Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Two weeks ago, began a study in the parables of Jesus Christ. Parables are some of the most important of the instructions of Jesus. We read that when Jesus spoke, he spoke never without speaking a parable. And so it’s important for us as Christians to focus our attention upon the parables of Christ and to see their application in our life. Let us pray together. Our God and our Father, we thank you that we can come to your word. We thank you for the precious word of Jesus Christ. We thank you for the beautiful truths that are found in these parables.

And, Father, as we would look this day, we would pray that you would help us to see the hidden treasure, that you would help us to know of that great pearl of great price, Father, that we would understand with spiritual discernment the truths that Christ has for his disciples. We ask that the words of my mouth, the meditations of our hearts, would be acceptable in your sight, for we ask it in Jesus’s name. Amen. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Jesus told these two parables found in the 13th chapter of the book of Matthew, verses 44 through 46. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid. And for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field again.

The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and he bought it. Question I ask is, how does a person enter the kingdom of Jesus Christ? How do we enter the kingdom of heaven? Jesus told two parables to instruct us on the point of entry into his kingdom. Now, the first parable is the parable of the hidden treasure. It’s a story of a man who is walking out in a field. While he’s out there, accidentally he discovers a great treasure, something he wasn’t looking for, something he was not planning to find, and he accidentally discovers it. Now, once he finds it, he does an od thing.

He takes it and he hides it, and then he goes and buys the field in which he found that treasure. Now, the purpose of parables is a single purpose. But so often as People read this particular parable, there is a moral question that is problematic. And immediately to our 20th-century ears, something doesn’t sound right. This certainly isn’t a teaching on Christians finding things and what you are to do with them. Well, there have been some who have looked at the moral questions of this parable and asked the question about the moral integrity of this man. And it’s been answered in three ways. The first is that the man was within his legal rights. You see, according to Jewish Talmud, Jewish instruction, and I quote, if a man finds scattered fruit or Scattered money, these belong to the finder.

Now, if the man found in the field this Hidden Treasure, then According to Jewish law, he owns it. Which only raises another question, then why did he go out and Buy the field? He already owned the treasure. Well, there is a second answer, and that is, some say that this problem of the moral integrity of the man is really Jesus trying to tell us that Christians, you need to be as smart as a shrewd businessman. If Christians were as much in earnest about the things of Christ as this man was in earnest about gathering these treasures, then there would be a great difference in the way the church of Jesus Christ reaches out into the world. Now, neither of those are very helpful to me to understand this parable. C. H.

Dodd, who spent a good portion of his life studying parables, makes the point that this is a parable. It is not an allegory that every point of this parable cannot find an explanation or a complete commentary for us, but rather, a parable has a single purpose that it is trying to instruct. And the purpose of the parable of the hidden treasure is that this man accidentally found a great treasure, and he was willing, once he discovered it, to do all that he could to possess it. The parable of the hidden treasure is an accidental discovery of the kingdom of heaven. Remember, the question is, how does a person enter the kingdom of heaven? How did you come in to the kingdom of Jesus Christ? First, parable says, there are some people who are not looking for the kingdom. They’re not expecting it.

They have not spent years in preparation, but almost accidentally stumble into the kingdom, or so it would seemingly seem. C. H. Spurgeon, back in the last century, spoke to the greatest crowds that had ever gathered to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Often, he would speak before 10,000 people. Well, Charles Spurgeon, when he was a young boy, 15 years old, he went to church one New Year’s Day, and there was a great storm in town. Now, he was headed towards the church that he normally worshipped in. But because of the severity of the storm, he said, I could go no further. I turned down a court and came to a little primitive Methodist chapel. And what did he find when he got there? Well, the minister couldn’t get to church because of the blizzard.

And so standing in front of 15 people was a layman. And he began to teach, and he selected a text and he began to read it. Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth. Spurgeon says the man was really stupid. All he did was keep repeating the text because he had nothing else to say. But then that layman looked out on his congregation of 15 people and something occurred that Charles Spurgeon had never had happened in his life. A personal word from the pulpit was addressed to him, and this man pointed at him and he said, young man, you look miserable, and you will remain miserable until you come unto Jesus Christ. Spurgeon’s attention was greatly aroused. And the man then he said with a loud voice, young man, look to look.

And Spurgeon says, in that moment, I trusted in Jesus Christ. He wasn’t expecting to find Christ, but Christ found him. Sir Wilfred Grenfell was a young medical student, and coming back from a hospital, he saw a large tent in a field. He heard some music. He went in, and it was a revival meeting. He had never seen anything like it in his life. He sat there as they sang a hymn. And then a man stood and he said in somber tones, let us pray. And he continued to pray for five minutes, ten minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes. And this young man became so bored with the prayer that he quietly got up and was leaving while the man continued in prayer from the pulpit. But another man, who he later learned was Dwight L. Moody, was seated on the platform. And Dwight L.

Moody, sensing the embarrassment of this prayer, stood and abruptly took control of the service. And he said, let us stand and sing a hymn while our brother closes in prayer. Sir Wilford Greenville was so captured by the practicality of Moody that he sat back down and he listened to the sermon that Moody delivered, and he accepted Jesus Christ. So often people come to Jesus Christ who are not looking for him. And like a man walking in a field, accidentally they discover this great treasure and they come to Christ. Well, Jesus tells a second parable, and he says again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and he bought it. Now, this is in contrast to the first parable.

For in this parable we find that there is a merchant who is actively seeking something which is of great value. He is seeking after a beautiful pearl. He’s planning, he’s searching, and he’s looking to find that pearl. William Barclay says, just as it is possible for a man to discover the kingdom of God almost accidentally, it is also possible for him to arrive at it after a lifelong search. And so there are some who, by the prompting of God’s spirit, have always been looking and trying to understand truth. I think of a friend of mine, Jr. Jr. Came out of a broken family and then came into a life of eastern mysticism, then into a life of drugs.

And all the time, if you had stopped him at any point along the way, his real desire was to know and to understand who God was. It seemed that he was always seeking, until finally, one day, out on the California coast, a friend of his came in the middle of the night, knocked on the door, burst in, and said, jr, if you don’t trust in Jesus Christ, you’re going to hell. Well, that got his attention also. And that evening, Jr. Put his faith in Jesus Christ. But it was not accidentally. It seemed that it was many years of seeking after God. And there are some who enter the kingdom of heaven after a very long searching. And then God would reveal his son Jesus Christ, to them. This is the way it was with the apostle Paul.

You remember, he was called Saul, educated in the house of the Pharisees, instructed by Gamaliel, a seeker after truth. And then he would discover truth on the road to Damascus in Jesus Christ. And there are some who come to faith after a very long soul searching journey. So way it was with Martin Luther. Luther, who spent many years as a priest before he would put his trust in Jesus Christ. Luther said, if ever a man could be saved by his monkery, it was I. That’s the way it was with Malcolm Muggerich in our own generation for years looking for truth, until finally he would find it in Jesus Christ.

Now we know that those who accidentally are brought into the kingdom and those who seem to be seeking after the things of Christ, that it is God in both cases who would bring about the circumstances of that accidental finding. And it is God who would cause a heart to search out after him. And so, lest it be misunderstood that all of this is by grace, it is by the prompting and the leading of God, by his holy spirit and his special calling of his people. But it is often different in everyone’s story. Now, what is of interest is the response of both of these men.

On the one hand, the one who would find the hidden treasure, the one who would find the pearl of great price for whether they accidentally found the kingdom of God or whether they were seeking after the kingdom of God. The response of both is the same. The response is that each sold all that they had. Each made a total commitment to the pearl, to the treasure, to the truth. And sometimes, to get the best, each of us must give up second best. Jesus Christ is the great treasure. Jesus Christ is the pearl of great price. That when he is found, whether through seeking or accidentally, the response of those who find this dear treasure, this beautiful pearl, is the same. They are willing to give up and to follow that they might have the treasure.

And there are things that we are called upon to give up. In the case of the man who found the great pearl, he went and sold all that he had. Some of us, because of the treasure that has been discovered of Jesus Christ in our own lives, some of us have been called upon to give up, to sell away material things. And the world does not understand that. F. W. Charrington was given a brewery as an inheritance. He made a pretty penny. He was one of the most wealthy men in London. His name was to be found, like Budweiser, above every bar room in London. One day, F. W. Charrington, who was also a Christian, was walking by a tavern. He saw a man who seemed to be slightly drunk, making his way to the tavern.

Behind him was a woman who he assumed was the man’s wife. And she was saying, don’t go. Don’t go. And she grabbed his arm, and this man savagely turned around, and with one blow, he struck the woman, and she fell to the ground. Charrington, walking by, saw this situation, was so struck by the horror of what he saw. But what upset him even more was the horror as he looked above the door of that tavern and saw his name, F. W. Charrington. He says, with that one blow, that man knocked out his wife, and he knocked me out of business. And F. W. Charrington sold his brewery, and he left that form of employment. There are some people who, when they come to Jesus Christ, make great material sacrifices.

There are some who have to give up comfort, as in the case of the rich young ruler. And though he was an expert in the law, he was not willing to sell all that he had because Jesus asked too much of him. There are some Christians that Jesus Christ is asking, sell off. Sell off your comfort, that you might follow me and have this pearl of great price. Charles Spurgeon, in commenting on this text, asked the question, what am I to give up? He said, first, I am to give up old prejudices. I am to give up the way that I look at other people. I am now to look at people with a gospel eye and to look at them with the eyes of Jesus Christ. And I must give up some of those old prejudices.

Secondly, he says we must give up our righteousness, that we cannot hold to the idea that we can follow Jesus Christ by our own strength, that it is only a gift of faith that God would save us. Spurgeon says that we must put aside our moth eaten human righteousness and trust only in Christ Jesus. Third, Spurgeon says we must sometimes sell off what we know. Jesus said, except a man become as a little child, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. And some of us must give up our sophistication, our class, and we must give up and become, in the words of Jesus, like a little child, to be able to look at the things that God has given us and the people around us like a child with loving concern.

This week, knowing that I was going to be talking about the pearl of great price, I called a jeweller, wanted to know a little bit more about pearls and thought I had known a little bit. It was interesting, as he told me that the pearl, as most of us know, is made from a piece of sand that enters into the insides of an oyster. Sometimes it’s a piece of sand or sometimes it’s a parasite. But inside of the shell of that oyster is to be found a liquid, and it covers the entire surface of the inside of that oyster. It’s called the naker. And that naker is what produces a substance. That substance is secreted and some call it the essence de orient.

The idea that this liquid would begin to coat around this particle and the color of the pearl will be taken on from the external color of the oyster. And so where there is a beautiful oyster shell, there is a good chance that inside should be found a most beautiful oyster and a beautiful pearl, a pearl of great price. We are told that this man found a pearl of great price, of great beauty, of great value. But there is also in this world imitation pearls. Imitation pearls are made out of beads of glass. They are covered with a creamy liquid substance. It is not that special naker, but instead it is a substance that is made from fish scales and it is commercially blended and it is painted on these orbs of glass. It looks to the untrained eye like a pearl.

But if you look at that artificial pearl, where it would be strung upon the string, you will see the scales around that hole. And anyone with an eye trained can tell very quickly the difference between an imitation pearl and the perfect pearl. In this world, there is an imitation that is being presented, an imitation that says, by your works you can be a Christian, and by your works we can color you and paint you, and you will look to be a great treasure. But in fact, you’re artificial. For there’s only one true pearl of great price, and that is Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ, whether accidentally discovered in the providence of God or through the seeking of a spirit that God has prompted to search him out, always the same result, commitment, giving up to gain everything.

I wonder how many of us have found that pearl of great price, who have discovered that great treasure hidden in the field. Jesus says two ways, one seemingly accidental, another by searching, but both of them leading to a treasure. The treasure Jesus Christ. The truth of the gospel entrance into the kingdom of heaven. It is my prayer that you know this real treasure, this pearl of great price. Jesus Christ Jesus said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Let us pray. Our God and our father, we thank you. That Jesus Christ, that great pearl, that pearl that is beyond price, that treasure has made himself known to his church. We thank you, Father, that by grace we have received Christ Jesus into our lives.

We thank you that Jesus Christ is hidden in the heart of everyone who loves him as part of the living stones of the church and that we can make him manifest in this world, that we would make full commitment to him, that we would give up those things which are secondary and cling only to that which is primary. Help us, by your grace, to continue to cling to Christ to the end that his name might be honoured. We give you thanks in Jesus’s name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Prince and Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.