Now these parables, unless God does a work of grace in our heart so that we submit to his truth, the truth of God angers and causes sinners to despise God, even more than they already do when they hear the truth of His sovereign power, His sovereign prerogative, when they find out that they're completely at God's mercy. And we find in this passage of Scripture something that's clearly taught all through the Scripture. We see salvation from man's perspective, And we see salvation from God's perspective.

It's two different things. It's the same act. It's the same power of God. It's the same mercy. It's the same grace. But we see both sides of it from our own perspective. There is the message of the gospel that comes to us by God's grace. And we're talking about salvation now. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. So the gospel will come to you if you're an object of God's mercy. And if he does his saving work in the heart of a sinner, that sinner will submit to the truth and rejoice in Christ rather than be enraged by it. You recall in Matthew 15, our Lord was preaching the gospel that he has commanded us to preach. We preach the same gospel, or we don't preach the gospel at all. When he was through teaching that particular Lesson says in verse 12 there in Matthew 15 his disciples said Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying?

But he answered and said every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted Shall be rooted up. He explained to them in Plain uncertain or plain and certain Unambiguous Terms what happened? when he preached that lesson. Those that were planted in good ground, the seed that was planted in good ground grew. The plants or the seeds that the Heavenly Father hath not planted are rooted up.

Those who were offended by the gospel are those who Perhaps the seed of the word falls on the stony ground, and as you'll recall, when the sun came up, it says they were offended. In the description of that aspect of his parable of the sower, it says they were offended. Well, that's what happened. The seed fell on a stony heart, a heart that rejects the grace of God in pure and free sovereign grace, And they may appear at first intellectually to lay hold of it, to agree with it.

But then when it comes time, you know, people love to trust in the Lord until they actually have to trust him for something. People love the idea of forgiveness until they actually have to forgive somebody for something. People love the idea of submitting to Christ until he comes and meets you at the point of your rebellion. They say, oh, I submitted to Christ, but then when it came time to actually do that, they rebelled. And that's all of us by nature.

Paul said in Galatians 5.11, if I preach circumcision, if I preach the keeping of the law, conformance to the law, why do I yet suffer persecution?

For then is the offense of the cross ceased. The Pharisees trusted their law keeping. And Paul said, if I preached, do this and do that to be saved, they wouldn't be offended. by that. That was their so-called gospel, a false gospel. It's the same in every religion you want to talk about. The Pharisees, the Catholics, the Methodists, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, it doesn't matter.

It's works or grace. When it's works, Paul said, if I preached works, I wouldn't be persecuted for that, because that's what people want to hear. If I could do this, that, and the other to be saved, I'll do this, that, and the other. Naaman's servant said, if the Lord would have given you some hard thing to do, you'd have done it.

But what we can't do is the easy thing. Because it's impossible by nature. What we can't do is just rest in Christ. What we can't do is nothing. What we can't do is come with no price in our hands. By nature, it is offensive to know that we're cast upon the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. The offense of the cross is you're not getting any glory out of it. If I preach salvation by the obedience to the law, if I preach salvation by the will of man, nobody will be offended by that. And I could preach that from this text this morning, couldn't I? The merchant man found that pearl. He's seeking goodly pearls. He found the one pearl of great price, and he went and sold all that he had, and he bought that pearl.

And I could say, you know, I could hear my old Baptist preacher saying this. I can hear him saying it. He'd say that, you know, this was a good business decision. He made the right decision for Jesus. You know, he went and bought that pearl, he sold all that he had, and this is the decision that we have to make concerning Christ. We have to make a smart decision. God's done all He can do. The pearl is available. He's put it up for sale, but it's up to you to buy it. I could preach that from this. Christ made salvation available by His death on the cross, but you have to take it from there. You have to recognize his value and you have to make what they always used to call that all important decision. Anybody ever heard that before?

Now that's all an outright lie. Religious people are not offended even if you preach the truth right up to a point. Even if you say, this is all of grace, this is all God's grace, and then at the very end say, now it's up to you. The moment salvation becomes up to you is the moment that you lose every hope you have in this world.

In the salvation of sinners, God will, he must, he shall have all of the glory, and there's not going to be any for the sinner. It's all of grace. He said to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. So then, seeing that God is God, and he decides Seeing that God is God and His will on whom I will have mercy, I have mercy on who I want to have mercy on.

So then it is not of him that willeth. It's not of man's will because it's of God's will. It can't be both. Nor of him that striveth or worketh, but of God that showeth mercy. That's the offense of the cross. You're not getting any glory out of it. It's all of grace. That's either going to offend you and you're going to be enraged.

I've seen the veins sticking out on people's necks from hearing that very thing. I've told you before, I had a man stand there and I tried to tell him the truth from the scriptures. You don't just wing it now when you're talking to somebody about God. What you've got to do is make sure that if somebody hates what you say, it's God that they hate and not you. It's God's word that they hate and not your opinion. It's the gospel that they hate and not your interpretation. So in response to the clear word of God, this man said right to my face, I don't want anything to do with a God like that. Well, it may be true God doesn't want anything to do with him either. I hope that wasn't true, the case, but it may be. It may be that mutual hatred is natural to us because by nature we're the children of wrath, even as others.

But if God has given you a new heart, this truth will delight you. Think about it. If you're from the standpoint of somebody that can't do anything to be saved, then you want a Savior that does everything. If you're coming from a standpoint of, what do I need to do? I want to do something. I want to earn it. I want to turn over a new leaf. I want to make a decision.

I want to exercise my will. then you're not going to want to have anything to do with the God in whom salvation is complete. It's not that complicated, is it? And you're going to be the latter unless God has mercy on your soul and gives you a new heart. Only a new nature is going to lay hold of Christ and say, nothing in my hand I bring.

I'm going to lay hold of Christ crucified because he is my only hope, and he is all of my hope. Paul said, God forbid that I should glory. Religious people glory in the flesh, he said there in Galatians. They glory in you, they glory in numbers, they glory in their Ability to talk people into things a glory and getting people to do something for God But Paul said God forbid that I should glory saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ the work of the Savior on Calvary Accomplished salvation. It's finished God for don't let me glory in anything else The glory of God is at stake But we can't just preach part of the Word of God.

Yes, the merchant man, he does represent the sinner. He does find the pearl. And when he does, he abandons everything he had before that he counted precious and valuable, selling all that he had, his good stuff that's worth selling. In other words, it had value. But not to him anymore, it didn't. Not to him. The end result of his selling that was everything that was valuable to him before is gone now, and all he has is the pearl.

That's an easy, perfect transaction when God gives you a heart for the pearl. Paul said, I've suffered the loss of all things, and do count them, but don't. that I may win Christ. That's the parable of the pearl. I count everything I have as expendable.

And why does he have to sell everything that he had, spiritually speaking? Why can't you keep all of that and have Christ? Because Christ will have no rival. There will be nothing valuable to you spiritually, not your works, not your religious heritage, Not your will, not your decisions, not anything. You will, as Paul said, I won't have it. I cast it behind me and I won't have it. It's done to me that I may win Christ.

But this man did that, didn't he? He suffered the loss of all things. He sold everything he had, like the prodigal son. You know, it says he woke up in the hog pen. He'd been eating some pig slop for a while, because he had wasted all that God had given him. He counted as done what God had provided, what his father provided. He said, I'm going out on my own. And then it says in Luke 15, 17, when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare.

And I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father. I will arise. I will. And I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. I just want to be with you. I want to be a nobody in your house. The Lord ever shows you that you're a nobody, you're going to want to be his nobody.

And before This is all of us. This is all of us who are saved by the grace of the Father in Christ. Before we even got home, while we were still a ways off, he came and ran to meet us and had compassion and fell on our neck and kissed us. And we said, I'm no son. I'm not worthy to be called a son. But he said, bring forth the best robe. And he put us in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul said, of God are you in Christ Jesus, who has made into us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. I came to myself. Peter preached to his audience on the day of Pentecost and said, save yourselves from this untoward generation, which means wicked and perverse. Save yourselves.

But here's the thing, the story of the prodigal son wasn't the beginning of the parable that our Lord told in Luke 15. It wasn't the beginning of it. And it wasn't all of it. There's really not a parable of the prodigal son. There's a parable of a sheep, a coin, and a son. Can't leave out the rest of it. Can't leave out the rest of it. Luke 15, four through 10. And we'll stop here, we'll read that when we come back. But that's how our parable is here. The pearl and the net.

It's not just the prodigal son, it's the sheep. The sheep didn't come to itself. It'd still be out there. It'd be wolf food by now if it wasn't for the shepherd. And the coin didn't come to itself. It laid there lifeless and was found of the Holy Spirit. And the prodigal son came to himself. He realized everything I know is wrong. Everything I've done is wrong. Everything I am is wrong.

I need the Father. I will go to my Father, not go to the mansion, not go to the fields, not go to work. I'll go to my Father. That's all we care about, is I want to be with God. whether he makes me a, if he lets me, you know, feed the pigs or clean the restrooms, I want to be with my father. I want to be under the auspices of his care and his love. And I'm going, I'm going, I'm gonna go there. He may turn me away, but I got to know. I got to know. And sure enough, he ran the meeting. But we'll read that whole parable when we come back. Look at Luke 15. All right, you're dismissed.