Parables of Hidden Treasure/Pearl of Great Price

In this part of the sermon: Martin expresses deep gratitude to the conference organizers and attendees, particularly for their attentiveness during preaching and sensitivity regarding children. He describes…

Martin praises parents for taking out crying children, explaining that intense disturbances hinder the brain's ability to process preaching, making it counterproductive for all.

I don't plan to sit as I preach, but I think I'm going to shed this coat before long, and I needed a place to put it. Since this is my last opportunity to face you all in one place during this conference, I did want to seize the opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the organizers, their special patience with me when they kept hoping that I would send them titles for the various messages, and they perhaps began to wonder what they were getting into when I begged their forbearance and assured them that I would seek prayerfully to know the mind of God, and then finally just settled on that...

0:00 - 1:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Give your pastors serious, undivided, eager attentiveness when they preach, as it is a great incentive for them to labor in study and delivery.

He describes preaching as a dynamic interaction where the Spirit enlarges the preacher's heart and gives utterance, while also giving hearers delight and hunger, leading to a spiritual 'burp' and mutual encouragement.

It's a three-way communication. The Spirit of God is enlarging the heart of the preacher, giving him utterance with his mouth. He's giving you delight and hunger and thirst, and your spiritual mouth is working and swallowing. And when you have a delightful internal kind of spiritual burp, and the eyes light up, and the preacher sees that, and he says, Lord, you're feeding them, give me some more to feed them.

3:04 - 3:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray for Pastor Martin to run well to the end, to be faithful in secret, carry on ruthless warfare against sin, and be wise in spiritual warfare.

Martin uses the imagery from Psalm 92 of bearing fruit into old age, being 'full of sap and greens,' to express his desire not to 'peter out' but to ripen in faith.

I don't believe we need to peter out. Psalm 92, 12 to 15, Psalm 92, 12 to 15, is my portion of the Word of God, is my portion of the Word of God, that I plead before the Lord again and again that they shall bear fruit unto old age, they shall be full of sap and greens. So if someone says, ah, that guy's full of sap, I say, bless God. That may not be what he means when he says it, but this is what God says, that we don't need to become stiff and brittle and dry and fruitless simply because the years begin to take their toll.

4:49 - 5:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Honestly ask yourself, 'Have I found the hidden treasure (Christ) and acquired it?'

He explains that in ancient times, people buried their wealth in fields as security against theft and fire, making the parable's premise immediately understandable to Jesus's audience.

Well, we are told that the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure, hidden in a field. Now when the Lord said that, people would have immediately known what he was talking about. In a day when there were no safe deposit boxes at a local bank, no heavy metal, iron, or some other fireproof staple in a home safe, people would often place some of their more substantial wealth in a sturdy wooden box, or sometimes something of, earthenware, and they would bury it in an obscure place as a security for this element of their particular wealth. They would bury it as a safeguard against theft and again...

20:56 - 22:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Honestly ask yourself, 'Have I found the hidden treasure (Christ) and acquired it?'

A commentator's quote is used to describe the earth as a 'bank' for unclaimed deposits, akin to childhood stories of pirates and cryptic maps, to illustrate the common practice of burying treasure.

Well, we are told that the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure, hidden in a field. Now when the Lord said that, people would have immediately known what he was talking about. In a day when there were no safe deposit boxes at a local bank, no heavy metal, iron, or some other fireproof staple in a home safe, people would often place some of their more substantial wealth in a sturdy wooden box, or sometimes something of, earthenware, and they would bury it in an obscure place as a security for this element of their particular wealth. They would bury it as a safeguard against theft and again...

20:56 - 22:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Focusing on the hidden treasure parable, Martin explains the historical context of burying wealth. He details the man's discovery of the treasure, his hiding it, and his joyful…

He vividly imagines the man from the parable joyfully selling his cottage, boat, and furniture, whistling and smiling, while others wonder at his happiness, illustrating the joy of discovering the treasure.

And in obtaining that field, he obtains the treasure. And the Scripture tells us that when he has discovered the treasure and hidden it, and is determined to obtain it, if it means, he's got to get rid of everything he owns, he goes to liquidate his assets with joy. Look at the text. And in his joy, and it's a strange construction in the original, and there is a causal dimension to this, for the joy thereof, the joy of discovering the treasure, he goes whistling on his way, getting rid, of his cottage in the woods, his boat down at the lake, and people see this character whistling and happy, a...

24:41 - 26:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The job of an expositor is to draw out what God put in. Not to put your own stuff in, bring it out, and have people sit there and say, oh, how clever.

Martin uses the analogy of an expositor's job being to 'draw out what God put in' the text, rather than putting in one's own clever ideas, so that hearers see the truth clearly.

The job of an expositor is to draw out what God put in. Not to put your own stuff in, bring it out, and have people sit there and say, oh, how clever. I never would have thought of that or seen that in a thousand years. When the expositor's done his job, you sit there and say, hmm, that's so obvious, you dummy.

27:04 - 27:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Paul's testimony in Philippians 3 is presented as a positive illustration. Paul, who had an impeccable religious pedigree, counted all his former 'gains' as 'loss' and 'dung' for…

He describes Paul's former religious achievements as a 'treasure chest' of 'gold coins' and 'diamonds' that Paul once fingered with glee, to emphasize the value Paul once placed on them.

And then he takes us by the treasure chest of all that he had in terms of the stuff of religious lineage, instruction, ceremonies, activities, privileges that would cause you to say if you were judging what was in the box by human standards, that man had an abundant treasure. He's going to describe the various items in it and then he's going to say, but all that became disposable stuff when I found the true treasure. Listen to him. Verse 4 of Philippians 3.

39:14 - 39:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Paul said, My treasure! I now regard it as a pile of cow manure. Why? The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.

Paul's word 'scubala' is vividly translated as 'a pile of cow manure' that a farmer spreads on a field, to powerfully convey how Paul regarded his former 'treasure' after finding Christ.

That's all it is. It's stuff. And furthermore, listen to what he says, verse 8, Yea, verily, I count all things to be lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and I count them but scubala. That's what the farmer takes out and spreads over the field.

44:10 - 44:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Identify and dispense with your 'stuff' (ungodly relationships, worldly ambition, peer acceptance) for the joy of knowing Christ.

He challenges a young person to consider if an ungodly boyfriend, despite being 'nice-looking,' is 'stuff' that must be dispensed with for the joy of knowing Christ, who makes him appear as 'part of the dung pile'.

and where you plow I plow if that's the image of the yoke it's maybe the yoke that someone carried on the shoulders where you had balancing weights on each end take my yoke it's an easy yoke I'll never load you down so that your back is bent my yoke is easy my burden is light but he says if you come you take and if you come and you take you're ready to learn with me when you discover the treasure for joy you get rid of your stuff what's your stuff tonight young person is it some nice-looking guy who's shown an interest in you and your heart's gone out to him your conscience screams that you ha...

56:48 - 58:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Identify and dispense with your 'stuff' (ungodly relationships, worldly ambition, peer acceptance) for the joy of knowing Christ.

He asks young people if ambition for status or acceptance by a 'hip' crowd is their 'stuff,' arguing that a sight of Christ makes all such things appear as 'the stuff the farmer spreads on the field'.

school is it being in with the crowd that is hip and cool and rad and all the other stupid nonsense words that this generation spawns you get a sight of Christ and all that is the stuff the farmer spreads on the field and I know it's real that's what God did when he saved me as a 17 year old the acceptance of my peers the praise of my peers was everything seeing Christ and embracing Christ their smiles and their frowns with the stuff on the farmers field this parable teaches that any notion that you can have the blessings of the salvation of Christ without having Christ on his terms is damning...

58:13 - 59:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Repudiate the devil's lie that coming to Christ on His terms consigns you to perpetual misery; Christ offers abundant life and true happiness.

He compares the instinctive desire for highest happiness to the instinctive reaction of pulling a hand from a hot stove or ducking from a kicked-up stone, to argue that people naturally seek happiness.

carefully especially you do young people God is so made us all young and old that we instinctively want our own highest happiness and we want our own highest happiness and we want our own highest happiness it's only people who are mentally deranged that want to be miserable right a lot of miserable people but they don't want to be miserable they wish they were happy but they're not it's only a deranged person who really says to himself I want to be as miserable as I can make myself no instinctively all seek our highest happiness the same way instinctively we seek our own preservation put your ...

59:32 - 60:15 Read in full sermon