The Pearl of Great Price

It's Matthew's Gospel, Chapter
13, beginning with verse 44. Our text this morning will be
verse 45 and verse 46. Now, verse 44, of course, is
similar in many ways to what we find in our text. Let me read
verse 44 through 46 again so that you might be well acquainted
with our subject. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a treasure hid in a beast, the which, when a man
hath found, he hideth. and for joy thereof goeth and
selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that thief." It seems
to me here that the man was looking into the field and by accident
he found a treasure. that was hidden in that field,
that the owner of the field did not know about. And then he takes
that treasure and he hides that treasure so nobody else will
discover it. And then he's very joyful and
he goes and he sells all that he has. He sells all his worldly
possessions. And he goes back and buys that
field so that he will have that treasure which he found, which
was in the field which he hid. And then verse 45 and 46, which
we want to study particularly, Again, the kingdom of heaven
is likened to 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 in. Now, Gacy Riles says concerning
these two parables, that these two parables are meant to teach
us that men really convinced of the importance of salvation
will give up everything to win Christ and eternal life. And I believe that basically
that is the teaching of these verses here. Now, Thomas Mankin,
and I think these things might help somewhat to introduce to
you verse 44 and verse 45, He said, the seeking of goodly pearls,
as we find in verse 44, that the kingdom of heaven is like
unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. That the seeking of goodly
pearls is the inclination of nature to happiness. What he
means by that is that all men have in them the desire to be
happy. All would be happy. None can
be happy but by Jesus Christ. None can be happy except they
find that one pearl of great price and sell all they have
and get him. But yet he says the seeking of
goodly pearls here is the inclination of nature to happiness. The finding,
one of great price, is common grace. In other words, that when
men are seeking to be happy, seeking to find that in life,
which will enrich their life, and I believe that all men by
nature are either drinking at Jacob's well, which will never
satisfy, or else they've found the one pearl of great price
and they're rejoicing in him and are satisfied with the purchase
they made, and in a sense they did make a purchase, and we'll
show you that in a little while, either that there's one of the
two going on. They're either drinking out of
Jacob's well, which can never satisfy them, or they must drink
of that well continually, and it never satisfies, or they have
found the Lord Jesus Christ. But now he says that this finding,
one of great Christ, is common grace. In other words, the gospel
goes out, and there's a general call of the gospel. Jesus Christ
is preached. He's exalted before sinners.
We tell poor sinners of their condition, and we set before
them the Son of God, and we show them His majesty and His saviorhood,
and we set that before them. Now that's common grace. The
Bible teaches that we ought to preach the gospel to every creature.
The Bible teaches that we ought to hold up Christ before this
sinful world, and we ought to proclaim to him that he's the
one message that we are to proclaim in this world. The gospel must
be preached unto all men. And when the Savior is discovered,
that's common grace. But now, he goes on to say that
this implies somewhat of knowledge and some kind of faith and esteem
for Christ. In other words, if a man hears
Christ exalted and preached, and he says, well, that is a
pearl, that is a pearl, then he makes a judgment in his heart
as to whether or not that is the one pearl of great price
which his soul must have, or whether or not, you know, it's
kind of like other pearls that he has found that he's been seeking
that, well, you know, I don't want to make an immediate purchase.
I would rather look around a little bit. I'd rather go, you know,
and sort through a little bit more and see if I couldn't find
something that would be of more value than this before I invest
everything in this pearl. And so we see then that there
is some major truth in that, that one must esteem Christ. And then he goes on to say, but
his going and selling all to buy it is a special and saving
grace. In other words, when a man sees
this pearl and says, this pearl I must have. I cannot live without
this pearl. My soul is dead apart from this
pearl. I have no eternal life and no
eternal hope. without this pearl, then he makes
this, he esteems Christ to be of absolute importance, and he
says, this is saving grace. When a man sells all that he
has, makes the investment, and says, this is it, this is it,
I tie to this, I anchor to this, this is the real pearl, and I
buy it. Alright, then when we count all
things young and gross, that we may gain Christ, then we are
really converted. There must be this sort of esteem
and this value placed on Christ in the heart of the sinner before
one will sell all that he has to gain Christ. And so I believe
these words will open up or introduce to us the text this morning. I'd like to say that the Lord
Jesus did, he told a very simple one. He certainly was not one
who tried to attract the lawyers and the Sadducees and the Pharisees
of his day by brilliant stories. He told very simple and very
plain stories. Now, after he had given them
these truths, in verse 51, he said unto them, Have you understood
all these things? Have you understood all these
things? And they say unto him, yea, Lord, yea, Lord, we understand
these things. In other words, we understand
what you're talking about. Now, I don't know this morning,
but I judge that most all of you, if you're listening, I mean
if you're concentrating on what I'm saying to you, I imagine
that most of you have a head knowledge and an understanding
of what I'm talking about. I think you do. And when Jesus
asked these disciples, have you understood all these things?
And they answered, yea, Lord. Yes, Lord, we have understood
these things. Well, I certainly believe that
they did. But now I want to tell you this
morning that you might understand these things. You might say,
well, preacher, that's pretty plain there. According to what
we read there in verse 45 and 46, this man found this one pearl,
he sold all that he had and he bought it. And that's pretty
plain there. And I think also that that's pretty plain the
spiritual meaning that is talking about the Lord Jesus and a man
finding Him and giving his all and putting, just investing his
whole life into the Lord Jesus. I think that's pretty plain.
But listen to me now. Just because you've understood this in your
head is no sign that you understand it savingly. It's no sign that
you are saved just because you have a mental understanding of
what this is talking about. Because let me tell you this,
I say to you this morning, brethren, I don't know whether or not you're
willing to pay the price. I think you may understand that
there is a pearl of great price, that there is one. But whether
or not you understand or not, or whether or not you feel in
your own heart That you can invest all that you have and give all
that you have to have this one pearl. That's another thing all
together. I don't know whether you can do that or not, friend.
I don't know whether you're able to do that or not. And I want
to tell you something, until you are willing to sell all that
you have, you'll never have this pearl of great price. Now, I
believe that there's four words that, when we study them, will
help us to understand clearly the spiritual meaning of this
text of Scripture. Now, those four words that I
want to mention to you here this morning are seeking, number one,
seeking, because we find where this man was seeking goodly pearls,
Number two, finding, because we find that he found one pearl
of great price. Number three is selling, because
we're told that he sold all that he had and bought it. And then,
of course, the last word is buying. buying because the scripture
says here he bought it and bought it and so these are the words
that I want to just discuss with you a little bit this morning
and I believe as we do so that you'll be able to understand
something about what the spiritual truth there is and enter into
it and maybe be able this morning to with this man sell all that
you have sell all that you have and go out of here possessing
the pearl of great promise Now, first of all, let me say this,
that I believe that this man was a dedicated seeker of goodly
pearls. He was a dedicated seeker. I
believe it was his whole life was to seek pearls. I believe
that he lived pearls. I believe he had pearls for breakfast,
he had them for dinner, for lunch, and he had them for supper. I
really believe that this man knew pearls, and I believe his
whole life was wrapped up in them. And I think it meant nothing
if somebody would have walked in front of his house and said
something about pearls, that he'd have heard it, and he'd
have jumped out of bed and he'd have been downstairs finding
out what it was all about. This man was a seeker of goodly
pearls. And not only that, but I believe
this man would make trips, and he would go, and no trip was
too far, no sacrifice was too great. This man didn't want imitation
now. Pearls, he was seeking goodly
pearls. And he didn't want defective
pearls, he wanted the real thing. And he was a seeker after these
things. Now, I don't know what you're
seeking this morning. I know what this man was seeking,
but I don't know what you're seeking. I do not know, and I
believe that it would be a legitimate question for you to ask yourself
this morning, what am I seeking? I mean, what is it that I want?
Now, if you're here this morning and you're one of those that
feel in your own heart that you should seek the world, And there's
many that are that way. They feel that they should seek
the world. The Bible says that this world, in the book of 1
John, he puts it like this, that we're not to love the world,
neither the things that are in the world, because the lust of
the eyes and the pride of the life, these are not of the Father,
but they're of the world. The world's passing away, but
they that do the will of God shall abide forever. Now, if
you're here and you're seeking this world, I believe that this
world is going to be burned up. I believe that this world is
coming to naught. I believe this world is facing
judgment. I believe that this world is
coming down. And I think that if you're seeking
that, I don't have any word for you. I don't have any word of
encouragement for you, as long as you seek in that direction.
Because I believe that you're going to end up on the downhill
along with the world and the private life and the things of
this world, which is not of the Father. That only those that
do the will of God shall abide forever. And it's those that
will seek, as God teaches in the Word, they ought to seek.
Now that will find this one pearl. Now then, what are you seeking
this morning? Now I want to say that if a man goes out into this
world and he's religiously inclined. Say he goes out and he's inclined
favorably toward religion. In other words, he's interested
in finding out some things that's going on and kind of got something
in here. You know, everybody's religious.
They claim even the dogs are so. And now listen, now this
man is interested. Now, I think you know that whatever
a man is seeking in a religious sense, that there are religious
hucksters in the world that's selling just whatever you want.
Just whatever you want, you can find. In other words, it's for
sale on the religious market. And there are those that, this
morning, that if you're just seeking an experience, if that's
what you want, some kind of an experience, you don't care what
it is, but you want to have a religious experience. You can take and
turn your dial on this morning on a radio or on a television
and you can go across the dial like on the radio and you can
hear all manner of religious broadcast teaching and you might
find something that would interest you. You might find something,
a testimony that somebody's giving, somebody relating an experience,
telling some sort of a sob story or something that might somehow
or other affect you, and you might say, well, I really enjoyed
that. Or you might be somebody who says, well, you know, preacher,
I really like feeling, and I like to have visions, and I have a
little trust in dreams. And I don't know whether you
believe in dreams or not, of course, whether they convey any
sort of spiritual truth or reality, but I'm going to tell you something.
I've heard of people who actually thought that they got saved in
a dream. They said they went to bed lost, they got up saved,
and they believed that in the dream that they had, that they
saw a vision of Christ. And somehow or other they saw
the pearly gates open up and they were able, in their dream,
to walk through. Therefore, they're saved. And
I remember reading one time, there was an old preacher by
the name of Roland Hill, that Charles Spurgeon often quoted,
and he made mention of this. There was a woman that believed
that she got saved in a dream. So she come and told Brother
Hill, said, now, I was saved in a dream. He said, well, I
won't tell you, lady. He said, I'll tell you like,
I'll tell you the way I see it. The way you walk when you're
awake, is what's going to reveal whether or not you're saved or
not. You can tell me about your dream and you can tell me you
got converted in your dream, but it's the way you walk when
you're awake that I'm going to be watching to see whether or
not you know the Lord or not. See whether or not your hope
is really in the Lord Jesus Christ. But now, beloved, we can have
dreams and we can have ceremonies. If you want, you can find church
buildings where they got the stained glass. You can find church
buildings, I mean, where the preacher wears a robe. And you
can find churches where they got the choir, and where the
choir wears the robe. You can find anything that you
want out here on this religious market. All you got to do is
just get out there and get seeking a little bit, and you can surely
find it. Or if you want, you can find
a church that's got some laws to live by, or some rules. And
you can go, like one church I heard of, and they said the church
was a standard. That was the way they advertised
their church. The church was a standard, and
I thought, well it'd be good if they had a gospel. It'd be
better if they had a gospel instead of just having a standard, don't
you see? And what I'm pointing out to you is, when we're seeking
something, We better just be careful because what we're seeking
we might just find. We might just find, and that
might be all that we need to satisfy us. But now, I want to
say that the Bible teaches that a man is to seek first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. A man is to seek God first. He's not to seek the vision,
the dream, the feeling, the experience. He's to seek God first with all
of his heart. Now that's what the Bible teaches.
Now, Ben, let's talk a little bit about this finding because
I believe that this is very important. You may think now, when I'm talking
about these other religions, You may think, well, preacher,
you shouldn't talk about churches, and you shouldn't talk about
religious feelings, and all because some people really have a lot
of confidence in them, and you shouldn't say anything about
that. Well, brethren, I believe that a preacher's got to be honest.
Religion, many, many of the religions of this world are nothing more
than phony. And you know it, and I know it.
And you know that many people have swallowed hook, line, and
sinker everything that they've heard, And you know they're still
lost and they're in the bond of iniquity and in the bond of
bitterness. You know that. And I believe a man's got to
be honest. Now let me ask you this question. If somebody was
to come to you and say to you, now I'm going to buy a house
down the road here. And I'm going to take all my
money, I'm going to take all my savings, and I'm going to
invest it in that house. I'm going to put it in there.
And I've looked that house over, and I kind of like it. But I
want you to come down. You're a builder, you're a contractor,
you know houses, and I want you to come down, and I want you
to look it over. And then give me your opinion,
because I'm going to invest everything I've got in that. I'm going to
put it all in that, and I want you to come down and look it
over. Now if you went down there and you knew houses and you went
down there and you used to see that the roof rafters were two
by fours and they were on 24 inch centers and you can see
the ceiling as it sways or what I mean is the roof. and the plywood
and the shingles as they kind of were swayed back. And if you
went into the basement, you'd see that the foundation was cracked
and you could see that the walls were out of plumb and all kinds
of things wrong with that house. What would you do? What would
you do? Now, you know houses. Your friend don't know houses.
He overlooked these things. He wasn't able to discern this
situation. He's going to put everything
in that. What would you tell him? What would you tell him?
Would you say, well, this house is a fine house. You just go
right on. Put your life savings in here. Go right on and do it
because it's alright. Would you do that? Well, friend,
if you do, I really believe that you need to examine your heart.
I think there's something wrong with you. And I think any preacher
that would tell people that if they get a feeling or an experience
or a vision or a dream that they can stop right there, they're
safe, that it's alright. I believe that'd be a phony preacher
and I believe he'd be wrong. I believe it's necessary to tell
men and women if you've got all of that, you don't have enough.
You don't have enough. You've got to have something
else besides all of that. You've got to find that good
pearl. You've got to keep looking, friend.
You've got to keep looking until you find that one pearl of great
price. You can't stop with religion.
Now, I think that's very important, all right? Those who seek real
redemption will recognize it when they see it, and those who
are seeking it will not be satisfied until they find it. Until they
find it. I really believe this morning
that if you are here and you were seeking the one pearl of
great price, that you're not satisfied, you're not happy unless
you found it. Unless you found it. Now if you
found it, then you're happy in your soul. Then you're delighted
in your soul. Then you can rejoice. Then you
can be glad. Then you know that everything
is well with you. You know that you're on the solid
rock. Alright, now then Christ is that
pearl of great price. There's a verse over in the Song
of Solomon in the Old Testament, chapter 3, that I'd like for
you to look at. There's just part of the verse
that we want to use, but I really believe it's a tremendous verse.
Now, listen to this. It was but a little. Solomon
chapter 3, verse 4. that I passed from them, but
I found him whom I so loved. I held him and would not let
him go. I found him whom I so loved,
and I held him and I would not let him go. Let him go this finding
brethren is very important. Why do I say that? I say it's
very important that we find This pearl of great price, which is
the Lord Jesus Christ number one because in the Lord Jesus
Christ We have a holy righteous a holy righteous Now Brethren,
you cannot expect this morning to be righteous in the Lord Jesus
Christ and to have on those filthy garments that you have and you
call that righteousness. You cannot expect that you have
the Pearl of Great Price until you sell all your rags and get
rid of all your old garments. and have this holy, righteous
garment that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you were to read
Romans chapter 3, there's some precious verses there, and I
call your attention to them. Turn to the book of Romans, where
we're going. And it can only be had in Jesus Christ. You can
see why he's the one pearl of great price. All right, look
here. In verse 21 and 22, But now the
righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and of
all all them that believe, for there is no difference. Now then,
the Jew and the Gentile alike, or the Israelite and the Gentile
alike, would find in the Lord Jesus, no difference as far as
they're concerned, all men need what Jesus Christ is, and they
need His Righteousness. They must have his righteousness.
And then we find in Romans 5 and in verse 10 that we have reconciliation
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Reconciliation through the Son
of God. Now notice this here. It's a
precious verse. For if when we were enemies,
and that's what we were by nature, and that's what a sinner discovers
when he begins to seek and when he first finds his pearl, He
discovers that he himself is a sinner at enmity against God,
and when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of his Son. Much more being reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life. There's reconciliation with the
Holy God. in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If you're in Him, you're reconciled
to God. If you're not in Him, you're
not reconciled to God. I'm showing you, when a man finds
this pearl, I'm showing you what he finds. He finds reconciliation. Now if you turn over to the book
of John, chapter 14, there's a verse here that I can quote
this verse. I memorized it a long time ago,
but I want you to see it, and I want you to look at it. It's
verse 6. And it has reference to Jesus being the mediator,
and there being one way to God, and one way to be reconciled
to God. In verse 6 of John 14 it says,
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me, I'm the way. And so, beloved, if you, if you,
when you find this pearl of great price, you'll find the way to
the Father. And that's why he's called Pearl
of Great Price. He's the way to the Father, and
you must find the way, and that way is the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we find that justification
also, and back in Romans again, I read here in the 4th chapter
and verse 5, But to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Now this justification and you
can look up there in in the well, what is there verse 28? Therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the needs of
the law now then justification before God is it is in Christ
and It's through faith in Christ. Because we believe on Him that
justifies the ungodly. Our faith is counted for righteousness. And then that precious verse
in Romans 5 warns. Look at that. Therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. So you see, brethren, the holy righteousness we need
is in Him. We see that our reconciliation
is in Him. He's the way to God. And we see
that our justification is in Him. And then turn to Ephesians
chapter 1, if you will, and look there in that book at the 7th
verse. Ephesians 1 and verse 7. This is a tremendous verse. It
says, "...in whom we have redemption through His blood." In whom? We have redemption, not in a
vision, a dream, not in an experience, but in who? We have it in a person,
and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. We have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. And so can't you see, brethren,
that when one finds this pearl, if he is enlightened concerning
this pearl, and I think of how this man How that this man, when
he was seeking these pearls, and he hadn't found the goodly
pearl, how that someone called him aside. Someone called him
aside and would say to him, I hear that you are a seeker after goodly
pearls. Is that right? And he would say,
yes, I'm a seeker of goodly pearls. And he would say to him, well,
he says, I understand that you are seeking pearls, but have
you found any good pearls. And he would say, well, no, I've
not really found anything I'm impressed with because I'm seeking,
you know, only goodly pearls, not defective or not in any way
pearls that are just, you know, phony. I'm looking for the real
thing. Come with me. Come with me. And
so he takes him into a back room and he takes him in there and
he opens up a chest And there in that chest, there's a perfectly
beautiful pearl. A beautiful pearl. And the man
looks upon that pearl, and as he looks upon it, he says, I
know pearls. I know pearls. That is a goodly
pearl. That is indeed a goodly pearl.
That's it. That's it. This is the pearl
that I need. I must have this pearl because
that's the best one I relate my eyes on. No question about
it. I can tell. I don't need anyone. I don't need to examine it any
further. I can tell. That's it. That's it. And I must
have that pearl. I want to tell you something.
When Christ is rightly preached, And when he's held up before
you, now I'll tell you, it won't take any twisting of the arm
and saying, well, you know, I'd just like to say, if you ever
know my Master and my Lord, if you ever come to see Him as He's
revealed in the Holy Word by the Spirit of the Living God,
if you ever come to see Christ and understand His Word, I want
to tell you something right now, there'd be no problem about you
wanting him. There'd be no problem about it. If you ever see him
and see his worth. There's a little old poem, I
can't quote it all, but it says something about if the whole
world knew his worth, they'd love him too. And I want to tell
you something right now, you just don't know his worth. That's
why you don't say, well, this is it, this is it. You don't
know his worth. You haven't listened very carefully
to what we've been saying about your needs. Because you have
this need of holy righteousness, this need of reconciliation. You're counted as an enemy of
Almighty God. And you have this need, you see
this morning, of justification. And you have this need of forgiveness
of your sins. It can only be had in one. That's
in Jesus Christ. And so I say to you, as this
man did, I found him. I found him. I found the lover
of my soul and I held him. I held him. Well now listen,
let's talk a little bit about the, about the selling here because
I believe this is very important too. The selling. Now, in Luke
14 and turn there, I used these verses last week in the message
last Sunday morning, but I want you to look back here with me
at these verses because I went over these again, and I believe
there's something tremendous here, and I just hope that you
will bear with me and listen to what I have to say here this
morning about this selling, because this man found this pearl. He
sought it, and then he found it, and then he sold all that
he had. in order that he might purchase
it. And then in beginning there with
verse 25 of Luke 14, and there went great multitudes with him,
and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hating
on his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren,
and sisters, gave his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Now you know, can't you see quickly here, let me just point this
out, how different the Lord Jesus Christ was in his ministry compared
with modern preachers. Preachers in our day and time,
they try everything they can to get a crowd. Everything they
can. I mean tricks that I never heard
of, tricks you never heard of, but they try everything to get
a crowd. But the Lord Jesus, when he got
a crowd, what he would do, he knew how to put them to the test. And he didn't try to entertain
them and to keep them on, you see. He just dealt with them
in full sincerity. And we find him saying here,
if any man come to me, he must hate his father, and his mother,
and his wife, and his children, his brethren, sisters, and his
own life also. He cannot be my disciple. And
whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me, he cannot
be my disciple. For which of you intended to build the tower,
sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether ye have sufficient
attention? Which one of you is gonna say
well now, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna try this thing You
know, I got a little glimpse of this pearl. I you know, I
mean I really would like to have I kind of would like to have
that pearl that that I Saw in this treasure chest. I'd really
like to have it but You say, well now, and so therefore you
go and you sell a few things, but then you say, well hey, you
know, hey, you know, I don't know whether I want to go on
through with this or not. And then, it's kind of like the man
who went out here, you know, to build the tower, and he didn't
sit down first and say, well now, this is going to cost everything
I've got. So he went out and he started building that tower
and after a while he saw that his pumice was running dry and
he didn't have anything to finish it with and so that he couldn't
finish it. He didn't have sufficient to
finish it. And therefore, he just had to give up the project
and verse 29 says, Lest haply, after he had laid the foundation,
and was not able to finish it, all that behold him began to
mock him. They began to mock him and say, well, now wait a
minute, wait a minute, this fellow here, you see, he didn't figure
this thing, he didn't understand what this thing was going to
cost. And one man illustrated it this
way one time, I read, were, for example, if a man had a field,
and he had bought this field, and sight unseen, and there was
some fellow that came along one time, and so he said, well sure,
I'll sell it to you, I don't even know what's there, I don't
know much about it. All I know is what I've been told about
it. But he said, sure, I'll sell it to you. And he agreed on a
price. And it was agreeable to both parties. And so the transaction
was about to close. And before the transaction closed,
why, this gentleman went out to the piece of ground, the gentleman
that owned it, and he looked it over. And on the back of the
property, he didn't realize it, but there was a screen running
across the back of the property. And so he said, what I'm saying,
this makes this a whole lot more valuable than what I felt it
was. And this is what happens when men look at the Pearl of
Great Price and then they got to sell that. In order to obtain
it, they say, well, hey, you know, I didn't know it involved
this. I didn't know my worshiping Christ, serving Christ, living
for Christ, living for the glory of God involved this or that
or something. I didn't know that. I didn't realize that. That's
going to cost me more than I want to pay. And therefore, they turn
around, you see. But I want you to listen to what
the Lord Jesus said here in verse 33. So likewise, he says, whosoever
he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be
my disciple. And so, beloved, there's got
to be a selling out. A man's got to be willing to
forsake all that he has, or he cannot be the Lord's disciple. Now, I realize that whenever
a man puts it that way, that many people, you see, they're
not interested in that kind of a doctrine, and they're not interested
in that kind of a selling out to the Lord, then I isn't that.
Because the preachers of our day and time, what they're interested
in doing is getting the Lord Jesus Christ. They're trying
to sell Christ butchers are, to the multitude, and they'll
just take whatever the people will pay for it. Whatever the
people will pay. Other words, Jesus is on our
hands. We want to get him onto yours.
What will you pay? What are you willing to pay?
Well, if you don't pay a dollar, will you pay 50 cents? If you
don't pay 50 cents, will you pay a quarter? I mean, just take
Jesus, get him off our hands. We want you to have him. Will
you take him for whatever you want to pay? Well, the Lord Jesus
said, if a man don't forsake all that he has, he cannot be
my disciple. Now, that's what it costs, friend.
That's the selling out. That's what it calls. Well, now
what else does this mean? I believe it means that the self-life
must be laid aside. A person must be willing not
to crucify self. He must be willing to die out
to his self. He must be willing to put himself aside and serve
the master in every way and every shape. And my prejudices, they
must go. My ideas about salvation, my
ideas about life, my ideas about death, my ideas about hell, my
ideas about heaven have all got to go. Now, I don't know what
you think about what Christ taught. I don't know what you think about
what the Bible teaches about the way of salvation, the way
of life, how to miss hell and how to gain heaven. I don't know
what you believe about that. But listen, it don't make any
difference what you believe about it. It don't make any difference.
I'm going to tell you something you've got to believe. You've got to
shove off all your prejudice. This comes in the selling out.
You've got to give up your mind and your ideas about these things,
and you've got to believe what God says about it. And, friend,
the Bible says that you need Christ. The Bible teaches that
you must have Him. And you say, well, I think, preacher,
this and I think that. I'm not concerned or not interested
in what you think. You say, well, I was taught this.
You might have been taught that, but what does the Bible teach?
Friend, you got to sell out. You got to sell out all these
prejudices. And then your righteousness, we mentioned that a little while
ago, but what you got to do is come down, you see, to pay the
price. It's kind of like I heard one
time a fellow illustrate this kind of like this. He said that
the problem is not getting people up to the price. That's not the
problem. Getting them up to the price,
the problem is getting them down to the price. You see, you come
and you buy without money and without price. You see, you have
to come down, sinner. You got to come down. In other
words, you say, well, I want to hold on to this. I want to
hold on to that. No, you've got to shut all that off. All your
righteous and all this filthy rags, as we mentioned, it's got
to go. You can't hold on to anything. You've got to come down. You're
a sinner, a lost sinner, a dead sinner, and you've got to come
down to the price, and the price is Free grace. The price is life
in a substitute. The price is Christ taken by
faith. That's what the price is. You
must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ saving them. That's what
it is. So come down. And then all your
concern for public opinion's got to go. You say, well, you
know, I mean, I'm just concerned about what people will think
if I go sell everything I've got in order to have this pearly
great price. You mean to preach I got to turn
my back on everybody? Well, the Bible said father and
mother and wife and children, brothers and sisters and so on
and so forth. You got to do that in your own life also. But then
look in John chapter 7 and look at verse 12. Look what this says
here. And there was murmuring among
the people concerning him. That's Christ. For some said,
he is a good man. Others said, nay, but he deceived
with the people. How be it no man spoke openly
or spake openly of him for fear of the Jews. No man spake openly
of him because they feared the Jews. In other words, public
opinion. You see, they had their opinions. They did sure have
their opinions. But they didn't speak to them.
Why? Because of public opinion. Concern for public opinion. Same
thing is brought out in that 9th chapter of John there. You
remember when we preached on that, we mentioned this briefly,
but let me just read these verses again. John 9, and beginning
there with verse 18. But the Jews did not believe
concerning him that he had been blind and received his sight,
until they called the parents of him that had received his
sight. And they asked him, saying, Is this your son? who you say
was born blind, how then does he now see? His parents answered
them and said, we know that this is our son, and that he was born
blind. But what means he now sees? We
know not. Or who hath opened his eyes?
We know not. He is of age, ask him. He shall speak for himself.
These words make his parents, because they feared the Jews. Well, the Jews had already agreed,
or agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ,
he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore, his parents said,
he's an age-ass kid. In other words, don't ask us
to leave. Don't ask us to jeopardize our
situation. Don't ask us, you know, I mean,
we don't want our neighbors to think that we're just you know,
fanatics. We don't want anybody to think
that we're just, you know, really kind of off our rocker a little
bit by just taking all we got, going back over there and selling
the couch and the chairs and selling everything we got, selling
the farm and saying, well, just it's all going because I'm going
to have that Pearl of Great Price. It's all going. Every bit of
it. It's all going. I'm going to
have it. I'm going to have the Pearl of Great Price. But the
neighbors, what's the neighbors going to do? They come up and
say, you're having a sale? I didn't know that you were just
satisfied with this. area. I didn't know you didn't want
to stay here. I didn't know that you were planning on leaving
here. You happen to say, yes sir, I found a pearl of great
price. If I get the money out of all
I got and get back there and purchase that pearl, then I've
got it, friend. I've got it for time and eternity.
I'll never want it again. There'll never be any need again.
No lack ever again. It'll all be mine if I get back
there and purchase that pearl of great price. So then don't
you see what I'm talking about? Now listen, I think that we must
see then the world's got to go. And our concern for public opinion,
it's got to go. It must go. The world won't look
you up, friend, when you're walking with God, when you're loving
Christ and following Him. They won't look you up. The world
discovers hurriedly about the man or the woman that's spirit-filled
and loves Christ They won't look you up trying to get you involved
in their affairs. The world didn't look up the
Lord Jesus Christ. Sinners look up Christ. They look up Christ. When they need Christ, they look
up Christ. But the world won't look you up when you follow Christ.
Just like the world had no use for the Lord Jesus. Alright,
that brings me to the last point. You bear with me now. You bear
with me as we consider this last thing. Before God, you listen
if you can. Now, the Bible. The Bible. This
man was seeking. This man he found and this man
sold out. Lock, stock, and barrel everything,
and now the buying. He's going to buy this Pearl
of Great Price. Well, the first thing I'd like
to say about this was I believe that once he got that money in
his hand, it was an immediate purchase. An immediate purchase. He didn't say, well, you know,
I got this money in my hand now, and it looks, you know, that's
a lot of money. That's a lot of money. And that's all the
money I got. That's everything. That's all I, that's everything
I got in this world reduced into cash. Cold, hard cash. That's
it. That's all I got. And I so therefore
he said well, I'm gonna call the man up and say well, you
know today or two I'll be over by. I want to thank you so much
sir. Immediate, immediate purchase. Whenever the Spirit of God comes
and breaks your hard heart and shows you the Son of God and
shows you your need of Christ, listen to me, there won't be
any of this stuff. Well, you know, I'll think about it. I'll
think about it. No, sir, there won't be any of
that. You go out, you go out crying to the Lord. You will.
You go out seeking God in your heart. It's an immediate purchase. And if you knew my Lord, I wouldn't
have to wish you harm. If you knew Him, if you could see Him
as He's revealed in the Word. If the Spirit ever shows you
pride, it'll be an immediate purchase. And then it was a definite
purchase. He didn't think twice about it.
It was a definite purchase. And before witnesses, I suppose,
He went and bought this pearl. Now, I think also it was a joyful
purchase, don't you? I believe it was. Salvation was
never meant to take away our joy in this life. Some people
say, well, you know, if you really get saved, you're done when it
comes to joy or when it comes to any real, you know, well,
I mean, life will be dull and And I know there are some people
that's got enough religion, just enough to make them miserable.
I've met some of them. Just enough to make them miserable.
And that's all. I want to tell you something.
You get that Pearl of Great Price, you're going to do some rejoicing
and your heart's going to be filled with joy. I want to tell
you that Christ is not meant to rob men and women of pleasure.
Christ will give you pleasure. You don't know what pleasure
is until you get the pearl of great price. I'll tell you, you'll
have some. You'll have some in your soul.
When you get that, the Lord Jesus is a joyful, He's a joyful purchaser. A man has not begun to live until
he's bought this pearl. He's not begun to live. You don't
know nothing about that. You don't know nothing about sleeping
until you buy this pearl. You don't know anything about
security until you buy this pearl. You don't know anything about
it. You don't know anything about rest, not only for time, but
for eternity, until you get this pearl. You've not begun to live,
friend, if you don't know, if you don't have this pearl. And
now, I think also, if you look at the expression on this man's
face, as he, now he's got this pearl now, see, he's bought this
pearl. He's invested everything in it, and he's got this pearl.
The expression that's on his face. I thought that I just would
try to describe it a little bit, I think this man's not thinking
about now what he'd give up to get this prize. Like some people,
you know, they buy something and then they sit around and
say, boy, I don't know if I've done right or not. I just don't
know if I've done the right thing or not. Maybe I shouldn't have
done this and all that. But the expression on this man's
face, you know, it's kind of like some people sometimes whenever
they, when they're giving their testimony and all, they talk
about what they were, what they were. And sometimes they painted
up real good, you know, they were this, they were that, they
were something else. Brethren, I really believe that this man
was totally satisfied with his purchase and I believe the expression
on his face would have told him. Now listen, those that really
truly know Christ and are in Him, I believe that they don't
spend any time talking about what they believe about. They'll
talk about it. Just like this man wouldn't talk
about what it cost him. Why? He was talking about what he
was getting. About what he was getting. This pearl. Great prize.
And a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is taken up not
with what he gave up. No, I want what he's sold to
get what he's got. But he's taken up with what he's
got. That's something to him. I want
to tell you something, I don't know whether Christ is precious
to you or not. I tell you, I don't know whether he is or not. Whether
he's precious to you or not. But I want to tell you something,
where the Lord found me. He found me on the dunghill of sin. That's
where he found me. And the Lord Jesus is precious
to my soul. He's precious to me. He's the
pearl of great price to my heart. And I don't talk about what I
was. And I don't talk about what I may be. I just think of that
I'm what I am now in the Lord Jesus. I'm glad for Him. I'm
glad for what I am in Him. And to me, that's all as far
as I'm concerned. But he found me on the dumb hill
and said, I got nothing to brag about. I got nothing to talk
about. I got nothing to say except the fact that I got the Pearl
of Great Price and I'm satisfied with him. And I hope that everything
I say and everything I do, I hope that it speaks to the fact that
I'm satisfied with the Pearl of Great Price. Because bless
God, I think we ought to be. And then I think too that it
was a final purchase for this man. I don't think you found
this guy back down there in a few days saying, hey, would you take
this back? Would you take this pearl back? I don't know if it's
going to do for me what I want it to or not. Would you take
it back? No, I don't believe he ever did that. I don't believe
he ever regretted making this purchase. I believe it was a
purchase that was final with this man. It's like that old
hymn that says, now rest my long divided heart. Fixed on this
blissful center rest, with ashes who would dredge the park, when
called on angels bred to feast. In other words, it was a final
purchase. In other words, my heart is,
my long divided heart's fixed on this blissful center rest. It's fixed there. It's not something
that I'm about to try to get rid of and try to go back on.
No, brethren, no one can take it away from us. It's a final
purchase. Once you get the Pearl of Great Price, you got it for
time and for eternity. Time and eternity once you get
it. And then we said he never regretted it. He was satisfied
with the deal. Perfectly satisfied. And you
will be too if you ever meet Jesus Christ. You're going to
be satisfied. Now, we know that those, as we mentioned earlier,
drink out of Jacob's well. They have to keep drinking every
day. Because they get thirsty. They get thirsty. But Jesus said
that those that know Him, that the Spirit of God will give them
a well of water springing up. And there will be satisfaction
in their hearts. There will be satisfaction in their souls.
There will be. Alright? Let me just quote this
little poem. Lord, lead me to seek Thee, seeking
Thee to find me, and finding Thee to love me, and loving thee,
never to leave thee." Proverbs 23, 23 says, buy the truth, sell
it not. Buy it, sell it not. I trust this morning that the
Lord will be pleased to bless these thoughts to your heart.
And that the Lord will not allow anything to snatch away these
truths of anyone's heart. I trust that the Lord will overrule
and not allow anyone to go out of here with thoughts concerning
some lesser person. Thoughts beyond this one person,
the great Christ. Those of you that are seeking
Him, the Lord will continue that because if you're seeking Him,
it's because He's put it in your heart to do it. And seeking Him
you'll find Him, finding Him you'll love Him, and loving Him
you'll never, never forget. Let us pray. Father, we thank Thee that Thou
hast in Your good pleasure permitted us again to preach the Gospel,
and hath given us, Lord, a measure of satisfaction in doing it.
We thank Thee, and our hearts are glad that we have a message
to give to the poor souls of men. Be pleased, our Father,
to use it and build up the saints If it please you, Lord, if it
please you, grant that those that have heard may be affected.
And I pray for those especially this morning who need the Lord
Jesus and haven't heard the message. Oh, Father, might they be willing
to sell out. Make them willing, Lord, and
they shall be in the day of retirement. We just trust all that we have
believed to come in the service to Jesus' name, for his sake. Amen.

The Pearl of Great Price

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The Pearl of Great Price

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