Now we're going back to Matthew
13. I continue to find out through the years, and I said to Doris this evening,
the years bring about many changes, some expected, some unexpected.
But I continue to find out two things, the certainty of His
mercies and the frailty of our flesh. I continue to find out
that we're not as brave as we profess to be, we're not as smart
as we think we are, and we're not as dedicated as we claim.
We're all helpless, weak, frail vessels who totally depend upon
a strong and mighty and sufficient Lord. There's not a nickel's
worth of good in anybody here tonight, starting up here and
going clear to the back door. We're learning more and more
to understand what the apostles are talking about. When we quit
playing church and go to reading our Bibles, we're going to find
out a whole lot more. Before this hair turns totally
white, and they lay our form beneath the sod. I had dinner
with a physician last Wednesday night in Lake Charles. He's a
very strong believer in the gospel of Christ Jesus. One of the few
medical doctors I've ever met whom I believe was not only religious
but really knew Christ. He knows Christ, I believe that.
He's an elder in the church. He's a dedicated believer. He's
a close friend of our friend, Brother Scott Richardson. He
moved his family, his wife and several children, from the northwestern
part of our country all the way to Louisiana for one purpose,
to attend a church where the gospel of grace is preached.
That's pretty good evidence that a man knows the Lord. I told
my Sunday school class I've heard of a lot of people who left the
gospel to look for a better job. I haven't met many people who
leave their jobs to look for a better gospel. left his hospital and left his
home and left his friends and moved to the New Orleans or Lake
Charles so he could attend the church where Christ was preached. Well, in the course of the conversation,
while we were talking in his den, we'd become good friends
through the years. He said to me, Henry, the more
I read and study the Word of God, The more I learn about Christ
and his gospel, the more it seems like I know less and less. He said it just seems like the
word just gets greater and greater
and my understanding smaller and smaller. God's Word is so
vast, His Gospel so mysterious, and my knowledge so limited, I need His renewed grace every
day. I need the grace of wisdom and
knowledge. Pray for me." Well, I thought
when he said that, I could say the same thing that he's saying,
how true this is. The more we read this book, the
more we preach it, the more we study it, I don't feel like that
we're getting smarter. I feel like God's revealing some
things to us, but as the circumference of light is enlarged, the more
it touches darkness, the more we learn about God's Word, the
more we realize there is to learn. The more we dig from this mine
of precious treasures, the more we realize that we haven't even
commenced to begin to get started. We see through a glass dimly.
We see through a glass darkly. We know in part. We preach in
part. We understand in part. One of
these days we shall know as we have been known. Let's don't
get overconfident. The Lord has ways of bringing
people down. But I'll tell you this, there
are some things, the more I read them and study them, the more
confident I am concerning these things, the more established
and more definite I become in these positions. There are four
of them especially. I want to give you these four.
These are four things. No matter how much darkness we
encounter, no matter how many doubts we have about different
things, no matter how many times our position changes, in regard
to things about which we learn more and we're more enlightened.
Here are four things that I can say never change. I'm as confident
of these four things more so than I've ever been before, more
than this morning, more than yesterday, more than last year.
And they are these. Number one, any person, any person,
Jew, Gentile, male, female, bond or free, rich or poor, old or
young, educated or uneducated, any person who desires to know
the living God. And I'm not talking about a God
or any God or some God, I'm talking about the living God. And our
Lord Jesus Christ said, this is eternal life to know the living
God. That's what David cried, my soul,
my soul thirsty for the living God. I'm not interested in worshiping
an idol. I'm not interested in having
a God. that's whittled out by some prophet's penknife, I want
to know the living God. Don't you? The living God. That
He might be my strong fortress and my strength and my refuge. I want to know the living God.
Now any man who desires to know the living God will make no progress,
will make no progress toward that goal until it's taught him,
until it dawns on him or her that in the knowledge of God,
Jesus Christ is all. Now just forget it. Cease to
try, fold up your tent and go home. Pull in the bait, row to
shore. You'll never make any progress
toward a knowledge of the living God until you learn, until you
lay hold upon this truth that in the knowledge of God, Jesus
Christ is everything. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. The
disciples said to the Lord, they said, Show us the Father. Show
us the Father and we'll be satisfied. Just show us the Father. We want
to know the Father. He said, Have I been so long
time with you and you don't even know me? He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. Just forget it. You can't pray
to God, you can't call on God, you can't worship God, you can't
approach God except in Christ. God will not speak to nor be
spoken to by any sinner except in Christ. God will not be heard
or seen except in Christ. God will not be known except
in Christ. In the knowledge of God, Christ
is all from Alpha to Omega. You're not going to do business
with God apart from Christ. Now, that's so. He came to reveal
the Father. Secondly, I know I don't have
any conflict with that whatsoever. Various questions we may, but
not with that. Any man who desires to know the
living God will make not one step in that direction until
he knows that Christ is offered. Secondly, any man who seeks pardon
A full pardon. And the forgiveness of sin. And
blessed is the man to whom God will not charge sin. Happy is
the man whose sins are forgiven. To whom God will not impute iniquity. What a blessing. Happy, happy,
happy. The forgiveness of sin. The cleansing
of sin. The Bible talks about sin being
separated from us as far as the east is from the west. And the
only people interested in that are sinners. You good folks won't
be interested in this now, so you can just turn me off for
a few minutes. But people here who are sinners, you'll be interested
to know how sin can be cast into the depths of the sea. How sin
can be separated from you as far as the east is from the west.
How sin can be cast behind wherever it is, the back of God. to be
remembered no more. There is only one way. A man
will make no progress toward that goal until he learns that
in the pardon of sin, in the remission of sin, in the forgiveness
of sin, Christ is all. Not one transgression shall be
forgiven except through the blood of Christ. Ephesians 1, 7 says,
In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin through his
blood. Peter said, we're redeemed not
with corruptible things such as silver and gold from the vain
conversation received by tradition from our fathers, but with the
precious blood of Christ as a lamb without spot or blemish. The
blood shall never lose its power, but without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission, no forgiveness. I beg your pardon. You can say,
God have mercy, but he won't. You can say, Lord, forgive, but
He won't. You can confess your sins till every one of them have
been rehearsed four or five times, and God will show no mercy except
in Christ. That's so. You say, what if a
man's sincere? He better be sincerely interested
in Christ. You say, what if a man gives
all he has? He can give all he has without
Christ. It'll profit him nothing. What
if a man is very moral and religious? It'll do him no good. Mercy's
in Christ, pardon's in Christ, sanctification's in Christ, everything's
in Christ. That's where it is. That's where
God meets the sinner, and that's where the sinner meets God, and
that's where the cleansing takes place. He is not only the one
to whom the sacrifice is offered, but he's the one who offers it,
and he's the sacrifice himself. Thirdly, any man who seeks holiness,
and I want you to listen to this carefully. The Bible says without
holiness no man will see the Lord. Now there are several kinds
of holiness, if you want to talk about holiness. Number one, there's
the essential holiness of God Almighty. The holiness of God. He said God is holy, holy, holy. Infinitely, unchangeably, immaculately,
perfectly holy. A holiness that no creature can
approach thereunto. Even the cherubims and seraphims
cover their faces and their eyes and their ears in his presence.
A holiness that no man can look upon and live. God is holy, perfectly
holy, perfect love, perfect joy, perfect everything, perfect truth.
God cannot lie. And then there is a holiness
or righteousness of the creature. That's exactly right. The Lord
God said to Moses, He said, tell the people to sanctify themselves,
to clean up their bodies and clean up their clothes and clean
up their camp. I'm coming down among them. There
is an imparted righteousness. There's a growth in grace. There's
a growth in love and a growth in faith. If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. It doesn't say ought to be, should
be, could be. He is a new creature. There is
a change when a man comes to Christ. There's a change in attitude,
there's a change in motive, there's a change in his talk, there's
a change in his walk. If that change is not there,
he hasn't come to Christ. And that change will develop
and it will grow stronger. He will fail, he will fall, he
will stumble, but he grows stronger in Christ. The bent of the will,
the tenor of the life is love and holiness to the Lord. But
the holiness we're talking about, the scripture says without holiness,
no man will see the Lord. Well, we're certainly not talking
about God's essential holiness, and we're certainly not talking
about our righteousness, for our righteousness is a filthy
rag, in God's sight. There's nothing to them, even
the best righteousness we have in God's sight, a filthy rag,
measured by His holiness, are black with sin. He knoweth our
frame, he remembereth that we're dust. Man at his best state is
altogether vanity. Everything we do is tainted with
sin. But the holiness we're talking
about here is imputed holiness. It's imputed holiness. It's that
holiness of Christ. Turn to Colossians, if you will,
chapter 2. This is what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about that holiness in Christ that we have. You remember
he said in, probably you'll turn to Colossians, he said in 2 Corinthians
5.21, he was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. And then over here in Romans
10, 1, Paul said, I know about Israel, they have a zeal for
God, an enthusiasm for God. But it's not according to knowledge,
for they're going about to establish their own righteousness and have
not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. The righteousness
of God. For Christ is the righteousness
of God to everyone that believes. What are we talking about? Here's
what we're talking about in Colossians chapter 2, verse 9. For in Christ
dwelleth all the fullness, the richness, the glory, the holiness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him." You are
complete. That's the holiness I'm talking
about. Complete. Look over here at chapter 1.
He talked about verse 21. that were one time alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked work, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, to
present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable, that's right, in
his sight. Holy, un... Who does it? Christ
does it. That's the holiness I'm talking
about. Well, I'm telling you, and it's the only one God can
be satisfied with, only one God can accept. God can demand no
more than perfection or He can accept no less. We're going to
be holy or God's not going to have us. And that holiness is
in Christ. In Him we're perfect. I know
that. I have no doubt about that. And then fourthly, any man who
seeks eternal life, now I long to live eternally. I can't help
but every time someone leaves here, leaves this earth, my thoughts
are, my dear friend, where are you? Where are you? You ever think that way? Where
are you? You're somewhere. Where are you? Well, I desire eternal life,
and I mean eternal life is not how long it's going to last.
everlasting existence. I'm talking about life. The life
of God in the presence of God. I'm talking about the nature
of God. Life, not religion. God deliver us from it. We've
got enough of it. I'm sick of it. I want life. The life of God, the nature of
God, the divine image of God stamped on my soul, growing from
faith to faith, revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. I could
conduct a religious service, not even know God. Wouldn't be
in trouble at all. And have people shouting all
over the place. That's right. Have them crying, laughing, doing
everything else. That's no trouble. No problem
at all. Men are doing it every day. I
don't want that. I want life. The life of God. The very presence of God in my
soul. I'll tell you this, we'll make
no progress in that direction. until we realize that Christ
is our life. That's so. He's the life. During
1 John 5, this is a common, well-known, memorized, I hardly preach a
sermon without quoting it, but it's one of my favorites. I hardly
write a letter without making reference to it at the foot of
the letter. Chapter 5, 1 John, verse 11,
this is the record. This is it. that God hath given
to us life, life, life, life now and life forever. He that
believeth on me shall never die. Though he were dead, yet shall
he live. I am the resurrection and the life, life. This life
is in His Son. Don't look for it in the Bible.
It's not there. Don't look for it at the altar. It's not there.
Don't look for it in the water. Don't look for it in the wafer.
Don't look for it in the wine. Don't look for it in your law.
Don't look for it anywhere but in His Son. That's where it is.
And he that hath the Son of God hath life, and he that hath not
the Son of God. He might be the best preacher
in town, but he doesn't have life. He may be the most moral
religious man in town, but he doesn't have life. He may be
the greatest humanitarian of our city, but he does not have
life if he does not have the Son. This is what it's all about. This is what this parable over
here in Matthew 13-44 is all about. It's about that treasure,
Christ. Now here's what he's saying.
He said in Matthew 13-44, and this, if you ever discover this,
I believe, Charlie, I've discovered this. I believe, I really have
good reason to believe. I have evidence to believe. I have the authority of his word
to believe that God has taught me the mystery of the gospel.
Contained, yes, in an earthen vessel, in a foolish vessel,
but nevertheless, it's not the vessel that's important, it's
the treasure. You might find it in a field or in a fool, but
it's the treasure. It's the treasure. Wherever it's
found, it's the treasure. He says in verse 44, the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field. The witch, when
a man hath found it, he hideth it, and with joy, with joy, now
watch out, with joy thereof, goeth and sells everything he
has, and buys that field. Now I've heard a half a dozen
different versions of this, or two or three anyway. But this
is what I see, and I believe God's taught me this. Here was
a man digging in a field, common, ordinary laborer, or whoever. And he was digging in a field.
He wasn't looking for treasures. What he was looking for, I don't
know, but he was digging in a field. He might have been digging for
stones. Maybe his wife was going to build a rock garden. Maybe
he was going to build a wall. Maybe he was going to build a
dam. He was digging for stones or something. He was out digging
in the field. And he dug into a treasure. Maybe it was a treasure
chest. that somebody had buried there
years before containing gold and diamonds and precious stone.
But he hit that chest or whatever it was, and he opened it up and
he looked, and there were riches untold, riches he'd never dreamed
of or even imagined or thought of. Well, he quickly closed it
and he looked around to see if anyone had seen him, and they
had. So he covered, he took the ground,
he covered it up, and he got something and raked it across,
and he put leaves over it, had to put the grass back, and then
he went over here like he was digging again. But his mind was
over on that trash. He made out like he was digging.
He didn't want to attract any attention. He kind of kicked
the ground over a little more, you know, and he dug. Finally,
when he got his composure, he got settled in. He didn't run
to tell anybody about it. He didn't run to tell his wife
about it. He went out to the courthouse, found out who owned
that land. And he found out who owned that land. And he went
and sold everything he had. He got his wedding ring, his
wife's wedding ring. He got his extra pair of shoes.
He got the silver. He got the clock. He got his
watch he left. He got everything. And he didn't
do it reluctantly. He didn't say, boy, I hate to
give this up. Give me that. Give me every bit of it. Come
on. Break it out of the drawer. Get everything. Give me everything
you got. And he got in a sack, and he went down and pawned it,
got his money. And he went to the man. And he
said, what do you take for that old field out there? Well, the
fellow said, I don't know what field you're talking about. That
one out there, I'm thinking about building me a house. And I'd
love to have that field. He probably lied about it, you
know. He said, I want to build me a house or something. And
that field, I'd like to have it. What do you take for it?
The fellow said, well, I'll take so much. He didn't want to appear
too anxious. He played it cool. He said, how much? So much. Wouldn't
take any less? No, I wouldn't take any less.
Well, he poked the floor a little bit, you know, throw off, throw
the fellow off. He said, OK, I'll take it. His heart just
beating like that, you know, racing 40 miles an hour. And
he got the deed, and they all signed it and fixed it. He's
afraid the pencil was going to break, you know, something's
going to happen. He's so excited. He's trying to keep it down,
keep it down. And he signed the paper, and he paid the man the
money, and he grabbed the deed, and he headed for the field,
and he got his treasure. Say, what do you see in that?
That's what our Lord says here. That's exactly the story he's
telling. It's an earthly story, common, ordinary, everyday story.
All right, what do you see? I see, number one, that treasure's
Christ. That treasure's Christ. It has
to be Christ. There's no question in my mind
the treasure's Christ. It may go by other names. We
may be talking about the discovery of spiritual wisdom. or the mystery
of the gospel, but that treasures Christ, because the discovery
of the mystery of the gospel is the discovery of Christ. The
discovery of Christ. It may be justification. You
know, Job sat around asking this question, so did Bildad and some
of the others. How can man be just with God?
How can he that's born of woman be clean? How can, while the
sun, the moon, the stars are not pure in God's sight, how
much more abominable and filthy are they that drink iniquity
like the water? How can man be just with God?
Maybe that's what a man discovers. Or maybe he discovers redemption.
We lost our inheritance in Adam. We lost everything in Adam. We're
bankrupt, broke, poverty stricken. but it's been restored in Christ.
He discovers that. Or perhaps he discovers that
righteousness I was talking about a while ago. He's so fed up with
his own filth and guilt and nature, and he discovers that cleansing,
pure blood of Christ, and that glorious robe of righteousness
that covers us in it. He discovers that treasure. Here,
or in the preaching of the Word, the field can be the preaching,
can be the Word, it can be most wherever you discover Christ.
Most of the time it's the Word. Because they are they which testify
of me. But this man discovered that treasure. Now watch this.
Secondly, it says the treasure was hid. Now the treasure is
Christ. It's what I was talking about,
knowledge of the living God. It is the pardon of sin, free
pardon. It is sanctification before the
law. It is divine life. That treasure is Christ. And
here a man has discovered that treasure. But it says it was
hid. What does it mean, Christ is
here? Well, let's turn to 2 Corinthians. That is a term that's frequently
used in the Word. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 tells
us that the gospel's here. The gospel's here. I'll try to
show you how, but I want to show you that it is first. A lady
wrote me this week. She said, one thing I like about
your preaching is when you make a statement, you back it up with
the scripture. Well, that's the only thing we can do. Our gospel,
verse 3, 2 Corinthians 4, if our gospel be hid. What is our
gospel, Christ? Christ is our gospel. Our gospel
is justification by faith. Our gospel is sanctification
by faith, by grace. Our gospel is mercy. And it's
hid. To whom is it hid? To them that
are lost. Well, now how is the gospel here?
One of the scriptures, Colossians 1. Let me show you this one.
Colossians chapter 1, and I believe it's verse 25 and 26. I think
this is another verse having to do with the gospel being hid.
Yeah, it says here in Colossians 1, 25, Paul said, I'm a minister.
According to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints. The gospel, the mystery hid.
Now watch this. How, where, in what way, in what
manner is gospel, Christ, this mystery, justification, how men
can be saved, how God can be just and justified, how has that
been hid? Well, from the Garden of Eden
to the Cross of Calvary. It was hid, Jay, in pictures,
promises, and titles. It was there. It was in Abel's
offering. Cain didn't see it. Cain didn't
see it. Abel did. It was in the tabernacle. Moses saw it. Israel didn't.
Our Lord said, Moses wrote of me. Moses saw it. He saw the treasure. He saw in
the tabernacle. He saw in the showbread. In the lampstand, in the incense,
in the priesthood, in the mercy seat, in the slaying of the...
He saw Christ because he wrote of Christ. Abraham saw it. Abraham
saw it. Ishmael didn't. Jacob saw it. Esau didn't. Jacob
said... When Jacob was blessing his sons,
listen to old blind Jacob. He was blessing his son, Dan
and What were their names? Dan, and Reuben, and Judah, and
Benjamin, and all the rest of them. Whatever their names were.
Simeon, and Beersheba, and whatever their names were, you know. A
man was teaching a Sunday school. Little we know about these things.
A man was teaching a Sunday school class one time, and Brother Muse
said, people won't laugh with you, won't cry with you. But
he was teaching a Sunday school class, and he said, by the way,
how far is it from Dan to Beersheba? And one of the men said, how
far? He said, I thought this husband wife like Solomon Gamara. Whatever the names were, he was
blessing them, Jacob was. And he came to Judah. He saw
it. He said, the scepter, didn't
he say so, will not depart from Judah till Christ comes. That's
way over here, way over here. Back 2,000 years ago, old Jacob
said the scepter will not depart, the ruling authority, the symbol
of power will not depart from Judah, the tribe of Judah, till
he comes for whom it's intended, Shallow Prince of Peace. He saw
it. Abraham saw my day. Christ said
he saw my day. He rejoiced when he saw my day. Lot didn't see it probably, some
of the rest of them, but Abraham did. David saw it. Old Job saw it. Job's three friends
didn't see it, but Job did. He said, I know my Redeemer living.
I know my Redeemer living. Could I speak of Isaiah? He was
wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. I
tell you this, the light of God's revelation of mercy in Christ
has always been on this earth. But blind men don't see light,
even when it's right in front of them. Even when Christ came,
it says he was despised, rejected. There's no beauty about him that
we should desire him. Here, under the poverty and plainness
of the Nazarene, lies the glory of God. And very few saw it. Simeon saw it. Oh, he said, I'll
die now. I'll die now. I've seen the salvation
of the Lord. Peter saw it. We know who you
are. You're the Christ, the Son of
the living God. Peter saw it. Judas didn't. Paul
saw it. Simon Magnus didn't. And Saul
of Tarsus, for 40 years of his life, sat at the feet of the
greatest teachers of his day, studying these types and ceremonies
and rituals and pictures, and was blind as a bat until he got
on the road to Damascus and said, here he is, here he is. I wonder how close you are to
that treasure. I wonder how close. Men today,
preachers, students of The scripture. Christ said, you search the scriptures.
You're busy searching the scriptures. I don't know what you're looking
for, but you're searching them, but I'll tell you what the scriptures
contain, the treasure. The treasure. The treasure. We're digging for stones. Digging,
digging, digging. But there's a treasure there
that very few have found. Well, let's look at our text
again. He found it. It says, when a man hath found
it, there's the treasures there. It's in the gospel, in the word,
in the types, in the pictures, in the art, in the brazen serpent,
in all these things. And when a man finds it, when
a man finds it. Let me show you something here.
There's some who are looking for it and they find it, and
some who are not looking for it and find it. The kingdom of heaven, Matthew
13, verse 45, is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. He
was, Charlie, looking for something. He knew what he was looking for,
and he found it. But now, this man in verse 44
wasn't looking for any pearls. He wasn't looking for a treasure.
He wasn't looking for a priceless, valuable discovery. And I'll
say this. Some people are looking for Christ,
for the way of life. I believe I'm one of them. Some
of you are one of them, like the woman with the issue, like
Lydia by the riverside, like the Ethiopian Union. But thank
God our Lord sometimes is found of them that seek him not. That's
right. He said, I'll be found of those
who sought me not. But whether seeking or whether
not seeking, he has to open the blind eyes. He has to. He must do it. As Hagar lies
there, she's got taken that boy Ishmael, they've wandered thirsty
and weary and dirty and tired and no water, and finally they've
fallen on the ground and dying, she thought, and she pushed her
son over there in the shade, she didn't want to see him die.
She didn't know there was any water anywhere around, but there
was a fountain of water right beside of her. She didn't see
it. And God said, Hagar, she said,
now God seest me. He said, there's water, why don't
you drink? And she turned and there was
a fountain of water right beside her, and she drank and lived.
You and I, some of us have gone through life, some of us are
up in years, some of you out there up in years, have you found
the treasure? Have you found Him? Have you
found Christ? Have you found Him who is precious
to the soul? Have you found Him who is a ransom? Have you found Him who is redemption?
Have you found Him who is God's peace? Have you found Him who
is God's rest? Have you found Him? Well, let
me show you something. When he found Him, Matthew 13,
he found the treasure, the pearl. It says he hid it. A little dishonesty here, but
this is a human story, I'm still telling you. Don't forget, these
parables are not heavenly stories, they're not doctrines, they're
pictures. And this fellow, I tell you,
him hiding that thing and covering it up tells us one thing. He
knew the value of it. He knew what he had on his hands.
And I'll tell you this, if you ever discover the gospel of God's
grace, you'll know what you've got on your hands. Brother, I
tell you this, you can play church all you want to and argue about
this, that, but once you discover how God in Christ can manifest
and be true to every attribute, bar none, how that God in wisdom
and justice and righteousness and holiness can deal with a
sinner by substitute. and how that Christ can impute
to us a perfect righteousness and how every part of this book
can be fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ. When you find that,
when you find that, you'll realize you've got on your hands a treasure
that's worth everything you ever had, you have now, or ever will
have. That's what he said. He says,
I've got something here that's worth all I have. It's worth
the friendship of every human being. That's right. It's worth
the possessions, 10 million worlds. What shall it profit a man if
he gained 10 million worlds? It's worth his fame and fortune.
It's worth everything. That's what he discovered. He
discovered a treasure that was worth everything he'd ever had,
what he had now or ever would have. And he was willing to sell
out, totally sell out. And what's this word? For joy.
I hear people talk about What's it going to cost me to be a Christian?
You haven't found that yet. No, I beg your pardon. Will I
have to do this? No, you haven't found it yet. It doesn't say he found a treasure
and with reluctance he went and raised the money with joy. With
joy. He'd shovel it up and throw it
out to get that treasure. He'd give it away to get that
treasure. He'd part with it in any shape, form, or fashion for
that treasure. That's what it said. With joy
thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath. With joy. That's what Christ said. You
take my burden on you, it's light. Take my yoke on you, it's easy. This man found all that he wanted. all that he needed, and he was
willing with joy to part with everything to possess it. That's
what Christ is. Christ is that treasure, that
indescribable, indescribable, everlasting, beyond estimation,
treasure of heaven itself. It's the very essence of God
in a person, bodily in Christ Jesus. The life of God, the truth
of God, the love of God, the hope of God, the mercy of God,
all in one person. Now, that's the discovery. It's
in this book. It's in this Word. When we discover
Him, I know today that we've got a religion that is mechanical. I heard a fellow just a while
ago on television before I came to church, and he said, and I
say this prayer after me, Jesus, come into my heart. Put away
my sins. Jesus, I accept you. Now, Jesus,
I'm saved. I'm saved. Tell yourself that
now. I'm saved. I'm saved. Oh, brother. Oh, that's something
missing there. But when our Lord gives these
parables, this man, whether he was searching or wasn't searching,
whatever he was searching for, but he discovered, he discovered
the answer. He discovered the ultimate, the
ultimate. He discovered the magnificent.
He discovered the treasure. And brother, he turned with joy. I want nothing else. I've got
to have him. I've got to have him. Our Father in heaven, anoint
the word with the power of the Spirit, for these are only words
apart from his power. We must hear thy gospel, not
in word only. but in the power of the Holy
Spirit in much assurance. This precious treasure, the Lord
Jesus Christ, can only be revealed by thy Spirit. But, oh, to behold
him, to behold his glory, when Isaiah saw his glory, he spake
of him, he thought of him, he loved him, he desired him, he
possessed him. When Paul, when Saul of Tarsus,
saw your glory on the road to Damascus. He cried, Lord, what
wilt thou have me do? Here is the broken, proud, ambitious
Pharisee, broken at the feet of Christ, the treasure. Do for
us, Lord, in a saving, personal, and powerful way what you did
for these men of old. If we ever have our eyes opened
by thy power to behold his glory and his beauty, then all the
earthly things will fade away into nothingness and Christ will
be all, all and in all. Make it real and precious to
us, to those that believe he is precious. For Christ's sake
I pray, amen.