If you have your Bible, turn
with me back to the book of Matthew chapter 13. I want us to look
at verse 45 and 46, a very short text this morning. Again, the
Lord Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven, and he says
again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking
goodly pearls. who when he had found one pearl
of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Went and sold all that he had
and bought it. I'd like to begin my message
this morning by quoting a few verses out of the book of Proverbs. One of them is, A full soul loatheth
a honeycomb. And it says further that to the
hungry soul Every bitter thing is sweet and then in Luke chapter
1 in verse 53 the scripture says He hath filled the hungry with
good things And the rich he hath sent empty away Now a full soul
loveth a honeycomb. I know that there are many many
times when you come and sit down under the sound of the gospel
and that you possibly do not have the kind of appetite for
what's being presented or what's being set before you as you feel
you ought to have. And certainly if you do not have
an appetite for the things of God, you're not going to get
anything. But I'd let you understand that
it's not the fault of the chef if those who are invited to the
table come with an appetite that is not what it ought to be. If
you come to the table and your appetite is not as it should
be, then of course the chef is not to be blamed. And so if you're
here this morning and you have a hungry soul, then I believe
that every bitter thing will be sweet to you. Whatever is
said to you out of the treasure, whatever is brought forth, things
both new or old, out of the Word of God will be a blessing to
you, it'll be a comfort to you, it'll be a source of encouragement
to you, it'll build you up in the holy faith of the gospel,
and you'll be blessed by it. But if you're here this morning
and you're full already with the things of the world, the
things of time, the things of chance, if you're just full of
carnality, fleshly things, then my friend, possibly this will
not be in any way, shape, or form something that you're going
to enjoy. But I would remind you that we're
not here to entertain sinners on their way to hell. It's not
my business to here present to you some sort of something that
you maybe, I could get you to agree with. or present to you
something that you could make a decision over, my business
is to preach the gospel. Mine is a proclaiming ministry. I'm to preach the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm preaching to hungry souls. That's who I'm preaching to.
And if that doesn't cover you, then you'll probably miss out
on getting anything here this morning. But our message is to
those that are hungry indeed. And I don't want anyone to think
that we're in competition with the world, trying to win people
over from the world, over to our ideas and our way of thinking.
No, my friend, we believe that the elect of God have a hunger
in their souls for the things of the Spirit of God. Those that
God has chosen, there will come a day in their life when they
will be seeking goodly pearls. There will come a day in their
life when they will seek until they find the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're not here to compete
with any other religious system or anyone who is trying to win
you over by promising you this or that or pie in the sky, bye
and bye. No, we're here to preach the
gospel of the salvation of Jesus Christ and trust that God will
own the message to your heart. Now this story that I've read,
two verses this morning, parable of our Lord about the Kingdom
of Heaven, is a very simple story, a very simple story indeed, and
our Lord, let me say, never tried to impress the scribes and the
Pharisees of his day. He never tried to impress them
as we're not trying to impress anyone here this morning. He
never tried to appeal to the intellectual of his day. His stories were always very
simple and they were very powerful. Now to those to whom these stories
were revealed, they were very clear. They were made very clear
to their hearts because to them it was given that they might
understand the things of the kingdom of God. And I'm here
to tell you this morning that those to whom it is given, they
will understand the things of the kingdom. And like I say,
you know, many times the fellow preaching the things of the kingdom
of God, even our Lord Jesus Christ himself, when he was among men,
men were astonished. They didn't have ears to hear,
they didn't have hearts to believe, they did not have eyes to see
the things that he was expounding to them, and they felt that he
was inferior in some way in the way he was presenting it. But
the truth of the matter is, it must be given unto a soul, for
a soul to clearly understand the things of the Word of God,
the things of the Spirit. Now, to those to whom these stories
were revealed, they understood the meaning and the cost and
the consequence of the story that was presented. Now, in this
story, there are just, as we said, two verses that are short,
simple, profound, and powerful. In verse 51, the Lord Jesus asked
this question. He said, Have ye understood all
these things? And I wonder this morning how
many of you could get up and give a very simple dissertation
on these two verses. How many of you could get up
this morning and say, well, I'm not a public speaker, but I understand
what these verses are talking about. I clearly understand. And our Lord would ask you at
the outset, have you understood? Have you understood all these
things? And then at the end of the meeting this morning, you
could ask yourself, have I understood? Has my ears been opened? Has my eyes been opened? And
can I understand the things that have been presented? He is saying
that the man who understands this story, he understands the
kingdom of God. He understands the way, the truth,
and the life. Well, let us begin with our text
here this morning in this way. Here was a merchant man. He was
interested in goodly pearls. Let me say not just any kind
of pearls. Notice that it says, but good
pearls. He wanted good pearls. He was
not interested in imitation pearls or defective pearls. He was interested
only in the very best. He was seeking these pearls.
They were not easy to find, you see. They were very scarce. They were very, very rare. He left no stone unturned. No trip was too far for him to
go. No danger was too great for him
to encounter. There was no sacrifice too great
to find what this man was looking for. He was looking for girdly
pearls. And he kept searching and searching
until he found one pearl. And it was a pearl, Christ said,
of great price. It was a pearl of great price. And when he saw it, when this
man saw it, he was an expert and he knew pearls. And when
he found that one pearl, it was all that he ever wanted. It was
all that he had ever sought in life. He said, I must have this
pearl. I must have it. So in order to
obtain this pearl, in order to possess it, it required that
he sell everything that he had. The only way he could raise the
money was to sell all that he had, and that is what the scripture
says, and I'll not apologize for it, He said, the scripture
said that he sold all that he had and he bought this pearl.
Now beloved Jesus Christ may be compared to a pearl in this
account. And he certainly is compared
here to a pearl. One pearl of great price enriches
him that finds it, does it not? So they that find the pearl of
great price, the Lord Jesus Christ, and lay hold on him are greatly
enriched. They are spiritually rich. They are eternally rich because
they have found the one pearl that is of great price. Christ
may be compared to a pearl because he is such an adornment to the
soul. Let me say that they that have
found him are greatly enriched, they are spiritually rich, and
these that have found him, he is the fairest jewel of the child
of God. He is that adornment. He is that
jewel that the Christian looks upon and says that Jesus is precious. He is that precious stone. Now
years ago in the diamond mines over in Brazil, when a slave
would find a diamond beyond a certain value, he would get his freedom. Now, he may have searched for
years for this diamond of particular size and had to weigh just so
much in order for him to be able to get his freedom. But finding
it of a certain size, he would run to his master crying, free,
free. Now, beloved, it is so with those
who find the pearl of great price. They come to freedom in the Lord
Jesus. If the Son shall set you free,
you shall be free indeed. And if today you could find this
pearl of great price, it would ensure your eternal emancipation. If you were to find this pearl,
you would be free not only for time, but free for eternity,
free in Christ, free from the burden of sin, free from the
penalty of sin, free from the wrath of God, free from suffering
for all eternity, if you were to find this pearl of great price. Well, this man, after finding
this pearl, came back and he bought it. He was willing to
give up everything he formerly possessed in order to get this
pearl in his very possession. He came back to the man who had
it, said, I want it. And the man said, you must have
wanted it awfully bad. He said, I want it more than
anything in the world. This pearl I must have, and he
proved it by selling all that he had in order that he might
buy it. Now let us try to be as very
simple here as the Lord Jesus was and give you four words this
morning in this text wherein the understanding of the story
or parable lies. Now I want to be very simple.
It's the only way I can preach. Never could preach any other
way except very simply. And I want to preach in a simple
way. And those of you brethren who preach the gospel, you can
listen to this and you can glean enough from it to where I'm sure
you could preach it yourself. Now the first thing here and
the first word that I want to bring to your attention is the
very word seeking. The very word seeking. He was
seeking. And the second word is finding. He found one pearl of great price. And the third word is selling. And the fourth word is buying. He came back and bought it. Now
then, let's begin with the word seeking. Christ said the kingdom
of heaven is like this man. This is the importance of these
words. It's like this man what he did. And first he was seeking. Now
let me ask you a question. I know what this man was seeking.
He was seeking goodly pearls. But what are you seeking today?
What is it today that you are seeking? Now I want to limit
this question to the spiritual realm. We do not have time in
this service to deal with fleshly pursuits. I know there are those
among us who are interested in worldly things and in worldly
possessions. I know it. There are those here
who have the world in their heart. Their heart is full of the world
and the things of this world. But I'm not here to deal with
that necessarily this morning. There are those who have possessions
that they're very proud of that they would not part with for
anything. I have met people who would tell
you right out, I would never part with this or that or this
other thing over here for anything, for any amount of money. And
I know that that is true. They have the glory of the things
of the world, the vain world in their hearts. Pleasure, recognition,
thousand and one other things they have. And if this is the
case with you, then we have not much for you in this message.
Because we're talking about somebody who was looking, seeking for
goodly pearls. And that pearl is, of course,
a type of Christ. And you, if you love the world,
and if the love of the world is in your heart, are going to
end up on the dunghill. You're going to end up on the
ash heap, if you please. Now, you may find what you're
seeking. I'm not saying that you won't find it, but you're
going to end up being destroyed along with it. Because the world,
the Bible said, passeth away, and the lust thereof, but they
that will do the will of God shall abide forever. But my question
is, what are you seeking spiritually? What is the pursuit of your spiritual
mind and thought? What are you seeking as far as
God Almighty is concerned? If you're seeking something short,
of this one pearl of great price. My friend, listen to me. If you
can find out what you're seeking and if you can discover it by
examining your own heart. My friend, listen to me. You
may feel this morning that you are on the right path. But I
want to try to talk to you a little bit to see whether you're not,
make you to see that if you're seeking something that is inferior
to this one good pearl, that my friend, you're on your way
to spiritual destruction. But let me say that there are
religious markets all over this world which are prepared to sell
you whatever you want. Whatever you want, there's religious
markets out here that will sell you anything. You can turn on
the radio. You can turn on the TV and find
something for everybody. Some just want a good feeling.
This is what they're seeking, and that will satisfy them. They
just simply want to have a good feeling. Some good singing. Some want to hear a good singing
and that's all they're interested in. Is it good singing? Some good testimony. Some sad
story so they can shed a few tears and feel good. They want
the preach of the church and the doctrine to make them feel
good. to make them have a religious
feeling. That is, that's the very thing
they're looking for. They will find it, I believe.
They will find it because their religious markets set up for
that very purpose, to make folks feel good in their sins. Make folks feel good while they're
seeking something inferior to good pearls. They're seeking
these pearls that are inferior, and they're cloudy and misty,
and they have no value. There's delusion in them, and
that's exactly where you're going to end up. God bless you real
good, the preacher says. Well, God will bless you with
all spiritual blessings when you find this pearl, when you
get into Jesus Christ, when you know Him and the forgiveness
of your sin, and when your name is found to be in the Book of
Life. Then, my friend, you will be blessed real good. Now, I
say there are plenty of places that will give you a good religious
feeling if that's what you want. Now, this man was looking for
something more permanent than that, something more permanent
than just a feeling. Feelings come and feelings go,
we're told. Our warrant is the Word of God,
nothing else is worth believing. Feelings are going to come and
go you'll have them you have many of them if you're an ordinary
person between now and the time And that you change worlds, but
my friend That's not what you're you must be seeking you must
be seeking this pearl of great prize now There are others who
are seeking an experience Fellow said I had a dream well Let me
say I don't believe that God ever saved anybody by a dream
or in a dream God never saved anybody while they were asleep
Somebody said, oh, while I was dreaming last night, I felt like
Jesus was standing at the foot of the bed. Well, you may have
felt that way. But my friend, listen, God does
not save people in a dream. People are saved by hearing the
Word of God, hearing the Gospel, and by believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, there never was a man who
went to sleep, lost, woke up, saved. Put it down. Mark it down. Someone a vision show us a sign
they would say now if that's what you're seeking you're in
trouble my friend Because Satan is in the business of giving
people signs all kinds of them in the scripture warns us that
there will come a time when our minds will play tricks on us
and the end times and when Satan will give you a delusion and
he will blind you with a delusion and All you're seeking is a sign
from heaven. When you get older, you can forget
whatever experience you had when you're young. But my friend,
if you ever find this pearl, you'll never forget the fact
you found it and that you made it your own. What is going on
in religion today, as we look at it, there are religious hucksters,
all kinds of religious hucksters. And as we said earlier, there's
diseased pearls. But I would warn you about this
market. When you get on this market,
you'll be deceived and they'll look good on the outside. But
it will not solve your problem, my friend. You must find this
pearl which is of great price. Perhaps you're seeking ceremonial
comfort. Somebody said, I like a church
that has soft music, where the atmosphere is kind of like a
funeral parlor. I kind of like that. Just to
be in a place, you know, where you just feel like nothing is
going to happen, very exciting, where you just can kind of be
soothed by the atmosphere. I like a church where they have
candles burning, you know. They are so pretty. I would remind
you that among the heathen Maui Indians in the Yucatan, they
burn candles to drive away evil spirits. They burn them outside
the gates to drive the spirits away outside the village. And
I warn you this morning that this is not what the elect of
God are seeking. They're not seeking an atmosphere
where that they can just simply sit down and just simply have
their old bodies soothed by that atmosphere. Well, somebody says,
well, I think a preacher ought to wear a robe. It just seems
to me to make him appear more religious, don't you? Oh, if
he'd just wear a robe, I mean, that would satisfy some people. It really would. But you're not
one of the elect if that would satisfy you. for the preacher
to wear a robe. And the choir? Oh, we need a
choir, and we need a stained-glass windows, and we need all of the
religious symbols. If we don't have them, what do
we have? Well, my friend, you don't have
anything if you don't have the good pearl, this pearl of great
price. It just makes you feel so religious,
all of this does, but there's nothing in it. And then, too,
we'd like a preacher with a religious voice. With a religious voice. Oh, may God save us from the
drone of a monotonous preacher. Lord, deliver us from the drone
of a monotonous preacher that has nothing to say. He's not talking about the Pearl
of Great Price. If he's talking about that, well,
make any difference to me how he talks, as long as he's clear
on that subject. Now, you can find all this, I
tell you. I tell you, you can find it all.
Or maybe you're looking for some laws to live by, some rules maybe. to live by are some standards.
Somebody said we heard of a church that said that they were a church
with a standard. But I said, I thought it'd be
a whole lot better if they had a gospel, wouldn't you? I think
that's the way that it ought to be. It'd be better off if
they had a gospel. So, you know, because there are
no man living who can live up to God's standard. Anybody here
live up to God's standard? The only reason why you're here
this morning is because you're a sinner. You're here because
you're a fallen sinner and you're looking for mercy, I hope, from
a living God. For God to have mercy on your
poor soul. Now, God said, be holy, for I
am holy. This do and live is the message
of the law. Do and live is the message that
came from Mount Sinai. But the message of the gospel
is live and do. live and do. So if you're alive
in the Lord, then you can do what the Lord would have you
to do. But this man was not looking for something like all of this
imitation and defective, fraudulent stuff. He was looking for something
good, really, lasting, permanent, something that was of God. Do you have anything of God in
you this morning besides the breath in your body? Oh, the
breath in your body is from God, but do you have anything else? Christ lives in His people by
faith. He lives in His people as they
trust Him and as they believe upon Him. Now, the woman with
the issue of blood, you know, she spent all that she had, but
she was only worse. than she was at the beginning.
And so are all these folks that are trapped out here with all
these diamonds that are inferior to the one good pearl, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now then, secondly, the second
word is he found it. We talked about seeking. Now
he found it. He knew it when he saw it. He
knew it when he saw it. and the elect of God are so dealt
with in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. that when Christ is presented,
and they hear a clear message of the gospel, and when the hour
and time of salvation comes for their soul, they will know that
they've heard the truth as it is of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They will know that the gospel has come home to their heart,
and they've heard it in their soul. So this man said when he
saw it, he said, that's it. He knew a bad one. He said, I
know pearls. Men tell us we ought not talk
about phony religion, but we've already talked about it a little
bit. But I'd like to give you this illustration so that you
would see the importance of us talking about this man really
finding what he was looking for. Suppose that we have a brother
here in the church that is in the construction business, and
we do have some brothers here that know the construction business.
and say that you were going to buy a house, and you were going
to pay a big price for a certain house, and outside it looked
like it was a very beautiful house, well constructed, and
you tell this brother, you said, I'd just like for you to look
at this house, I'm going to invest my whole life savings in that
house, and I'd like for you to come and take a look at it, and
I want to know what you think about it. I want you to tell
me the truth about this house. I want you to look out. Don't be afraid you're going
to hurt my feelings. Just tell me the truth about this house. So this brother, he goes in and
he's got an eye for things. And he begins to look that place
over. First thing you know, he finds all kinds of things that's
wrong with that house. Now, what would you want that
fella to do? Would you want him to come back
and say, well, now you go ahead and put your money in it. Go
ahead and invest all of your hard-earned dollars in that house. It's all right. Go ahead. It's
okay. Well, my friend, listen. If he
says, and tells the truth, he'll say it's no good. So he's honest. And he's not about to come back
and deceive that person. He's going to tell them the truth
about that property. Because if that fellow goes and
puts all of his money in that house, then he's going to end
up bankrupt. And so the same is true about
this phony religious world and about all this fraudulent religious
movement out here in the world. The same is true about all of
that. And I'm here to tell you the truth about it so that you
will find the pearl of great price and that you will find
that pearl and I know that if you find that pearl and sell
all that you have to get it that you will not be deceived and
that you will not in any way shape or form come up holding
the short end of the stick in eternity. I do know what is genuine
in the realm of the Spirit of God, and I must tell you the
truth about it. Now this man who knows pearls,
someone called him aside and said, I hear you're looking for
a real pearl. I hear you're tired of looking
at what's phony, and you want the real thing. Well, come here.
Come here!" And he takes him into the back room and he shows
him a real pearl. Oh, perfect, beautiful, wonderful. He looks at it and he smiles
and he says, That's it! That's it! I know pearls and
this is real! And he says, I must have it! I must have it! Nothing, nothing
would be too great for me to part with that I would have this
pearl. In the Song of Solomon, chapter
3 and verse 4, let me read to you what the elect say when they
see Christ. In the third chapter of the Song
of Solomon, in verse 4, it was but a little that I passed from
them, but I found him whom my soul loveth. I held him, and
I would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's
house and into the chamber of her that conceived me. I held
him. and I would not let him go. I
found him. He passed by and I found him. Well, my friend, have you
found him? Not a feeling, not an experience,
not a dream or a vision, not a ceremony, not a tradition,
but him. Have you found him? That's the
question. Okay, I found a pearl that is
valuable. and it's as valuable in the desert
as it is on wall-to-wall carpet. I found a pearl that is just
as powerful and just as wonderful if I'm with people or if I'm
without people. It's the same, this wonderful
pearl. If I'm on the mountain or in the valley, in the light
or in the darkness, if I'm old or if I'm young, it's still the
greatest thing of my life. It's still the greatest thing.
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, you remember, he came and he
said, we found the Messiah. We found him. Well, what have
we found when we found the pearl of great price? Well, we have
a holy, perfect righteousness through the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're taking any notes, write
down Romans 3, 21 and 22. And then we have reconciliation
through him. Write down Romans 5 and 10. And
we have justification through him, Romans 5, 1. Therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through him. And then
we have forgiveness of sin through him, Ephesians 1 and 7. We found all of that when we
found the pearl of great price. He is the pearl of great price. It seems that all men would be
happy. None can be happy. until they
find the pearl of great price. Those who seek real redemption
will recognize it when they see it, and those who are seeking
it will not be satisfied until they possess it. They must possess
it. Now then, the next word, the
third word, is selling. Selling. Selling all signifies
the parking with whatsoever that his heart was inordinately set
upon before he found this pearl. Everything that his heart was
lusting after, and when he found this pearl, he said, I'll let
it all go. He wanted it so much that he
was willing to part with all that he had. Self-life must be
set aside. J.C. Ryle says that this parable
is meant to teach us that men really convinced of the importance
of knowing Christ will give up everything to win Christ an eternal
life. Now, if this Savior is to be
mine, there are some things that will have to go. Now, in this
46th verse, I want you to notice here in verse 46 of the 13th
chapter of Matthew, who, when he had found one pearl of great
price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Now, how
much difference is there between Christ and the people of this
world, the preachers of this world especially? Well, they
differ a great deal. The preachers of this world would
use every method known to man to get a crowd. Christ, no, he
wouldn't do that. He wouldn't do that. He didn't
hesitate. He didn't spare anybody's feelings. When he was preaching
the truth, he didn't spare anybody's feelings. He told them exactly
what the truth was. And the preachers of this world
dare not offend. But listen to Christ. There's
no trickery here in this verse. There is none, I say. He just
simply says that if this man's going to have this pearl, he
must sell all that he has and come and buy this pearl. If he
won't take Christ, the preachers around us tell us, for a dollar,
we'll take a quarter for him. We'll take a quarter for it.
If you won't give a quarter, we'll take a dime. Anything. We'll wish Jesus off on you.
Anybody here wants Jesus, we'll wish him off on you. But Jesus
said no. He said if you want that pearl
of great price, sell out. Sell all that you have and buy
the Lord Jesus. We'll explain a little bit about
that in a minute. No wishing Jesus off on anybody
around here. It is selling out. If you have
Christ, you must be willing to part with everybody and everything,
even your own life. Count the cost, Luke 14 and 25. Now don't look at this pearl
and say you want it, unless you pay the price. Watch this man
as he sells out. When this man saw this one pearl
of great price, everything lost its value to him. Everything
else lost its value. Everything lost its importance. lost its importance. Now, if
you ever really get saved, my friend, that's the way it's going
to be. Everything's going to lose its value to you but Christ
and the truth. And everybody's going to have
a secondary position. Jesus said, if you come to me
and don't hate your father, mother, brothers, and sister, and your
whole life also, you cannot be my disciple. You've got to put
them in second place. I'm first. Christ is first. He must be first in the life
of the believer, and I don't hesitate to say that. I've got
to stand before God, and I'll stand before God probably before
most of you will. But I'm here to tell you this
morning that I'm not going to tell you a lie about it. You
must be willing to part even with your own life to have this. Now, he wanted the pearl. He
sold out. Can you pay the price? Now, don't
look at this pearl and say that you want it, unless you can.
When this man saw this pearl, he lost interest in everything
but that pearl. And that's marvelous. You say,
isn't that expecting too much, preacher? No! It's not expecting
you to fall in love with Jesus Christ. That's not expecting
too much. It's not. I'll tell you that if you ever
get a glimpse of the Christ of the Cross, and the Christ of
this Bible, your realities, your relatives and your friends, your
job, your popularity, the world and everything else will lose
its appeal to you. It will. You say, it's going
to ruin me, preacher. No, it's not going to ruin you.
It's not going to ruin you at all. There is no man really alive
except those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody is
really happy except those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and have Him as the anchor of their soul. And if it has not
lost its appeal to you, you've not seen the Lord yet. You had
not seen the Lord. Put him in all this other in
second place. Put it all back here. The Lord
out in front. Now my prejudices must go. My
idea is about salvation, life, and death. Now what I think,
what I was taught, you say I was not raised to believe the way
you are, preacher. Well, I'm not interested in what
the old timers had to say, but what God says. And Jesus said,
you've got to love me more than all these. Jesus said, you got
to be willing to put it all on the back burner, me out front. My old self-righteousness has
got to go. Somebody said, I'm a little better
than most people around here. Well, you may be, but you're
not good enough to go to heaven. Unless you're clothed in the
garments of salvation, is that right? Unless you have on Christ's
perfect robe of righteousness, you're not ready to leave this
world yet. Hope you don't make an exodus believing that you're
all right. There ain't nobody all right
but Christ and all those that are in him are all right. No
man is clothed in the garments of salvation until he's stripped
of his old rags. I believe that. He must be stripped
of his old rags through conviction. He must come to see that there's
nothing good in him. It is only when we're weak in
ourselves that we can be strong in Christ. Come down, come down
into the dust and pay the price. Can you do it? No, preacher. Well, you cannot have the pearl
unless you can come down, down, down in yourself. Well, you say,
well, I'm kind of concerned about public opinion. Well, that's
got to go. That's got to go. You say, I
don't want nobody thinking I'm, you know, a weakling or a religious
fanatic. Well, forget about what people
say. I'm going to tell you there are people that will laugh you
into hell. You say, well, I just don't want anybody to laugh at
me. Well, I'd rather have them laugh at me on this side and
have God, when I stand before Him, commend me and say, well
done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of
the Lord, than I would. Let these people around you that
would laugh at you, let them go on to hell. Let them go on. Well, they would have you to
go. The world, listen, whenever you believe, and when you trust
Christ, and when you sell out, and when He becomes the most
important thing to you in the world, the world's not gonna
look you up anymore. They're not gonna look you up.
They don't want anything more to do with you, really. They
say, that guy there, oh, he's got religion, and I don't really
want, well, I tell you, that's one of the best things, if the
world says, Jesus said, beware when all men speak well of you.
Beware. Everybody says, you're okay,
look out. Look out. But if they say, well,
there's something different about that guy, and he bothers us to
have him around because we can't talk when he's around. We can't
tell our jokes when he's around. We can't do this, we can't do
that when that guy's around. Well, that's wonderful. You say,
well, I don't like that. Well, you may not like it, but
if you ever grow up in the Lord, you'll like it, because you'll
know that that's the way that it ought to be. Now, the natural
world, the secular world, and the religious world is going
to hell, and I don't want to go with it. I want this pearl. I want this pearl. When we count
all things done and draw so we may gain Christ, then we're really
converted. There must be some value to Christ. Some value. Some Christ. Some value to Christ. And that
brings me to the last word. Buying. Buying. Proverbs 23 and 23 says buy the
truth and sell it not. Isaiah 55 and verse 1 says come
and buy wine and milk without money and without price. Come
and buy. Come and buy. It was an immediate
purchase, wasn't it? If you only knew, only knew my
Lord, you'd not think twice. If the Spirit of God ever makes
you hungry, down deep in your soul, why wouldn't you take any
persuasion of the preacher? Just preach the beauty and glory
of Emmanuel, and preach his full saving strength and power? Preach
him in his glory, and lift him up, and your soul will embrace
him. will believe on him." Ah, listen,
it was a definite purchase, a definite, before witnesses if you please,
it was a joyful purchase. Salvation was not meant to take
away our joy. No, Jesus said, I've come that
you might have life, you might have it more abundantly. I've
come, he said, that your joy may be full. And if you're ever
going to have fullness of joy in this life, it's going to be
when you come to know the Lord, when you come to know Him, the
free pardon of your sin. Come to know Him and to have
what He has given and what He will give to all sinners that
believe on Him. You've not begun to live until
you come to know Christ. You don't even have enough life
to know your death until you come to Christ, until you come
to Him, and until you're enabled to believe on Him. Look at the
experience And the expression on this man's face, I can just
see it. I can just see it. He's not thinking about what
he gave up, but he's thinking about what he was getting, what
he was getting. I'm getting the pearl of great
price. He wasn't thinking at all about
the old things that he sold, but he's pearl. He's pearl. He'd been looking. He'd been
looking. He looked at many a day. He'd
been looking a long time. He'd been going through the world,
he'd been listening to this guy and that guy, and he'd go on
fool's errands all over the country looking around for this pearl.
But when he found it, but when he found it, ah, well I'm bothered
about what people have to say about themselves before God saved
them. Some people say, I was alright,
wasn't anything much wrong with me. I was something else before
God saved me. I tell you what I was, I was
nothing. I was nothing when God found me. He found me on a dunghill,
that's where he found me. He found me, I was a sinner when
the Lord found me. I was a sinner, depraved sinner,
lost sinner, hell deserving sinner, ready to be cut down with the
scythe of God's wrath and thrown into the fire. And somebody said, oh, I was
something else before God saved me. Well, I'm something else
now. I'm as righteous as the righteous one in Christ, as I
stand in the Lord Jesus, righteous as he is. Princelet, king, been
made so by the Lord. Think old Jacob every once in
a while. God called him a prince, and he was a deceiver. He was
a deceiver. He was a man who was a conniving,
thievery, stealing person, but yet God loved him. And I don't
know why, except reasons known only to the Lord, God loved old
Jacob. And he called him a prince. And
people that knew him said, what? A prince? Why, this guy is, he's
a con man, that's what he is. Identity. Identity. It all depends
on who you're asking. The Lord looks at a fella and
says, that guy is a prince. That's who that guy is. Go up
and knock on the neighbor's door. Do you know that guy over here
in this other house? He's a con man. I'm telling you
God is the God NOT of the best of us. He's the God of the worst
of us. And it's proven in the case of
old Jacob. The God of the worst of us. I just thought a fella had to
be so good before he could be saved. No, no, no. That's not right. That's not
right. I say it was a joyful purchase this man made. It was
a final purchase. No one can take it away. We can't
take anyone with us when we die, but Him. He'll go with us. He'll go with us. And when we
have to cross the river, the Lord Jesus will be with us. And
He will not be alone when we cross the river. He'll be with
us. He'll be with us. And nobody can take it away from
Him. There was a man one time over
in one of the eastern countries, and he was going to take a trip
across the desert. And he was afraid to go and carry all of
his valuables. Afraid to take them with him.
Afraid somebody would rob him. There was all kinds of robbers, thieves
on the way. So you know what he did? He took
all of his valuables, he sold them, every one, and bought a
pearl. And he hid that pearl away Never
had a bit of trouble. Had all of his possessions in
that pearl. And then when he got where he
wanted to go, sell the pearl and buy whatever he wanted. Now
beloved, I'm telling you that's the way it is. This is a final
purchase for you. You won't need anything else.
You'll be safe all the way to glory. Throughout eternity you'll be
safe. He never regretted making it. He was satisfied with the
deal. satisfied completely with the deal. The poet said, now
rest, my long-divided heart, fixed on this blissful center,
rest. With ashes, who would grudge to part when called on angels'
bread to feast? Lord, lead me to seek thee, seeking
thee to find thee, and finding thee to love thee, and loving
thee never to leave thee. You know, I just want to say
a word about this selling out and how the Lord looks at it
and how He feels about it. Somebody says, well, you mean
to tell me that I must bring my deed to my property to the
Lord? You mean I must bring my automobile
to the Lord, my truck to the Lord? You mean I must bring everything
to Him? I would remind you, first of
all, that the earth And all that's in it, in its fullness, belongs
to God. Every bit of it. All belongs
to Him. The earth is the Lord's. Cattle
on a thousand hills belong to Him. He said, if I was hungry,
I wouldn't ask you for anything to eat. God has it all. Now if you need proof of that,
you just hang around a little bit and you'll find out one of
these days, the Lord owns it all. He can take it back when
He wants to. He can take it when He wants to. But look at this. Here's this fella, he brings
this deed to his property. He said, I gotta have this pearl.
I must have it! Brings the deed to the property,
gives it to the Lord, and the Lord says, wait a minute, wait
a minute, wait a minute. He said, here, you take this
back. Take it back. He said, I don't want your house. I don't want it. He said, I just
want you to know that that house is mine. That that belongs to
me. And if there's somebody that
needs to be put up, somebody that needs help and needs a place
to stay, you just remember, that's my house. And here, this title
for this car, you go ahead and take it back. I don't want your
car. The Lord says, I don't want it.
I just want you to know that car is mine. That's what I want
you to know. I want you to know in your heart
that it's all mine. But if I call on you to pick
up so-and-so and take him to the house of God, or if you need
to take somebody to a doctor's office or appointment, if you
need to do something or they need something, I want you to
know that car's mine. Don't you be looking at what
you got as being yours. It's God's. And those that have
found the Pearl of Great Price, they're gracious people. And
that's the way they are because they give everything to God.
Put it all in His hands, lock, stock, and barrel. And that's
what that selling out's all about. That's what it's all about. The
Lord don't want, He don't want you to bring all that stuff to
Him and leave it to Him and you move out. No, no, no, no, no. He just wants you to recognize
His ownership of it all and be ready to part with it if you
have to. And never look back because you
have the pearl of great price. Do you have this pearl? Is there
a hunger in your heart today? If there is, if you've been seeking,
and there's a hunger in your heart, I believe God's put that
there. And I believe you just keep on until you've got to have
it. You've got to have it. You've
got to have it. Once it dawns on you who this
is that we're talking about and what he has come to do, then
my friend, then I believe you'll have it. You won't have to move
a muscle. You won't have to bat an eye. In your soul the Lord
Jesus will appear and you'll be able to believe on him and
trust him in your heart and you'll know of a certainty that he's
yours, that he's yours. Father, in the name of Jesus,
bless this message and use it for Thy glory, use it for Your
honor, use it for Your praise. And Lord, we know that Thou art
a mighty God, mighty to save, mighty to bring Your people unto
Yourself. So bring some poor soul, oh,
that there was a hungry heart here today that received something
that will go away with good things in their heart. While the rich
and those that esteem the things of this world to be of the most
importance go empty away, some poor soul here, barely able to
keep themselves going, will have the true riches as they leave.
Pray it in Jesus' name, for his sake. Amen.