. It is like that. Everything we need, we fall on our knees before God, and we pray for each other, you notice, before God. We fall on our knees before God on behalf of those that we love. those who are our family in Christ, the whole family in heaven and earth, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend. You might be able to see it. You might be able to understand it. You might find it.

With all the saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ, which cannot be known. I didn't misquote that. It can't be known any other way than by the preaching of the gospel and God's revelation by His grace of His Son. You're going to have to know that which passeth knowledge. It's beyond human ability to know. that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. What a treasure, the unsearchable riches, the height and width and breadth and length of the love of God in Christ.

May God cause us to seek and to find. And it says in our text that it's for the joy of obtaining the treasure, that he goes and sells all that he has. He sells everything. He empties, what do they call it? Your personal wealth or whatever it is. He empties it out. He bankrupts himself and he does it with joy. He does it with everything. With everything in his heart, he does it. because of the richness and the glory and the beauty of the treasure, the value of the treasure.

Now, in what sense do we do that? In what sense do we buy the treasure with joy? This is not talking about selling our earthly valuables. It's not talking about, you know, selling everything, going living on a mountain and, you know, being some kind of a monk or something. This is a spiritual purchase. Proverbs 23, 23 says, buy the truth and don't sell it. Buy the truth and sell it not.

Also wisdom and instruction and understanding, all of which are in Christ. Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. He said, I am the truth. instruction. Who's going to teach us who God is? Christ is. His Spirit. An understanding. He has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true. And we are in Him that is true. This is eternal. This is the true God and eternal life.

What does Christ cost? What does the Lord Jesus Christ cost? Well, we find in the scripture both nothing and everything. And let's try to explain that from the word of God, not with any human wisdom. Isaiah 55, one. Oh, and this is the message of all the gospel.

Oh, everyone that thirsts to come ye to the waters, if you have a need, come find and take and. Intake. that which alone can satisfy your need. If you're thirsty, it's not going to help you eat a ribeye. If you're thirsty, it's not going to help you to eat strawberry shortcake. If you're thirsty, you got to have water. And you know, you say, well, I prefer iced tea. It only quenches your thirst because it's 99.8% water. Coke, almost all water. Everything, you've got to have water. That's it, only that.

Come ye that are thirst, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, buy. How can you buy with no money? Because you don't buy with money. And eat, yea, come by wine and milk without money and without price. You know, sometimes water is the best tasting thing you can drink if you're really thirsty. But also, it says wine and milk. This is very good water. This is water that you not only need, but you This is rich and satisfying water. And listen, in Revelation 22, 17, And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that's thirsty come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. freely. Don't bring anything. Don't bring any price. Don't offer any price. Don't say, Lord, if you will, I will or if I will, you will or anything like that. It's about his will. It's about what he's going to do for you. And there's no complicating that. The water of life, the Lord Jesus Christ is taken, but he's taken freely. That's because the Lord Jesus Christ has paid all of the debt.

He gave you, you know, this is probably a terrible illustration, but when you go on a cruise ship, they give you, you know, something that you can drink all you want. If you buy it, you can drink all you want, if you have that. The Lord Jesus Christ has given you the right. He bought it for you. He bought your little card for you. And you can drink fully and freely and often and as much. You can come to the river of the water of life and be satisfied over and over and over.

And the price for that has already been paid. It's already been paid. It's been paid by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's paid the price of my full and complete salvation. Not a thing is owed. That's why it's freely. It's freely. Come take freely because it's already paid for. It wasn't cheap. It wasn't free except to you it's free. To you it's free. So then in what sense does it cost everything? Well, very simple.

Paul said in Philippians 3, and I call all things, I'd count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. Your righteousness has got to go. Your self-righteousness, your pride, your trust in the arm of the flesh, your love of your religious, you're trusting in your religious heritage.

He said, I've suffered the loss of everything. It's cost me everything to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. But he said, I counted, but no, it didn't really cost me anything. I had to get rid of it. The Lord freed me of it. But I didn't have a problem with it because it was the Lord, you see. It was the Lord. It was the trick for the sake of the treasure, for the joy of finding the treasure.

It all can go, all of it, everything that I value, in other words. What do people value? They value their money. They work for their money. Everything you've worked for is worthless when it comes to spiritual things. Got no use for it. Everything that used to be a treasure to me is now dung. It's garbage, it's refuse for the joy of having Christ. It's simple, isn't it? Doesn't cost you anything, and it costs you everything. And we see that in the Scripture.

It cost Paul his religious heritage, it cost him what he called at the time a righteousness, The very hope of his soul being a false hope had to be sold. It had to be gotten rid of. He said, I've got to have the treasure and therefore everything must go. I must have the pearl. He went and sold everything he had.

The Lord said, if you'll have eternal life, if you'll, if you want to be, in fact, what he said was if you want to be perfect, That man said, I've kept the law from my youth up. He was basically in effect saying he was perfect. I've done, I've kept the whole law from, I've always had. And the Lord said, you really want to be perfect?

Get rid of all of that. Cast off all of your law keeping. Cast off everything that you count dear. And as Paul said, I won't have anything to do with it anymore. Not having my own righteousness. I pressed toward the mark for the prize, the treasure of the high calling of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Because of who I am by nature and who God is, I can't have my religion, I can't have my self-righteousness, my pride, my false hopes, and have him too. One will have to go, and since I can't let go of him, everything else has got to go by his grace.

The merchant man here at city had to sell his house. You see that with the above the field and the treasure in the field? He had to go sell his house, his refuge. What is a house? It's where, it's your estate. It's what's valuable. Everything is in your house. It's invested in your house. It's your refuge. It's where you find provision. It's where you have comfort and fellowship, right? With your family, it's your family.

He that would come after me and hateth not father and mother. In other words, if my father or my mother is standing between me and Christ, then they've got to go. In whatever sense, that's true. It doesn't mean I don't honor them in this life and love them. But they can't stand between me and God's son.

In that aspect, in that sense, they've got to go. Everything he said if you're right arm offends you cut it off. It's got to go If you're right, I fed you pluck it out Don't even leave the the the necrotic tissue in there pull it completely out. Oh He had to sell his house, his refuge, his comfort, his prized possession, which in spiritual terms is our righteousness. It's our trust in ourselves. It's our pride. It's everything that we treasure by nature.

We can't find any comfort anywhere else once we know the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't find provision anywhere else. or protection. Our house is where we found protection. We can't just live out in the field. Anybody can come and kill us and steal what we have. No, we lock the door. We have protection. We protect our own and those that we love. Our protection is cry out. He's our refuge. He's our strong and mighty tower. All that I work for, my estate, my works, and what they, the result of my works, it's all done. It's all done, but I may win Christ. One final thought this morning. Christ is our treasure. He's our pearl. but we're also his.

And we can see in this parable how that it cost the Lord Jesus Christ everything he had in order to have us, and he gave it freely. He despised the shame or countered it a small thing to suffer shame. for us. He bought that which was most precious to him, and that's what he causes us to do. When we find him, having been found first, in order to have us, he had to redeem us with his own precious blood, and he willingly and gladly, with joy. Didn't it say that in our text, that with joy? Sold it with joy and so did our Savior for the joy that was set before him.

He endured the cross Counting the shame a small thing Psalm 135 for for the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself The one who is called by God in Scripture a worm He chose a worm unto himself. He chose him unto himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. The one who had to have us at all cost is the one who by his grace we must have at all cost. I am my beloved's and he is mine. Let's pray.