that God would extend his grace
to you and I. We don't deserve it. We're unworthy
of it. But if we were worthy, it wouldn't
be grace. Remember that. Also, before I
turn to the scripture tonight, I wanted to mention I spoke with
The lady we took the offering up for a few weeks ago, and she
was so appreciative, so thankful, and that is going to help a great
deal to take care of those expenses. And I'm so thankful for this
church, for your liberality, your generosity, your willingness
always to share with others who have a need. And it just speaks
well for the grace of God that God's people here are liberal
in giving and sharing. And I appreciate it. I know that she does as well.
Now, if you will, let's turn to Matthew chapter 13. I want to read one of the parables
of the Lord here in two verses, verses 45 and 46. Matthew 13. 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. The Lord Jesus in this parable
presents the gospel He presents himself, the Lord Jesus Christ,
as of more value than everything else in this world. The pearl
of great price. The man found this pearl and
he sold everything that he had to obtain it. The Lord Jesus said, except you
deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me. You cannot be my disciples. Pearls are valuable, and they're
valuable because of their beauty. They're valuable because of their
rarity, and especially in that day. And they're valuable because
of their size. The rarity of Christ is declared
by the Apostle Peter when he said that there's none other
name among men, none other name under heaven among men, whereby,
given among men, whereby we must be saved. The rarity of this
pearl of great price. Can you imagine how many different
names, how many different people have lived on God's earth over
the years? Billions of names, I assume,
billions of people and so many names, and yet there's only one
name. Only one name, only one person between God and man, the
man Christ Jesus. And then also the bride in the
Song of Solomon, she declared and described the beauty of her
lover of Christ who's pictured there. He is the chief among
10,000. He's the lily of the valley,
the rose of Sharon. And then I thought about the
size, you know, the value of a pearl is dependent upon its
size. And I thought about Christ as
he declared himself as the one who could take everyone, come
unto me all ye who labor. There's no limit to that, is
there? All ye that labor. Who could say that? Who could
ever say that? Men with their billions of dollars
could not say that to just a general invitation. Come unto me, whatever
your need is, come unto me. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Come unto me, ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and you shall find rest unto your soul. The
Lord Jesus Christ, he is the pearl. of great price to every
child of God. To you who believe, the Apostle
Peter said, he is precious. The Lord Jesus Christ is everything,
is everything to a true child of God. He is above everything
and he is more precious than anything else in this world.
More precious, we love him more than father or mother. sons or
daughters. We love Christ more. But tonight,
for just a little while, I want to remind us of three relationships
that every believer has with the Savior, or three relationships
that the Savior has with every child of God. He is our brother. He's our brother. He's our husband. He's our friend. Let's look at
these three things. First of all, he is our brother. In Proverbs 17, in verse 17,
we read, a brother is born for adversity. A brother is born
for adversity. Considering the word born in
that passage, That helps us to understand how it is that Jesus
Christ is our brother. A brother is born for adversity. There are two ways that he becomes
our brother, and both of them are by birth. Both by birth. First of all, his birth, his
incarnation, the word being made flesh. He was born into this
world. In Hebrews 2 and verse 14, we
read, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, he also himself took part of the same. The body that
God the Holy Spirit prepared him from the Virgin Mary. And so he became flesh of our
flesh, bone of our bones. The same nature, God required,
or God allowed, I should say, that in the same nature that
had offended him, we might be reconciled. He had to be a man
as he came to reconcile men. He's our brother. He was born
into this world as a man. And then secondly, by our birth,
How did he become our brother? First, by his birth. He was born
into this world as a man. And secondly, he becomes our
brother by our birth. We must be born again. We must
be born from above, as our Lord told Nicodemus. To be our Redeemer,
we must be born into the family of God so that we have the same
Father. Who is his father? God. Who is your father? God. We have the same father. We're
members of the same family, the household of God. And we all
are going to live in the same home, the same house, the same
place. He said, I go to prepare a place
for thee. And that place we refer to as
heaven. We must be born again, born from
above, and then we're in the family of God and He is our brother. He's our elder brother. Now that text that I quoted from
Proverbs 17 and 17 says a brother is born for adversity. For adversity. And this could
never be truer of anyone else. A brother is born for adversity. I had two older brothers and
I know many times I had problems and they could help me. I could
always go to one of them and they would help me if they could.
But a brother, the brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is born
for adversity. Now, I looked up that word adversity
in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, and it gave this definition.
Adversity, a state of serious or continued difficulty. Boy, doesn't that describe us
as we come into this world, into a state of serious and continued
difficulty. Because, you see, we all come
into this world with the same problem. Sin. The sin problem. And it is a
problem that we cannot solve. And it is a problem that no other
man can solve. All the church, the hierarchy
and the churches and, you know, all of the councils and all of
the Many times that the church meets together, I'm talking about
the so-called visible church in this world. And I heard this
the other day and it grieved my heart. But the Episcopal Church
of the United States, it comes from the Church of England. And
if you've ever read the Reformation of England, you know what a blessing
it is to read about many of those men. Kramer, Thomas Kramer, and
Bilney, and I remember one of them, the Lord saved him, I believe
it was Bilney, and he wanted to witness to this other, and
they called him priest, of course, they were in the Roman Catholic
Church, he wanted to witness to this man, but this man despised
all uh, so-called reform doctrine. He wouldn't listen to anyone.
But this priest, Bilney, he knew that another priest cannot refuse
to hear confession. So he caught him one day in a
garden and said, Father, I must make confession. And the man
had to listen. And of course he listened to
the gospel. He shared the gospel with that man. And the Lord opened
his heart eventually, and he was saved. But there were several
of those men. They were burned at the stake.
They were burned at the stake because they would not accept
that lie of transubstantiation, that somehow the priest has the
power to turn the bread and the wine into the actual body and
blood of Jesus Christ, which we know is a lie. And they knew
it was a lie. And many of them suffered martyrdom. But the Episcopal Church was
meeting sometime recently here in the United States, and there's
a big body of the church. I mean, there's lots of them,
you know. They send their delegates and their And do you know what
was on the schedule for discussion? The burial rights for animals
was one of the things they were going to discuss. The burial
rights for animals. Is it right for this genetically
Altered food, eat this genetically altered food, vegetables. Is that okay? And then another
one was, I think, the priest being, what do they call it,
when a man dresses like a woman, a woman dresses like a man, you
know, if that would be accepted. That was so grievous. The pastor
who was telling it was grievous to him too, because he was very
well informed on the history of the Church of England. Isn't
it sad? Isn't it sad tonight to think
that the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ has degenerated to such
a place in our day that people despise the word of God. And
that's where it usually begins, too. As I look back and as I
think about it, this is where it usually has always begun. Men and women in these so-called
liberal congregations and churches, they begin to say, well, the
word of God is not all inspired. Let's just take out those first
few chapters of Genesis. That's just all a myth. That's
all fable. That's where it usually begins,
isn't it? And then one thing follows another until you don't
even recognize it as being a Christian organization. It's sad. A brother is born for adversity.
And that's the state we come into this world in, in adversity,
continued Difficulty, serious difficulty. How are we going
to face God? That's serious difficulty that
we have, knowing that we have offended God Almighty and such
a God as He is. You know, there's a verse in
Isaiah 28 that's always interested me that describes this problem. It says the bed, the bed, is
shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering
narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. And the thought
is no matter what method we may try to solve our problem, to
meet our difficulty, to shield us from the justice of God, it's
like a bed trying to sleep on a bed that's too sharp. and trying
to cover yourself when it's cold with a cover that doesn't fit
all around you. All of these remedies that man
have concocted to deal with this sin problem, they're like a bed,
like trying to sleep on a bed that's too short and cover yourself
with a covering that's too narrow. Just won't work. just will not
work. Christ is the brother born for
adversity. And he, and he alone is the answer
to our state of serious difficulty. And we know that he shed his
blood to cleanse us, to cleanse his people from every sin. The blood of Jesus Christ, his
son, cleanseth us from all, A-L-L, all sin, all. Come now, though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you could see
yourself tonight, if I could see myself as a child of God,
as God sees us, wouldn't that be wonderful? But he doesn't
let us see ourselves like that. And he doesn't for a reason.
We'd be so full of pride. We would. We'd be so full of
pride. No, he keeps us empty, doesn't
he? As a preacher, I know this is so. He keeps us empty. We'd
like to have a storehouse. I'd like to have a storehouse
of messages and sermons and thoughts for sermons and just have a storehouse
full of them. But God has never let me do that. No, it's every time coming to
Him once again as a poor beggar asking for help, asking for help. I've got a set of books back
there. I don't know how many books are
in it. I very seldom ever look at it, but it's just full of
sermons, full of sermon outlines and full of sermons. But I tell
you, they don't work. They worked at the time for that
man who preached them, but they just don't work. Someone said
it's like soap, it will not lather. Trying to preach somebody else's
sermon. He shed his blood to cleanse
us from all our sin. And He, by His perfect, absolute
obedience in thought and word and in deed, that righteousness
that He earned by His obedience, that is imputed unto you, to
me, to every child of God. So that in reality, in truth,
before God, you are as holy as His dear Son is holy. You're
dressed in his righteousness, his righteousness is your righteousness. That ought to make us shout.
Turn with me to Matthew chapter 12. We're back to Matthew chapter
12. This is one relationship that
we have with Christ. He's our brother. Here in Matthew
chapter 12, beginning in verse 46. While he yet talked to the people,
that is the Lord Jesus yet talked to the people, behold, his mother
and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with him. Then
one said unto him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand
without desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said
unto him that told him, who is my mother and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand
toward his disciples and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren,
for whosoever shall do the will of my father, which is in heaven. And what is the will of his father? He tells us in John six, doesn't
he? That you believe on him whom
he hath sent. Whosoever shall do the will of
my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister
and mother. Here's a second relationship.
He's our husband. Look with me, turn with me to
this verse, if you will, in Isaiah chapter 54. In Isaiah chapter 54, in verse
5, we read, For thy maker, who is our creator? Did we just evolve? We don't believe that lie of
evolution, do we? Those people that deny the first
few chapters of Genesis, that's one reason they do, because they
want to believe in evolution. They want to believe that we
just happen to appear. It blows your mind, doesn't it?
But it does so because of the grace of God. It blows your mind
when we know just a little bit about this body, the anatomy
of the body and how everything works. Just take the ears, for
instance, and I know so little about it, but how anyone could
believe that that just came about by chance, by evolution. People are deceived, aren't they? Blinded by Satan, the God of
this world. For thy maker is thine husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One
of Israel, the God of the whole earth. I tell you what, you've
got a big husband. Every child of God, you've got
a big husband. He's the God of the whole earth.
Is anything too hard for Him? Is anything impossible for Him? You know, in Ephesians chapter
5, the Apostle Paul, he exhorts husbands and wives, and then
he makes this statement. He said, this is a great mystery.
It's a great mystery, the relationship between husband and wife. It's
a great mystery, but he said, but I speak concerning Christ
and the church. It is a great mystery, and it
is also a great lesson. A great lesson. Here are some
things to consider about Christ being your husband, being my
husband, being the believer's husband. And I begin with a quote
by John Gill. Every true believer was secretly
betrothed to Christ in eternity when he asked him of his father
and being given to him openly espouses them in conversion. Just as you men asked your wife's
father for your bride's hand, So John Gill says the Lord Jesus
Christ in that everlasting covenant asked his father for you to be
his bride, to be betrothed unto him. Consider these few things about
marriage. Number one, in marriage to become
one, to become one. We are in union with Christ. For by one spirit, the apostle
says, for by one spirit, that is God, the Holy Spirit, are
we all baptized into one body. We all drink of Christ. Number two, in marriage to have
the same name. The wife takes her husband's
name in marriage, and we know that from Jeremiah 23 and Jeremiah
33, and that name is the Lord Our Righteousness. That's his
name. And then in chapter 33, we're
told concerning Jerusalem, concerning the church, that's her name,
the Lord Our Righteousness. And number three, in marriage,
two, husband and wife, two have their separate roles. The husband
doesn't take the role of the wife, and the wife doesn't take
the role of the husband, as the Apostle Paul speaks there in
Ephesians chapter 5. Each has their own role. The husband, his role is to love
his wife, and her role is she is to be subject unto him. When we think about the role
of the husband to love his wife, Even as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it. How does Christ love his church?
He delights in her. So husbands should delight in
their wives. He's pleased with her. He's pleased
with his, he sees of the travail of his soul and he's satisfied.
The joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and he's
pleased with his bride. And so husbands must be and should
be pleased with their wife. He sympathizes with her and all
her burdens. There's a verse in Isaiah, I
believe it is, it says, in all their afflictions, he was afflicted. Husbands, when you see your wife
afflicted, when she's going through some difficult time, it hurts
you, doesn't it? It really does. And vice versa. The two become one. Not only
does Christ delight in his bride, not only is he pleased with her,
not only does he sympathize with her in all her troubles, but
he nourishes and cherishes her as his own body, Paul said. How is the wife to be subject
to her husband? She is to honor him. She is to
respect him for the truth's sake, for Christ's sake. Now here's
the last relationship. He's our friend. He's our friend. You know that same verse there
in Proverbs 17, 17. that tells us a brother is born for adversity,
the first part of that verse says, a friend loveth at all
times. He's our friend. He loveth at
all times. Look in John 15. In John chapter 15, And verses 13 through 17 we read, greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do
whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. but I have called
you friends for all things that I have heard of my father I have
made known unto you. You have not chosen me but I
have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit and your fruit should remain that whatsoever you shall
ask of the father in my name he may give it you. These things
I command you that you love one another. Now these verses were
no doubt spoken especially to the disciples, but not exclusively. They are spoken to all of us. He calls us his friends. To give
one's life for another is the greatest expression of love.
That's what he tells us, isn't it? Greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life. for his friend. There's no way you could ever
show your love more for someone else than to give your life for
that person. The Lord Jesus gave his life
for those that he calls his friends, his disciples, those that he
chose, as he tells us here. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you. As I said in a message recently,
the believer does choose Christ, but he does so because Christ
chose him first. We love him because he first
loved us. He chose them in eternity. And
his eye, think about this, his eye of love has is and shall
forever be upon his friends. He is the friend that loves his
own at all times. A friend loveth at all times. Let me close with these few comments
by Matthew Henry on these verses that I just read. He gave the
proofs and products of his love, that is, the Lord Jesus in these
verses gave the proofs and products of his love. Number one, Christ
loved his disciples for he laid down his life for them. Number
two, Christ loved his disciples for he took them into a covenant
of friendship with himself. Number three, Christ loved his
disciples for he was free in the communication of his mind
to them. He told them, kept back nothing that was profitable
for them. And we have that in the word
of God. That's the reason God's people, we're not looking for
new revelations, are we? I'm not. We've got all the revelation
we need right here. The word of God. And number four,
Christ loved his disciples, for he chose and ordained them to
be the prime instruments of his glory and honor in this world. That is, that you and I, by our
obedience to him, and our obedience to him is manifested especially
that we have love one for another. God's people love each other,
don't they? They do. I read this, you know, John,
the one who wrote this gospel, he lived, as far as we know,
he lived longer than all of the other 12 apostles. And he lived
to be a very old man. We know he was over 100 years
old, I believe. And tradition tells us that as
an old man, When he stood up in a church, that's what he said.
Love one another. That was his message. Love one
another. That's a good message, isn't
it? Love ye one another. By this shall all men know that
you are my disciples, that you have loved one for another. I
pray the Lord would bless this message to each one of us tonight. It's all standing