Parables of Hidden Treasure/Pearl of Great Price

Gratitude and the Nature of Preaching

0:00 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 very broad, generic theme of gospel themes. But I trust we have all had a sense that the Spirit of God has been superintending in the passages and themes expounded, and for that I am deeply grateful. I do want to express gratitude. A word of thanks to you parents who have shown what I believe is commendable sensitivity in terms of if the real little ones began to squawk, you've taken them out so that there's been no disturbance.

1:12 I go to many places where people are deeply offended when I make a bended knee, gracious plea that they would recognize God has so made us. If a child is really squeaking and squalling, the ears pick up the sound vibrations, and they're registering on the brain while the brain's trying to absorb and process what the preacher's saying, and it becomes counterproductive. And I assure people, I said, I love kids. I'm second oldest of ten, would have had many more than our three had God been pleased to open my wife's womb sooner.

1:45 We were childless for five years. I have seven grandchildren, and I'm smothered with kids in the church. They crawl over me and on me every Lord's Day and whenever I see them. And so I love them.

1:58 I love children. But God has so made us that intense disturbance of a crying voice does no good to the mother who's embarrassed and distraught or ought to be embarrassed, and the father and others sitting around. And I'm glad I haven't had to make that bent knee approach that you have commended yourself. I appreciate that one plea from Pastor Gantz, and you came and filled in the front seats.

2:25 And then most of all, I'm thankful for the way you've done it. You've given yourself to me in the preaching of the word, and I've been speaking to numbers of little groups saying never underestimate what you give to a man of God who's a preacher, who looks into people's eyes and is seeking through the eye to see into the soul. And when you give serious, undivided, eager attentiveness, you give something to a preacher. And the more you give, the more you get back, and the more you get back, the more you give.

2:57 So when anyone... When someone tells you preaching is passe, people don't want one-way communication, they don't understand what preaching is.

3:04 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.

3:30 And there's this wonderful three-way interaction going on in preaching that is both mysterious and wonderful, and I'm thankful that I've known something of being involved in that in these sessions with you. And I urge you, give your pastors that. Every time they stand to preach, and nothing will be a greater incentive to them to labor in the study, and to labor in the delivery of the word, than to have a people who come, who are prayerfully expectant to be fed well, and fed to the full. And once again, perhaps God will make preaching and listening to preaching glorious in your land, as I pray He will do it in my own.

4:13 So thank you for all of your expressions of assurance of your prayers for me and for my dear wife, and my one basic prayer request. If you were to ask me, Pastor Martin, if there's one thing you'd ask us to pray, If you were to ask me, Pastor Martin, if there's one thing you'd ask us to pray, if there's one thing you'd ask us to pray, if there's one thing you'd ask us to pray for you, what is it? And it is that I may run well to the end. That God will help me to be faithful in the secret place day by day, carry on that ruthless warfare against my own remaining sin, and be increasingly wise in spiritual warfare with the powers of darkness.

4:49 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.

The Purpose of Parables: Revelation and Concealment

5:26 But it's wonderful to see saints ripen and then the Lord says, look, they're so ripe, I'm going to transplant the whole thing to a better place where they'll flourish in my presence. Pray that by God's grace, that will be true. Now tonight, I want us to turn together to the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 13, and I shall read selected portions in your hearing. And I think when we move into opening up the passage that will be the focus of our attention, you will see the wisdom of reading these select portions from the chapter.

6:05 I'll read first of all verses 1 through 3a, and then we'll drop down to verse 10. Matthew 13 at verse 1. On that day went Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside, and there were gathered unto him great multitudes, so that he entered into a boat and sat, and all the multitude stood on the beach. And he spoke to them many things in parables.

6:35 And now down to verse 10. And the disciples came and said unto him, Why do you speak unto them in parables? And he answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall be given.

6:59 And he shall have abundance. But whosoever does not have, from him shall be taken away even that which he has. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, neither do they understand. And unto them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says, By hearing you shall hear and shall in no wise understand, and seeing you shall see and shall in no wise perceive.

7:33 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should turn again, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears for they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and saw them not, and to hear the things which you hear, and heard them not. And now verse 34, the same chapter. All these things Jesus spoke in parables unto the multitudes, and without a parable, he spoke nothing unto them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets, saying, I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world. And he left the multitudes, and went into the house. And now verses 44 and 45.

8:52 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid. And in his joy he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a merchant, seeking goodly pearls. And having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

9:26 We learn from Matthew 13, in verse 3, that at this period in our Lord's public ministry, Jesus was using parables as the main form of his public preaching. In the parallel passage in Mark 4, 34, we are told that without a parable, he did not speak to them. So the Spirit of God is highlighting that at this period in the ministry of Jesus, parabolic teaching and preaching, was central to his ministry. And according to verses 10 through 17, the purpose of this parabolic teaching was twofold.

10:10 First of all, its purpose was to reveal truth in grace to some. Verse 11, Jesus says to his own disciples, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them, it is not given. So one of the purposes of the parables, and the privilege of having the Lord himself interpret them to his own disciples, was to reveal truth in grace to some. Unto you it is given.

10:44 It is the expression of God's givingness, his graciousness, that the parables would be instrumental to reveal truth in grace to some. But the second purpose, was to conceal truth in judgment upon others. The Lord goes on to say in verse 13, I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, and God is judicially blinding them. They've shut their eyes to light, and God says, You like darkness?

11:19 You love darkness? I'll give you darkness. I won't let your eyes be opened. You like being deaf to the voice, of God?

11:27 You put your fingers in your ears, I'll see it too that they're glued in your ears, and you will not hear. That's the God of the Bible, who in grace reveals, and in judgment conceals. And that ought to strike fear in the hearts of you kids, who hear, and hear, and hear, and hear again. And you say, I don't want to hear.

11:54 God may say, You won't hear. You want to stuff your fingers in your ears to God's truth? I'll glue your fingers in your ears, and you'll die in spiritual blindness and deafness. That's a frightening thing.

12:11 The meek, the gracious, gentle Lord Jesus, in answer to their question, Why are you concentrating your teaching in parables? Jesus says, To reveal truth in grace to some, and to conceal truth, in judgment to others. And here in Matthew chapter 13, we have seven parables that are often called the kingdom parables. Because in each of them, Jesus says, The kingdom of heaven is like.

The Kingdom Parables: Character and Growth

12:43 And in these parables, we have the first one, the foundational one, the parable of the sower in the soils, which teaches something concerning how the message of the kingdom is received. And that it is, the state of the soil, the human heart, that determines the fate of the seed. It's the same seed coming from the same hand of the same sower, but four different kinds of soils. And the condition of the soil determines the fate of the seed.

13:19 And wherever God's kingdom is being proclaimed and is operative, it finds those different kinds of soils. And in the parables of the wheat and tares and the dragnet, we are taught something of the mixed character and the future purification of the kingdom. The wheat and the tares grow together to the harvest. The net brings in good and bad fish.

13:45 But at the end, there's a divine sorting out. There is a mixed character in the kingdom now, but in the future, it shall be purified at the coming of the Lord Jesus. And then in the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, we are taught something of the certainty and nature of the growth and the development of the kingdom. The kingdom is like leaven, a little bit of yeast in a great lump of dough, and behold, the whole lump rises.

14:17 The mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, yet it grows into a small tree in which the birds of the heaven may lodge. The kingdom of heaven, we are told something about the certainty and the nature of its growth. And now here in verses 44 and through 46, we have these twin parables of the treasure hidden in the field and the merchant seeking goodly pearls. And in that couplet of parables, we have something set before us concerning the preciousness, and the superior worth of the kingdom.

The Twin Parables: Common Denominators and Key Difference

15:02 A quick cursory look at these two parables immediately strikes us that they are twins, that they are parables that are very, very similar in their emphasis. In both parables, a single object of supreme worth or value is found. Look at verse 44. The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found.

15:28 A man finds something of superior worth, a treasure in the field. Verse 46a, concerning this pearl merchant having found one pearl of great price. The man finds a treasure in the field. The pearl merchant finds this grand pearl of great price.

15:53 Both parables, a single object of supreme worth, a single object of supreme worth is found. And secondly, in both parables, the single object of supreme worth is acquired at the price of the total liquidation of all other assets. In both cases, the object of superior and supreme worth is obtained by the liquidation of all other assets. Look at the text.

16:24 Verse 44b, he sells all that he has and buys the field. And the pearl merchant having found one pearl of great price, verse 46, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. So the common denominators in the two parables are very clear. But the difference lies on the surface of the two parables as well.

16:54 In the first parable, the treasure is discovered unsought and unexpectedly. And we'll go into more of that when we look at the specific facts of the parable. But the text says this man was in some kind of agrarian enterprise. He's out in the field and he finds a treasure.

17:13 He's not looking for a treasure. He's not looking for anything. He's out in the field plowing or cogitating or looking at the clouds or walking his dog or whatever else he's doing. It says he finds a treasure.

17:26 But in the case of the pearl merchant, pearls are his life. He lives for the pearl markets. He lives to pull up on the internet the latest statement of rare pearls and where they are being auctioned and what their starting prices will be. His life is seeking pearls, seeking pearls.

17:46 He's obsessed with pearls. One day he comes upon a pearl of such rare worth and beauty that he liquidates it. It's all of his assets that he might purchase that one pearl. You see, there is a contrast here.

18:04 In the first parable, the treasure is discovered unsought and unexpectedly. But in the second, the pearl of superlative wealth and beauty becomes the possession of one taken up with seeking pearls. And I want us tonight, since we don't have time to expound both parables, I want us to focus our attention upon the first of those two parables, having considered their common denominators, their fundamental difference. Now we're going to park in verse 44 with this man who finds a treasure in a field and having found it, sells all that he has that he might purchase that field. And I want to approach the text under this title. The hidden treasure. What it is and have you found it and acquired it.

The Hidden Treasure: Basic Facts and Personal Application

19:04 The hidden treasure, what it is and have you, not your mother, not your father, not your brother, sister, pastor, friend, uncle, elder. No, no, have you, you, you, you, have you, have you, you, not someone else, but you, have you found it? And having found it, have you acquired it? You see, I'm not interested in having you sit there and say, what is Pastor Martin's view of the parable?

19:33 Oh, that's interesting. Now I'll go hold and read Bishop Ryle and William Hendrickson. Folks, life's too short for me to just give you my slant on the Bible. I'm not here prepared to pour all of my redeemed faculties into a responsible exposition and application of this passage so you can go home with a little better slant on this passage of the Word of God.

19:55 I'm concerned that you and I together be persuaded as to the precise, identity of the treasure, and then with judgment day honesty ask ourselves the question, have I obtained it, the hidden treasure, what it is? And have I found it? And have I acquired it? That's our subject.

20:20 So we come first of all to consider heading number one, the basic facts of the parable established, and then we shall consider, secondly, the central truth, of the parable identified, and thirdly, the heart and soul of the parable applied to our own consciences and lives. First of all then, the basic facts of the parable established. Our Lord takes the stuff of an incident that could well have been an actual story there in first century Palestine. What are the facts?

20:56 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 against fire. And one commentator has said, in many cases the earth had become a bank in which was accumulated during the course of ages a vast amount of unclaimed deposits. Some of us can remember as kids, stories about pirates and hidden treasures and cryptic maps, and we played board games that were built on that motif of pirates' hidden treasure.

22:14 Well, in the day in which our Lord lived, this is how people would often seek to secure their wealth. They would place it in some secure object and bury it in a field. Now, the facts of this parable are, that a certain man, and we don't know who he was, what he was doing in that field, whether he was a hired laborer, walking behind an ox and a plow, plowing the field for his master. We don't know if he was some kind of a sharecropper who leased the land.

22:48 One thing we know from the text is this. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found. We don't know who the man was, how he found it. We know he found a hidden treasure in the field, and that he didn't own the field.

23:04 That's the one thing that's clear. He did not have title to the field, whether it was a strange field, a familiar field. We don't know. All we know from the words of our Lord is, that having discovered this treasure, and having come to the persuasion that this was a real, true treasure, this was not fool's gold, this, this was not, not monopoly money.

23:30 I mean, this was the real stuff. Genuine diamonds and gold and whatever else was in it. This man discovers a real treasure in a real field, and he does not have any title to the field. Therefore, he has no right, unless he's going to be a thief, to take that treasure that he's found and go off with it.

23:53 So what does he do? Jesus says he finds the treasure, and now he hides it. Does he put it back in the same hole where he found it, and smooth over the dirt? Or does he say, hmm, the dirt will look disturbed.

24:09 Someone might wonder why it's disturbed, go rooting around and find it. Maybe he finds some other obscure place. The Bible doesn't tell us. All it tells us is, he comes upon this treasure, he hides it, and then he goes off, and sells everything, everything that he has, comes with a bag of money, and sits down with the owner, and establishes what he feels is a fair market value for the field.

24:41 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, and a smile on his face, banging a for sale sign on his cottage in the woods, hanging a for sale sign on his boat, going down to the local supermarket, and finding the billboard, and saying, living room furniture cheap, liquidates everything, and he's smiling and happy as a lark. And people say, John, what's gotten into you? You used to think your cabin in the woods was everything. Ah, yes it was, but I've got a secret.

26:05 I'm not telling you now, but you'll know soon enough. Just trust me. I'm not happy for nothing. And John, I thought your weekend out on the lake was everything to you.

26:17 He says it was, but now, in the light of a secret I'll tell you about later, the boat's nothing, just stuff. And for joy, the text is clear to say, that in his joy, for the joy thereof, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. Now those are the simple facts of the parable. Now we come, secondly, to the central truth of the parable identified.

Identifying the Central Truth of the Parable

26:46 And when you read parables, remember they are not allegories. In an allegory, all of the particular incidents have symbolic significance. And when I hear men expound parables like they're allegories, I get irritated. Because they're putting something into the word that God never put there.

27:04 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.

27:25 Why didn't you think of that? That's right. That should be our goal, men, when we preach. So to draw out what is in the text, that our people say, oh yes, I see that.

27:37 Thank you for helping me to see it, but I see it and I believe it because I see it in the text. They don't go away oohing and aahing at how clever you are. To bring things out of the Bible that God never put into the Bible. So with a parable, there is one central concern, and usually the circumstances surrounding that parable are the clue, to the central truth that God is giving us in that parable.

28:05 We may look at other incidents in a parable and say they are good illustrations of other truths. That's perfectly legitimate. But to say this is what God meant by the parable, this is the authoritative teaching of the Word of God, is irresponsible. What then is the central truth of this parable, of this man who finds a treasure, and for joy, sells all that he has, and buys the field in which the treasure is found and now hidden again?

28:38 Well, let me state negatively what the central truth is not. Certainly our Lord is not teaching that the message and blessings of the kingdom of grace ought to be hidden from man. When the Lord says the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden, He is not telling us, therefore, if you know the message of the kingdom, and have the blessings of the kingdom, hide them. Make men go after them and dig for them.

29:04 No, the Lord is not teaching that. Right here in this chapter, when He saw a crowd, He got in a boat, He was enterprising, pushed out away from the shore, sat down in the boat, and He taught and preached to the multitudes. And He told His disciples as we saw this morning in Luke 24, You shall be witnesses of these things, the truths of the kingdom of grace, in the person, and work of Christ among all the nations. You shall receive power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you.

29:35 You shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and unto Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. So our Lord is not teaching that the message and blessings of the kingdom of grace are to be hidden from men. And He is certainly not teaching that the blessings of the kingdom can be purchased by the currency in that selling, and buying. There is some reference to the kingdom.

30:02 But it is not in any way teaching that we can with the currency of our own works and performance purchase God's saving mercy. Right in this passage, Jesus says to His own disciples, The reason you see, and the reason I explain the parables to you, is that to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom. It is grace that has given you open ears and open eyes. It is Jesus who said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

30:43 It is not the thought that I can purchase something with my own doings. That's contrary to the whole message of Scripture. Well, if these things are not the central truths of the parable, what is? Well, it is true of this parable, as with all the parables, there is a central, dominant, all-embracing truth illustrated.

31:06 And it's a crucial issue, Jesus said, with respect to the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is like. Well, what is this kingdom of heaven? We've got to pause for a few minutes and make sure that we have a biblical concept of what the kingdom of heaven is.

31:23 If we're skewed in our understanding of the kingdom of heaven, we are then going to try to compare an indefinite or an erroneous thing to something else that is illustrated by a parable. Simply stated, the kingdom of heaven is synonymous with the kingdom of God. In Matthew 19, 23 and 24, Jesus uses the terms interchangeably. In parallel passages in the Gospels, kingdom of heaven in one, kingdom of God in the other, they are synonymous.

31:54 Further, to enter the kingdom is to be saved. Matthew 19, 25. How hardly shall they that are rich enter the kingdom. How then can anyone be saved?

32:08 The disciples answer. To enter the kingdom is to be saved, Jesus says, except one be born of water of the Spirit. He cannot see. He cannot enter the what?

32:18 The kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven is present where Jesus in His saving grace, and power is present. So when Jesus appears in the days of John the Baptist, what does John preach? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

32:40 How is it at hand? The king of grace is coming. The king of grace is appearing. The king of grace will soon stand in Jordan's waters, and the Spirit will come upon him, and that will validate to John that he is the messianic king.

32:56 And when Jesus goes, out and preaches, he preaches the same thing. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What is that kingdom? It is the kingdom that is present in the person and grace and power of the Lord Jesus.

33:11 So Paul can say in Acts chapter 20, reviewing his ministry among the Ephesians, that he preached repentance toward God, faith toward the Lord Jesus. Then he goes on later in Acts 20 to say, this is testifying, the gospel of the grace of God, verse 24, verse 25, and now behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, repentance and faith, the gospel of the grace of God is preaching the kingdom. It is not some grandiose notion that all Christians will get together and be able to somehow effect by legislation and power blocks, a Christian society, it is the invasion of the kingdom of darkness by the king of grace and power in his person and work and in the proclamation of his gospel. Now Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is like wherever and whenever God's gracious and powerful rule and reign of grace in conjunction with the person and work of Jesus, wherever and whenever it is operative, what happened with this dude that found the treasure, hid it, sold all that he had and bought the field,

Christ as the Treasure: Joyful Dispensation

34:39 whatever happened in that specific situation is operative whenever the kingdom of heaven is present. Well, what then is the central significance of this parable? Let me state it this way. The discovery of the great worth of Christ and the salvation that is in Christ will always cause a sinner joyfully to dispense with anything and everything that would keep him from possessing Christ and the salvation that is in him.

35:23 Now let that sink in for a minute and I'll repeat it. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man who discovers a treasure and he hides it and in his joy of discovery he goes back to his home, liquidates all his assets, takes the fruit of that liquidation, buys the field and is persuaded he's made a wonderful bargain. He doesn't sit around sad. Well, did, was it real? No, no.

35:57 No, no. In his joy, that he's truly discovered a treasure, everything else that appeared like a treasure is now stuffed to be liquidated, sold all that he had and purchases the field. What is the Lord Jesus telling us? He's telling us that discovery of the great worth of Christ and of the salvation that is in Christ will always cause a sinner joyfully to dispense with anything and everything that would keep him from possessing Christ and the salvation offered in Him.

36:36 So, if sitting here tonight you are in the kingdom, you are the man, the woman, the boy, the girl who's found a treasure and in joy of that discovery you've been willing to dispense with anything and everything that would keep you from possessing Christ and all of the riches of salvation that are in Him. He is the treasure. And when the Spirit of God discovers Him to the heart of a sinner, He always discovers Him as the treasure who is infinitely worth more than all of our stuff. And that we might have Him and all the salvation that is in Him. We are prepared to liquidate anything and everything that would keep us from having Him. And I want us now to look at a Biblical illustration of another man who found a treasure and tells us what happened when he did.

Biblical Illustration: Paul, the Treasure Finder

37:50 Then we're going to look at a sad picture of a man who saw the treasure from afar. Thought he wanted the treasure but he really had not seen its worth because he was willing to go back to his cabin in the woods, to his boat by the lake and all his other stuff. And the Scripture is plain to tell us rather than going back to his stuff and finding joy, he went away sorrowful. Who do you think the man is that's going to be the positive illustration?

38:24 It's Saul of Tarsus. Turn to Philippians chapter 3 if you will please. Here's a man telling you in different words and in different terminology I found the treasure and I sold all to obtain it and I have no regrets. Philippians chapter 3.

38:48 Paul is conscious that there are some false teachers beginning to float around and perhaps infiltrate the church at Philippi. And he warns the believers about them. Calls them some very nasty words. And then he says, look, if these characters are going to boast about their Jewish pedigree and about their religious pedigree and their moral pedigree, I've got a lot more to boast in.

39:14 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.

39:51 Though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if any other man thinks to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more, circumcise the eighth day, not the seventh or the ninth. But my parents made sure I was fixed by the rabbi on the right day. Of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee, the separated one, as touching zeal, persecuting the church, as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. Paul says, you want to look into my treasure, according to the flesh?

40:32 Here it is. I had everything and more that any devout, strict, Pharisaic Jew could ever want. My pedigree was impeccable. My bloodlines were admirable.

40:47 My commitment to the way of my fathers was marked by zeal and by passion. But now he says in verse 7, how be it what things were gain to me. They were my treasure. They were my gains.

41:06 They were my accumulations. They were the gold coins that I fingered with glee and delight. They were the diamonds that I picked up and let the light shine and sparkle and thought what a wealthy man I am. But he said something happened that all that I regarded as my treasure, what things were gain to me, these I've counted loss for Christ.

41:35 Yes, truly, I count, look at the words, all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I discovered the treasure. One day on the road to Damascus with letters in my hand, official documents to say I could seize Christians, in towns foreign, there to the immediate precinct of Israel and the Sanhedrin. Suddenly there was a light shining above the brightness of the noonday sun.

42:15 And a voice spoke and I knew it was, it was deity intruding upon me. And so I cried out, who are you Lord? Identify yourself. And the voice had spoken in the Hebrew tongue.

42:30 And if you're bilingual or trilingual, and someone speaks to you in a language you can speak, how do you respond? In the same language. A voice in the Hebrew tongue, he tells us in a parallel passage in Acts, spoke to me saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And Paul answers in Hebrew, who are you? Adonai?

42:54 A good Jew would not say Yahweh. He would not say the sacred name. Who are you? Adonai?

43:00 Who are you? The answer come back, I am Jesus. And something happened in Paul, not to his physical eyes that were temporarily blinded, but his spiritual eyes burst open. And as he says in 2 Corinthians 4, he said we preach Christ as the servants of Christ.

43:26 We preach Christ and the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the very glory of God. Where? In the face of Jesus Christ. There on the Damascus road when God blinded his physical eyes.

43:47 God opened his spiritual eyes and the first thing he saw was the very radiance of God in the one that he had been persecuting as a blasphemer. And he comes to see who Jesus is and he said, Ah, I've discovered the treasure. What's all this other stuff? It's stuff.

44:10 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.

44:33 And you smell it in the spring when the ground thaws in the sun. Paul said, My treasure! I now regard it as a pile of cow manure. Why?

44:48 The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. When the Holy Spirit revealed the glory of God in the face of Christ, Paul said, Nothing is worth anything that would keep me from having a treasure. So he sold all and he purchased the field. And in the field was the treasure.

45:12 And he goes on to say, I have no regrets. I've suffered the loss of all things and count them but scubala, refuse, done, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him. All of the salvation is in Him and in Him having a righteousness not my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him. Don't you know Him, Paul?

45:43 Yes, I know Him. But I want to know Him more. He's the treasure. And He'll be unfolding the riches of the glory of His person and the significance of His work through all the ages of eternity as the Lamb in the midst of the throne.

Biblical Illustration: The Rich Young Ruler, the Refuser

46:00 And I will walk in His light for joy. He sold all He had because He'd found a treasure. And now turn to the sad account of the negative example, Matthew 19. Matthew 19.

46:20 Here's one who thinks he's come across the field and he's discovered the treasure. And so he comes to Jesus bringing the gospel witness together from the synoptics. We call him the rich young ruler. He wasn't a ruler in the sense of a mayor or a senator or a congressman, but he was an expert in the things of the law, had some influence perhaps in the Jewish Sanhedrin.

46:49 And notice what happens. Verse 16 of Matthew 19. Behold, one came to Him and said, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? I believe You can at least point me to the treasure.

47:03 What must I do to obtain eternal life? And He said unto him, Why do you ask Me concerning that which is good? One there is who is good. I believe what the Lord is saying.

47:15 Do you see in Me essential goodness? Are you coming to Me not just as a rabbi who may have a little bit of an in on this question, but you come to Me as incarnate God who is truth embodied in flesh? Why do you call Me good? None good but God.

47:32 Are you using goodness in the way I deserve to have it used? And then He goes on to say, But if you would enter into life, if you would have the treasure, keep the commandments. And He said, Which? And Jesus said, You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, love your neighbor as yourself.

47:57 You want to purchase eternal life by your works? Then live a perfect life according to the standard of God's law. And this poor deluded young man was stupid enough to say, All these things I have observed. What do I yet lack?

48:14 You see, he had no joy in all the things of position, of influence, his riches, his morality. He said, I lack something. I've come to you. Can you at least point me to where I may find the treasure?

48:31 What must I do to possess eternal life? And Jesus said, If you would be perfect, if you would be fulfilled, if you would know the joy of possessing eternal life, for you, sir, go sell what you have, give to the poor. Now notice, you shall have treasure in heaven. And if you want treasure in heaven then, you've got to be attached to me now on my terms.

49:01 You see that in the text? Sell that you have, you'll have treasure in heaven. Come! Follow me.

49:10 Heaven is by me. No heaven without me. I promise heaven. But it's heaven in me and by me.

49:19 Come, follow me. What did he do? When the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful. Why?

49:29 He was one that had great possessions. What happened to this young man? He believed that there was more fulfillment now and he's willing to risk what it may be in the age to come in clinging to his stuff than in dispensing with his stuff which was his idol. Jesus was saying in essence, smash your idol.

49:56 You haven't begun to keep the first commandment. You shall have no other gods before me. Your money and your stuff and your things are your God. Smash your idol!

50:05 And I'll give you in exchange the pledge of heaven in fellowship with myself. Come, follow me. He says, man, if that's the price for the treasure, price is too high. And he went away sorrowful.

50:23 And listen to me, young people. Jesus did not run down the road and grab him and say, I'm waiting for the attention of a couple of you boys. I'm preaching to you. I want your attention here.

50:34 No fooling around with one another. I'm not fooling. Christ will not fool with you in the day of judgment. Let's pay attention to the word of God.

50:44 The Lord Jesus did not run down the road and say, oh, excuse me, young man. I was hoping to get you saved and surrendered and dedicated and sanctified all in one big commitment. But you really don't need that. There's an easier way.

51:06 No, the Lord Jesus, according to Mark, looking on him, loved him, but he loved him and let him go. And as far as we know, he died clinging to his scubala, thinking it was a treasure.

51:24 You see the contrast between that influential young zealot named Saul of Tarsus and this man. What was the difference? Saul discovered the treasure and for joy thereof sold all that he had. That is, he repudiated anything and everything that would keep him from coming to Christ on Christ's terms.

Application 1: No Salvation Without Christ's Lordship

51:50 The rich young ruler refused to do that. And all it did was show that he never saw in Jesus the treasure. For the central teaching of our parable is the discovery of the great worth of Christ and of the salvation that is in Christ will always cause a sinner joyfully to dispense with anything and everything that would keep him from possessing Christ and the salvation that is offered in him. Well, I've sought to draw out the basic facts of the parable.

52:29 I've sought to identify the central truth of the parable now. Thirdly and finally, some crucial applications of the parable. And the first is this. This parable exposes as utterly false the notion that some of the blessings of salvation from Christ can be had without having Christ himself on his terms.

52:55 There is a wretched, damning doctrine preached in our day that says you can take salvation from Christ. You can, quote, trust in the finished work of Christ without taking Christ himself who finished the work. The call of the gospel is not believe in the finished work of Christ. It is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who finished the work.

53:26 It is engagement of person to person, not person to a theology of the atonement. You can believe in Christ's substitutionary atonement and split hell wide open. It is in the heart embrace of Christ himself who did the work of atonement and who, as the living Lord says to us, brings us the healing and the fulfillment of our sins. But if we believe in Christ himself, then we can have our salvation and can be content with the living.

54:03 So let us, you and I, who are always sitting in our habits and our passions, be excited of this truth and the liturgy of it. Let us be excited to learn that the divine power of the Father has been lie to us, and that the divine power of this world offices that the sinner receives for as many as received him to them gave he the right to become the sons of god even to them that believe on his name this idea that we can snatch at christ work as a savior and not bow to his person as lord we can believe but not be an attached disciple that we can be saved but not surrendered a christian but not sanctified on our way to heaven while we live with the world in our hearts as our god is a damning delusive lie from the pit itself this parable says the kingdom of heaven is like and whenever the kingdom of grace invades the sinner's life it's like this there is always the treasure in the beautiful transaction for joy of the discovery of Christ all the stuff that we thought was

55:24 important say in our hearts it's all expendable not my stuff it's interesting isn't it that in the parable and I don't want to press the details too far there's no indication that when the man had liquidated all of his stuff and came to buy the field that he had to bargain apparently whatever the price was that was named he said look the sky's the limit because no matter what you charge for that treasure the treasures are more from worth more than the price and that's what happens when God the Spirit reveals Christ to a sinner who knows he's lost and on his way to hell knows that he deserves the wrath of God and that all the salvation God has ever provided for sinners is in Christ and this Christ bids us come come unto me all you that labor and heavy laden I will give you rest and I will give you rest and I will give you rest and I will give you rest and I will give you rest and I will give you rest and I will give you rest and I will give you rest and I will give you rest and I will give you rest and I will give you rest and I will give you rest and I will give you rest only the first imperative come there's two more take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest to your souls come take learn and you don't say Lord Jesus I'll come take the burden then I'm gonna split I'm not going to have you tell me what I'm to think about every area of my life I'm not going to get yoked to you so that where you go I go

56:48 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 have no business allowing an ungodly Canadian pagan to foster an interest in you is he already taking liberties with your body that you know he shouldn't and you've let him is that your stuff you get a sight of Christ and that young handsome stud will appear for what he is he's part of the dung pile and say for the joy of knowing Christ I can dispense with that guy is it ambition for certain place in the pecking order in the company in your

58:13 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 heresy secondly great lesson in this parable is this it exposes is utterly false the notion that to possess Christ on his terms is to consign yourself to a joyless life now listen

Application 2: Christ Brings True Joy, Not Misery

59:32 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 hand on a hot stove and instinctively you draw it back

60:17 you see a stone kicked up by a tire and it's coming to your you say windscreen or windshield here in Canada windshield okay you've borrowed some English terms our English friends it's windscreens oh your windscreen windshield what do you do instinctively you duck the same way we instinctively seek and desire our own highest happiness and the lie of the devil is the lie of the devil is you can pursue and attain that happiness by following him and he's got some of you by following him and he's got some of you by following him and he's got some of you believing if you come to Christ on Christ terms lock stocking barrel turning from running your own life choosing your own friends framing your own standard right and wrong and you say Lord Jesus I turn from all of this I want you the devil's persuaded you that's to consign yourself to perpetual misery I won't do this I won't go here I won't be able to listen this kind of music at these kind of friends I'll be miserable oh my friend you've never seen the treasure when that's when the prey was found here they went to that character found the treasure it says for joy he went and sold all that he had it's a lie of the devil Christ said I'm come that my sheep might have life and have it more abundantly says ho

61:39 everyone the thirst come to the waters and he that has no money come buy wine and milk without money without price why do you spend your money for that which satisfies not and for that which is not bread souls shall live. God says, I offer you life. Life, life, dear young people, is in the treasure. It's not in the stuff on the farmer's field. The devil's lie is to persuade you that the tongue is treasure, and in the tongue there's satisfaction, and you'll have a gnawing soul in life and in eternity. If you do not repudiate the devil's lie and embrace the blessed Lord Jesus, who is the truth. And then thirdly, this parable exposes as utterly false any notion that we're in the kingdom without consciously, deliberately embracing Christ. I'm not saying we've got to know when we embraced Him, that we have to embrace Him in a dramatic conversion, and I know the Bible doesn't teach it, I don't teach it, and I don't want you to say that's

Application 3: Conscious Embrace of Christ is Essential

62:55 what I'm teaching, because I'm not. What I'm saying is, Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is like, and the man knew he had discovered a treasure, and he knew he had liquidated all his goods, and he knew he had bought the field and obtained the treasure. And all I'm saying is, that parable underscores the universal teaching of the Bible. You don't get converted by being around converted people.

63:22 You don't get saved by being in the presence of those that are saved. The most...

63:27 The most intensely personal thing, as personal as your own heartbeat, is the embrace of faith, and whether dawning gradually, whether, if we take the other parable, at the end of a long, arduous search for reality and truth, and you can't tell when the night ended and the day broke, what point is night gone, and has day come? You're like the merchant seeking goodly pearls. The Lord Jesus, breaks the back of any stereotypic concept of conversion in two simple parables. The kingdom's like a man who discovers a treasure. The kingdom of heaven is like a pearl merchant spending his life seeking that one great pearl. But in the end, the common denominator is Christ is the pearl, Christ is the treasure, and you don't have him if you don't consciously embrace him. In the embrace of faith, you don't have him. You don't have him if you don't faith, and in the attachment of love and devotion to him. And then my fourth and final point of

Application 4: Maintaining Joy by Valuing Christ

64:37 application is this. If Christ is your treasure tonight, your joy in Christ will be in direct proportion to your ability by the power of Christ to continue to view your stuff the way you did when the Spirit of God first saved you. See what I'm saying? When the treasure loses none of its luster, the stuff loses none of its true assessment. It's when we begin to get weary of the treasure, when we begin to depreciate our spiritual assessment of the worth of the treasure, that in direct proportion, the stuff we got rid of with joy begins to become more than a haunting memory. And we say, well, maybe that wasn't so bad after all. Maybe this was not so evil after all. Maybe I was a bit extreme and a bit fanatical. And you know

65:49 what the Lord Jesus says to that? I've somewhat against you. You've lost your first love. The loss of first love is a devaluation of the treasure. That's why Paul could say, having found the treasure, counting everything but loss that I might have the treasure, my passion is to know Him more, because the more I know Him, the more I see Him as the great treasure chest of all the goodness and mercy and grace of God. And the more I see the worth of the treasure, the more I shall with joy dispense of stuff that God never intended to fill my heart. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that discovers a treasure, and for joy

66:44 thereof he hides it, and for joy thereof sells all that he has and buys the field. I said my purpose tonight was to help us understand what the treasure is. I should have said who the treasure is. And then to ask the question, have you found it? And have you obtained it? Not enough to say, well, you've persuaded me from the Scripture what the treasure is. The great question is, have you found it and have you obtained it? Has the Spirit of God shown you the loveliness of Christ to such a degree that you can say, I have beheld with the eyes of my soul the very outshining of God in the face of Christ as altogether lovely and attractive and worthy of all the radical demands He makes if any man come to me and hate not father, mother, brother, sister, yea, and his own life also he cannot be my disciple. Whosoever does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

67:52 It doesn't mean hate in the positive sense. It's a figure of speech, an absolute for the relative. He says, if you come to me, I must be the treasure. If my will conflicts with mom, dad, brother, sister, and your own life you see in me the treasure.

68:07 Martyrdom is bound up in every two act of saving faith. It attaches us to Christ as the object of supreme affection. We see Him worthy of forfeiting even life, let alone mother, sister, brother, father, wife, whatever. Is He that to you?

68:27 Is He that to you?

68:30 If He's not, pray that God the Holy Spirit would have dealings with you. Go to the scriptures, seek the Lord while He may be found. Cry to God. And He says, you shall seek me and find me in the day.

68:44 Search for me with all your heart.

68:48 Strive to enter the narrow gate. All who enter the narrow gate enter the kingdom. They enter the kingdom and this parable is operative in their lives. God help us that we shall be a company of those who found a treasure.

69:06 And for joy have sold all that we had that we might have the treasure. Let's pray.

69:17 Our Father, we pray that you would seal your word. And that our Lord Jesus, by the Spirit, would come in the saving revelation of Himself to the hearts of many in this place tonight. O Lord, we confess our sin of allowing the world to so distort our perception of our Lord Jesus that we have a constant tendency to undervalue the treasure. And we are ashamed of it.

69:50 And we are ashamed of this. And we long for the day when we shall love Him with unsinning hearts. That our hearts will no longer be fickle. O Lord, have mercy upon us as your people.

70:04 And be gracious to those who, like the rich young ruler, see more in their stuff than they see in Jesus. Lord, open their blinded eyes. And reveal your glory in the face of Christ, we pray, in His worthy name. Amen.