Let's open our Bibles again,
if you would, to Matthew chapter 13. For our visitors, what we began some
weeks ago, I began back in Genesis. And each week brought two messages
from each book of the Bible, trying to give us the theme and
message of each of those books. I hope by God's grace we've seen
that the theme and message of all those books has been Christ.
Well, this morning we've finished up with the Old Testament and
we begin into the New Testament. The New Testament begins, as
you know well, with the four Gospels. And the subject, just
like the rest of the Old Testament, the subject of each of these
Gospels is Christ. Now each of the Gospels present
us with a different view of the same Savior. All the Old Testament
repeatedly told us someone's coming, someone's coming, someone's
coming. The four Gospels tells us He's
here, and that someone is the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew shows
us that Christ is King. That's what we'll look at this
morning, the King. Mark presents Christ to us as the servant.
Luke presents Christ to us as the Son of Man. John presents
Him to us as the Son of God. So you kind of know where we're
going the next three Sundays after this one. Now God told
Moses many years ago that one day he's going to raise up a
king in Israel. There weren't to have a king
until God chose him, made him obvious. One day he'll raise
up a king in Israel. Matthew tells us the king's here,
the king's come. God told David that he's going
to raise up David's son to sit on his throne forever. Of his
reign there'll be no end. Matthew tells us the king is
here. Now Christ the King has a kingdom, and that kingdom is
populated, filled with people. And Matthew uses a phrase that's
not used anywhere else in scripture, the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom
of heaven, that phrase, is used 33 times in scripture, every
single one of them in the book of Matthew. And if you read through
the book and you read those 33 phrases, the kingdom of heaven,
You'll see that Matthew writes to show us that the kingdom of
heaven is a spiritual kingdom, and it's established by God's
grace in Christ. Now, we don't have time to look
at all 33 of those references in one message, but I want us
to look at two of them this morning. In chapter 13, Christ the King
describes his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, with seven parables.
And I want us to look at two of those parables that are found
beginning in verse 44. Again the kingdom of heaven is
like unto treasure hidden afield, the which when a man hath found
he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he
hath and buyeth that field. Again the kingdom of heaven is
like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, and who when he
had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that
he had and bought it. Now clearly when we read that
we understand there is a kingdom of heaven in it. There's a spiritual
kingdom of heaven. Well, my question is, how can
a sinner enter the kingdom of heaven? That's the title of the
message this morning. How does a sinner enter the kingdom
of heaven? Well, first of all, a sinner
enters the kingdom of heaven by the work of God the Father.
Look over in Colossians chapter one. A sinner enters the kingdom
of heaven by the work of God the Father. Paul tells us that
in Colossians 1 verse 12. Giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet. That word meet is qualified or
fit. He's made us qualified, fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light who had delivered us from the power of
darkness. And he's translated to us. He's transferred us. into
the kingdom of His dear Son. The Father makes a sinner qualified
to be in heaven, in the kingdom of heaven, by making us righteous
in His Son. And then He puts His people into
that kingdom. That's how we got there. The
Father put His people into that kingdom. Well, that's what Paul
says. Is that what Matthew says? It
is. Look at Matthew chapter 7. Matthew
says the same thing because all the scriptures agree. Matthew 7, verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in
thy name done many wonderful works? See, all these things
that they're describing there to qualify them to enter the
kingdom of heaven is what they've done in it. There's no mention
of the blood. There's no mention of mercy.
There's no mention of grace. Verse 23. And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. All those works that you thought
made you, that you did, that you thought made you qualified
for the kingdom of heaven. The Lord says those are works
of iniquity. Well, why did he not know them?
How can these people not know them? The Savior is saying, I
never knew you in the covenant of grace because my Father never
chose you and gave you to me. That's why you're not in the
kingdom. Now look at Matthew chapter 13 verse 10. And the disciples came and said
unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered
and said unto them, because it's given to you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it's not given. The father
gave you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. He
put you in it. That's how you're in it. That's
how you understand the father's given it to you. He put you there.
And in the fullness of time, the father sent his son into
this world for this purpose, to seek and to save that which
was lost. He sent his son into the world to gather together
into the kingdom everyone that the father chose and gave to
Christ. That's my second point. How does a sinner enter the kingdom
of heaven? By the work of God the son. The father chose a people
and he gave those people to his son to save. And you write this
down. The son's going to save them.
He will save his people from their sin. Now those people,
we'll get to a description of those folks in a minute. But
suffice it to say, they ain't much. But the son considers those
people that the father chose. He chose those people for no
good in the end. They're in Adam's fallen race. And God, just because he would,
just because he loved sinners, chose them out of that lump of
fallen humanity. And what a gift he gave them
to his son. And the Son loves those people.
He loves them. He considers those people to
be His treasure. He considers them precious jewels. And He'll have them, just like
in our parable. I'll show you that. Look in Psalm
135. God the Son considers those people
that the Father chose and gave to Him to be His treasure. He treasures them. Psalm 135, verse three. Praise the Lord, for the Lord
is good. Sing praises unto his name for
it's pleasant. Four, this is why we should sing
praise unto the Lord. Four, because the Lord hath chosen
Jacob unto himself and Israel, for what? His peculiar treasure. God counts those people, Jacob,
as his treasure. Look at Malachi chapter 3, right
where we were last week at the end of the Old Testament, Malachi. Chapter 3. Christ considers those
that the Father gave him to be his treasure, to be his jewels.
In Malachi 3 verse 17. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. my
jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son
that serveth him." Now, God's allowed. They're born in sin. God chose them. God gave them
to His Son. But when they're born into this world, they're
born in sin. They're hidden. They're hidden
in the field of lost humanity. When you look at the field, all
the sons of Adam, all of humanity, You can't pick out which ones
are elect and which ones aren't because they all look just alike. God's elect, when they're born
in this world, they're just as sinful. They're just as depraved.
They're just as lost. They're just as dead as every
other son of Adam. They're hidden in the field of
humanity. So you know what Christ the Savior did? He came and bought
the whole field. He bought it all. He bought the
whole world. The world belongs to Christ by creation. When the
Word spoke and spoke the world into existence, that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the Word of God. He spoke
the world into existence. It's His by creation. And He
bought the rights to this whole world. He bought the rights to
every son of Adam by His obedience. He said the Father gave Him power
over all flesh. over all of it, over every son
of Adam, that he should give eternal life to as many as the
Father had given him. Christ came and bought the field
so he could have his elect out of it. See, we can't tell who
they are. They're hidden in the field,
but he knew who they were, and he saved them out of that field.
He saved them out of that whole lump of fallen humanity. Look
in Matthew 13 again, verse 47. There's another parable our Lord
gave that says the same thing. And again, the kingdom of heaven
is likened to a net that was cast into the sea and gathered
of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to shore
and sat down and gathered the good into vessels and cast the
bad away. So shall it be at the end of
the world. The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from
among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire.
There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now the gospel is like
a net. Everyone here is hearing the
gospel this morning. Everybody is. Many people join
a church, but that doesn't mean that you're part of this kingdom
of heaven. Those who the son redeemed, those
who he washed in his blood, they're in the kingdom of heaven. And
he'll divide them. When it's time, he'll divide
the sheep and the goats. He'll divide the wheat and the tares.
You just keep preaching the gospel. That's the message to us. But
as far as our text goes, Christ, He came to save His people. He didn't come to offer salvation
to every man. Christ came to save the people
the Father gave Him. Christ came to seek and to save
that which was lost. He came to seek the people who
are His treasure, His jewels, His pearls. Christ is just like
this merchant man. He's out there seeking His treasure.
But you know, when he found his treasure, his people had a price
on their head. Their sin had put a price on
them they cannot pay. They cannot go free. It's impossible
for them to pay the redemption price, to set themselves free.
So Christ the Savior paid the redemption price. And when he
paid it, he didn't get out his wallet,
pull out his credit card and pay the debt. He paid the redemption price
for those people that He loves with His own precious blood. So much more precious than money.
He paid the price with His blood, with His life, and He set them
free. You see, when Christ paid the
price to redeem His people, it cost Him everything. It cost Him His glory and His
dignity. Not only was he stripped naked
in front of men, mocked and jeered, he stripped himself of his glory
as a son of God and became a man, stripped himself of his glory
and appear in human flesh just like ours, yet without sin. In
order to redeem his people, it cost the Savior humiliation. Not only did he have to appear
as a man, not only did the creator appear as the creature, Oh, he
suffered humiliation before his father. When the holy son of
God was made sin before his father. You and I are sinners. All we
know is sin. We can't imagine the humiliation
of the holy son of God being made sin. But suffice it to say,
it's greater than we can understand. He suffered that humiliation
for his people. So they never would. When Christ
redeemed his people, it cost him suffering. We looked at this
Wednesday night. Not only was the suffering of
his body, which is unimaginable, he made his soul an offering
for sin. He suffered hell on the cross
for his people when he was separated from his father. When he cried,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You know why he
cried that? He cried that so you and I would
know He's suffering separation from His Father for His people.
He suffered hell for His people. Oh, it cost Him suffering. When Christ paid the redemption
price for His people, it cost Him His life. He had a human
life. And He bled out on the cross
and He gave up the ghost and they put a dead body in the tomb
because the law demands death for sin. You see, He paid the
price in full by giving Himself, by giving His whole self, body
and soul, to redeem His people. Now after all that, you reckon one of them is going
to be lost? No. When Christ paid the price, He
took His jewels with Him. He didn't leave his people under
sin. They were born in sin, but now he didn't leave them there.
He saved them from their sin and took them out. They're born
under the curse of the law, but he didn't leave them as slaves
under that schoolmaster of the law. No, he made them sons and
set them free. They're born in the power of
darkness. Absolutely. But he didn't leave them there.
He made them children of light, caused them to be born again,
made them children of light. Oh my, they're ignorant. How
ignorant, what ignorance they're born in. But he didn't leave
them there. He revealed himself to them.
Sinners enter the kingdom of heaven by the work of the Son,
don't they? Now here's the third point. How
does a sinner enter the kingdom of heaven? By the work of God
the Holy Spirit. Now the Father chose a people
to save. The Son redeemed those people with his own precious
blood. But now those people have got to be born again. They're
going to come to Christ, and they're going to do it willingly.
They've got to repent, and they're going to do it willingly. They've
got to surrender, and they're going to do it willingly. They've
got to follow Christ. They've got to enter into the
kingdom of heaven, and they're going to do it willingly. They're
not going to be drug there against their will. They're going to
do it willingly. But now if they're going to do that willingly, God's
going to have to give them a new nature. They've got to be born
again. Christ came into this world to seek and to save that
which was lost. He paid the redemption price.
But you know what? He's seeking those that are lost.
But I'm telling you, when they're found, they're going to be seeking
the Savior too. They won't follow Christ against
their will. He'll make them willing in the day of His power. The
day of His power, He causes them to be born again. Now, if a sinner
is going to seek Christ, God the Holy Spirit must give them
a new nature. He got to. He's got to give them
a nature that loves Christ. He can have to give them a nature
that even sees their need of Christ, much less that loves
him, will seek him, or beg him for mercy. God's got to give
them a new nature, because the nature of Adam that we're born
with will never do it. Never, ever, ever, ever. There's
no point in me up here. I'm not trying to scare you by
stories of hell, reading here about there'll be whaling, gnashing
of teeth. I'm not trying to scare anybody in the kingdom of heaven.
I'm not trying to scare you into repentance. It'll never work.
I'm not trying to tell you to do something that you can't do,
make a decision, walk an aisle, didn't know. I'm going to preach
Christ to you. And when God the Holy Spirit
gives you a new nature, you're going to see, you're going to
follow him. Nobody will stop you from following
him. I'll show you that in just a minute. Nobody will stop you
from following him. Now actually, this third point,
a sinner enters the kingdom of heaven by the work of God the
Holy Spirit, really is the primary application of these two parables.
The Holy Spirit will move God's elect to seek Christ, and when
they seek Him, you know what? They're going to find Him. That's
what happened to this man and the merchant in the parables.
Let's read them again, verse 44 of Matthew 13. Again, the
kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hidden afield, to which
when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and
selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Now the treasure
in this parable is Christ. It's Christ in whom all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge are hid. This treasure is the gospel of
Christ. You know, the only way we can
know who Christ is, is to hear the gospel, to hear the gospel
that declares him. This treasure is the gospel that
gives us the great treasure, the answers to the questions.
How can God remain just? and still justify a vile sinner
like me. There's only one way, in Christ. He's the treasure, see that?
The treasure is God's Word. You won't find a proclamation
of salvation to sinners that don't have any hope, that can't
do anything anywhere other than God's Word. This is a treasure.
This treasure that we preach lifts the beggar from the dunghill. It sets him among princes. This
treasure will make the poor rich. This treasure gives sight to
the blind. It gives hearing to the deaf. It gives life to the
dead. What a treasure. The songwriter said, oh, the
unsearchable riches of Christ. It's wealth that can never be
told. What a treasure. I thank God every day that I
get to sit down and be in this treasure, look into the riches
of it. But our Lord says this treasure is hidden, doesn't he?
It's hidden in the field. Who on earth would hide such
a great treasure? We're trying everything we can
do to make it public. Who'd hide this treasure? Well, look at
2 Corinthians chapter 4. First of all, Satan's hidden
this treasure. He's hidden the treasure by blinding
men. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are lost. In whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. Satan has blinded the minds of
them which believe not. Second, God has blinded men.
God has blinded this religious world. Look back a page here
at 2 Corinthians 3 verse 12. Seeing then that we have such
hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses which
put a veil over his face that the children of Israel could
not steadfastly look to. to the end of that which is abolished. But their minds were blinded,
and till this day remain at the same veil, untaken away in the
reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ.
But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon
their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn
to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Well, who put that
veil on their heart? God did, didn't he? He gave them
judicial blindness. They rejected the Savior and
God blinded them, gave them judicial blindness so that they cannot
see. And then thirdly, look back in our text, Matthew 13. Satan's
blinded men. God has blinded the religious
world. And you know, man's blinded himself. Look at Matthew 13,
verse 13. Our Lord says, Therefore speak
I to them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing
they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah, which said, By hearing you shall hear,
and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see and not
perceive. For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears
are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, Blessed
any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their
ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted
and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes for
they see and your ears for they hear. What's the problem here?
Their eyes have they closed. Their ears have they closed.
Now I know man's born blind. No one can see. No one can understand
the gospel. No one can see and believe Christ
by nature. Man's born blind. But I'll tell
you, man is willingly blind, too. He closes his eyes and refuses
to look, refuses to see. See, everything is hidden from
a blind man. Everything. Wouldn't you love
to play hide and seek with a blind man? I'd win every time because
it's easy to hide things from somebody who's blind. The gospel
is hidden because it's easy to hide things from those that are
blind. Well, I'd like to find this treasure. I know it's hidden. I'd like
to find it. Can somebody tell me where it's hidden? Yes, I
can. Our Lord says it's hidden in
the field. For many years, God hid this treasure in the field
of promise. Remember, right when Adam and Eve were cast out of
the garden, God gave them a promise, didn't he? The promise of the
seed of a woman. The Savior's gonna be born of
a virtue. He was hidden in that promise.
Christ was hidden in the promise of the seed of Abraham. That
seed is Christ, Paul said, but for years, nobody knew that,
did they? Christ was hidden in Abraham's promise to Isaac, God
will provide himself a lamb for the sacrifice. He was hidden
in that promise. So hidden in that promise, the
Jews were looking for a king, not a lamb, wasn't he? He was
hidden in the promise. This treasure of Christ was hidden
in the field of type. Christ was hidden in the type
of the Passover lamb. He's hidden in all of his offices.
He's hidden in the type of Melchizedek. He's a priest like Melchizedek.
He's a prophet like Moses. He's hidden in that type of Moses.
And he's a king like David. He's hidden in that, wasn't he?
Then this treasure was hidden in the field of shadow. One of
my favorite Old Testament shadows is that of the tabernacle. Christ
cast a long shadow, didn't he? Every detail. Every stitch of
that tabernacle was all given for one purpose, to be a picture
of Christ. But He was hidden in that. And
the glory of all that was not revealed until Christ came and
tabernacled among us and we beheld His glory. The glories of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Then
this treasure was hidden in the field of ceremony, hidden in
the day of atonement. Hidden in the Sabbath day, hidden
in the feast days. And he's still hidden in the
field of ceremony to many today. He's hidden in baptism. He's
hidden in the ceremony at the Lord's table. He's hidden from
the blind man. Then this treasure is hidden
in the field of the scriptures. The scriptures? Were his name
practically on every page? Yes, he's hidden in the field
of the scriptures. And I'll prove it by asking this
question. How many people do you know have a Bible? I reckon everybody you know.
Everybody you know. There's a Bible in every, now
they might not know where it is, it might be covered with
dust, but I'd say almost every home in this area's got a Bible.
Everybody's got a Bible. Some people dare to read it.
But when they do, you know what? What are they looking for? Well,
they're looking for things to do. They're looking for a way
to live. They're looking for a way to
make God happy with them, instead of looking to find Christ, who
is the message of every word of Scripture. Christ is the message
of the prophets. You read the prophets, you read
it looking for Christ, because what our Lord told the disciples
on the road to Emmaus, they all wrote of Him. When you read the
Psalms, the Psalms, Probably the Psalms, and you could just
look at a faithful believer's Bible, and the Psalms are wore
out. You can just tell where the Psalms are, the pages. You
just tell when it's closed, right there's the Psalms, I can tell.
Somebody reading those a lot. We read them to find comfort,
peace for our hearts. Well, I'll tell you when you'll
find comfort from the Psalms, when you read them looking for
Christ. David wrote of Christ. The Reformers. We love the Reformers,
don't we? Well, the Apostles. First, the
Apostles. They spoke of Christ. That's
all they spoke of was Christ. The Reformers. I'm impressed
with the Reformers. I'm impressed with a man that
will go right down what I believe and nail it to the door of the
Catholic Church. I'm impressed by him. I've got
to tell you, I'm impressed by that. I'm impressed by somebody
to go turn the world upside down with this phrase of Scripture
that just to live by faith. I'm impressed by that. But I
tell you, if you want to find anything from the Reformers,
look where they preach Christ. That's the message. And God's
preachers today, if you would find a preacher,
if you would find a preacher, somebody goes to what we call
church building, looking for something. What are you looking
for this morning? What are you looking for? Well,
I tell you this, Christ is the answer to it. You're going to
find somebody that's going to give you the answer. You find
a man, a man, not a woman, a man who dares to preach Christ only. You find a man that will preach
Christ to you and leave you alone with Him. You find a man who
won't twist your arm to do something, you find a man who will preach
Christ. Paul said, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus
the Lord. We preach Christ and Him crucified. You find a man preaching that
message, he's God's man. That's where you're going to
find this treasure. When you find a man daring to preach Christ.
So you see the treasure, it's hidden plain for you. Paul said
we use great plainness of speech. We want you to find Christ. We
use great plainness of speech. He's not hard to find if you
know where to look. If you'll look in His Word and
you'll search diligently and find Him. You will, I'm telling
you. Have you ever lost your car keys?
And you're looking everywhere for them. You can't find them
and you can't go anywhere to find your car keys. And you think,
my goodness, where could they be? Well, they'll be in the last
place to look. And you end up finding them,
and where were they? They're right there on the table
in plain view the whole time. And you think, how did I miss
that? And then you realize my keys were really in the last
place I looked. You know why? Because when I
found them, I quit looking. I grew up under the sound of
the gospel. I did. And one day, one day, I saw the King. One day, I saw the Savior. And
I thought, my goodness sakes. How did I miss Him? What is wrong
with me? Why wasn't I listening? Why couldn't
I see? I was blind and deaf. And when
I found Him, I quit looking. If you ever find Christ, you'll
quit looking for something to satisfy because you found Him.
He's it. He's the treasure. Well, how
did this man find the treasure in the field? Nobody else missed
it. How'd he find it? When will a sinner find this
treasure of Christ? Well, he found him because God
opened his eyes. Look back here, we read this
in verse 11 of Matthew 13. I'll tell you how he found him. Because it's given unto you to
know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And everybody else
didn't find him because to them it's not given. When will a sinner
find Christ? Well, when God opens his eyes,
that's when. A sinner will find this treasure when it pleases
God to open your eyes. That's exactly right. Paul said,
when it pleased God who called me, when it pleased God to reveal
Himself to me and in me, that's when I found Him. When it pleased
God. I like things that are simple.
See if this makes sense to you. If I'm going to find this treasure
when it pleases God, why don't I ask Him that it might please
Him to reveal Christ to me? That would be a good idea. Second,
when will a sinner find Christ? We will find Christ when we need
him. If you don't need him, you won't
find him. Our Lord said the whole day, not a physician, but them
that are sick. Sick folks know where the doctor
is. Jonathan and Stacey just moved here. They don't have the
first clue where a doctor is in this town. You ain't been
sick yet. When you get sick, you'll know. We've got some brothers
and sisters here that they know where a good cancer doctor is.
You know why they know? They need one. And when they needed one, when
somebody told them, you need a good doctor, they sought diligently,
they made it their business to find one. Well, my friend, when
you need Christ, when you need him, when you need Him to be
your Savior. You don't need Him to be your
helper. You don't need Him to be your co-pilot. You need Him to be your Savior.
You will search for Him with all of your heart. You won't
let anything get in the way of searching for Christ. And in
that day, our Lord said, you'll find Him. That's right. We'll
find Christ when we need Him. Thirdly, we'll find Christ when
we hear the gospel. Christ is revealed in the gospel.
When we hear the gospel, you cannot find Christ apart from
the gospel. Paul said, for therein, in that
gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed. You want to
know how to be made righteous? Make it your business to hear
the gospel. That's where Christ is revealed. Then one more. Look at John chapter 1. I love
this. We'll find Christ when Christ finds us. That's exactly
when we'll find him. Look here at John 1 verse 43.
The day following, Jesus would go
forth into Galilee and findeth Philip. And he said to Philip,
follow me. Now who found who? In the English
language, it's not difficult to understand who found who.
The Lord found Philip, didn't he? Look at verse 45. Philip findeth Nathanael, and
saith unto him, We found him. We found him, of whom Moses and
the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of Joseph. Nathanael said, I found him.
Nathanael, why did you find him? Because he found me and told
me to follow him. That's why I love that. I'll
find Christ and he finds me. And when this man of Matthew
13, when he found the treasure, Our Lord said he sold everything
he had so he could have that treasure. He sold everything
he had so he could buy the whole field. He bought the whole field
for this purpose, to have the treasure. Now listen to me. This is not teaching salvation
by works. You cannot buy salvation. You
cannot buy God's pleasure. But I tell you what this, what
our Lord means in this parable. That if you find the treasure,
If by God's grace you ever find Christ, you'll sell out to have
Him. You'll sell out to Him because
nothing is more important to you than having Him. Why would
a man sell his house, quit his job, move his family hundreds
of miles away just to hear the gospel? Isn't there a church
between here and there? I'll tell you why he'd do it. He needs
Christ. He knows his family needs Christ. That's exactly what Matthew did.
Isn't it? Matthew was a successful man.
He's a publican. Sitting there with all his ledger
books and keeping track. Got all this money skimming off
the top and putting it in his pocket. And the Lord just walked
by and said, Matthew, follow me. And he left it all and followed
Christ. Suddenly, though he didn't take
the ledger books of money with him, he left it all and followed
Christ. Now, selling all you have, it
doesn't mean you've got to sell all your earthly goods. But I'll
tell you what it does mean. It means you've got to get rid
of everything that you thought made God happy with you. You've
got to get rid of it so you can have Christ alone. That was the
rich young ruler's whole problem. The biggest issue to him really
wasn't selling all of his stuff. I know he had a lot of goods
and it would have been tough for him to get rid of it, but
I'm telling you what his greatest issue was. He's going to have
to get rid of himself. He said, I've kept them all.
You're going to have to get rid of that. You sell it. You get
rid of it. You're going to have to get rid
of your self-righteousness. You're going to have to quit seeking
honor from men. You have to get rid of your false
religion. You have to get rid of that place
where the gospel is not preached anymore. I don't care if your
friends or your family or political connections or social connections
are there. You get rid of it if Christ is not there because
you've got to have Him. I'm telling you, you shove it
away with both hands. You count it but done that you
may win Christ and be found in Him. And if you find Christ,
You won't do any of that reluctantly. You'll do it joyfully. Our Lord
said He did that joyfully. With great joy He did it. Well,
of course you'll sell everything you have. Of course you'll joyfully
get rid of that dung in order to have Christ. That's a no-brainer. And if it's not a joy to you,
don't do it. Just don't do it. My advice to
you is don't play games with God. Don't do it. You seek Christ
with all your heart. And then the Lord said the man
took that treasure and he hid it. Now this doesn't mean what
he what he means is that the Lord means is he took that treasure
he hid in his heart. Now this is not hiding your light
under a bushel so somebody doesn't know you're keeping your love
for Christ secret. No, it doesn't mean that. It means he hid the
treasure in his heart so he couldn't lose it. He hid the treasure
in his heart so nobody could take it away from him. I'm going
to keep this because this is the treasure of my soul. I'm
going to hide Christ in my heart. I'm going to hide His gospel
in my heart where nobody can take it away. So my friends,
seek Christ. Seek Him. Well, what is it to
seek Christ? We just saw here, sinner enters
the kingdom of heaven by having Christ, right? And if we're going
to have Christ, we've got to seek Him. We're not born with
Him, so we've got to seek Him. What is it to seek Christ? Well,
let me start with what it's not. Seeking Christ is not trying
to find a different religion. It's not trying to find a different
doctrine. It's not trying to find something that suits your
lifestyle better. Seeking Christ isn't looking
for a fire escape from hell. No, it's not. Seeking Christ
and not seeking a reformed life. I want to change my life and
start acting better, be a more respectable citizen. That's not
seeking Christ. You ought to do that. You ought
to be a respectable citizen. That's not seeking Christ. Seeking
Christ. I tell you when you're seeking
Christ, when you're seeking the treasure of your soul, you're
seeking Christ when He is the singular need of your soul. You don't need anything else.
Verse 45. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant
man seeking goodly pearls. This merchant man was seeking
a goodly pearl. He was seeking the best pearl.
The pearl that was so good, no other pearl could be compared
to it. No other pearl mattered to him but this one, a goodly
pearl. And I'm telling you, he went
anywhere he had to go to find it. Traveling a great distance,
no problem, because he needed that pearl. There was no inconvenient
time for him to seek that pearl. No inconvenient time. He would
arrange a schedule on seeking this pearl. He had to have that
pearl. That pearl is Christ. And that's
seeking Christ. Seeking Christ because He's your
only hope of salvation. He's just one and it's Him. Seeking
Him is your only hope. Seeking Christ is seeking Christ
because nothing What else can be compared to Him? Nothing.
You're seeking Christ when the cry of your heart is, I've got
to have Christ or I'm going to die. That's seeking Christ. Seeking Christ is having Him
as your one and only object of faith. Christ is that one pearl
because everything is in Him. Are you hungry? Christ is the
bread of life. Are you thirsty? Christ is the
water of life. Do you not know anything? Christ
is your wisdom. Do you not know how to enter
the kingdom of heaven? Christ is the way. Are you a wretched sinner that
can't clean yourself up enough to come to the kingdom? Christ
is your righteousness. Are you weary? Is anybody here
weary of trying to keep the law, trying to do what you think will
make God happy with you? Are you weary? Christ is your
rest. Oh, He's everything. Do you deserve
God's wrath to be poured out upon you? Are you afraid of God's
wrath? Do you know what you deserve? Christ is your shelter. You see,
it's all Him, isn't it? He is the one pearl of great
price and when you seek Him, everything you've got. When you
seek Him because you don't need anything but Christ, our Lord
said, you'll find Him. That's when you'll find Him.
May God the Holy Spirit give us that desire. May He put it
on our hearts this morning to seek Him, to seek Him with all
of our heart. Alright, let's bow in prayer. Our Father, How we thank you
for the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for the glorious
treasure of your son that you've given to your people. That he
is everything we need. He's our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, our redemption. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. Oh, how we thank you for him. Thank you for the riches
of mercy and grace that's found in him. Father, we thank You
for revealing Yourself to so many here this morning. How merciful
You've been to us. Your mercies are beyond number. And Father, for Your glory's
sake, we pray You continue to reveal Yourself to Your people
through the preaching of Your Word this morning. Open hearts
this morning to the preaching of Your Word that they might
see. They might see their need of
Christ. They might see Him. Run to Him. Find in Him everything
that they need. Father, for Your glory, we pray.