Matthew chapter 13. Today we come to the beautiful parable of the Pearl of Great Price. But before we come to this parable, I would like to say one or two more things concerning the parable of the hidden treasure that we spoke on last week. I was very glad that that message on the parable of the hidden treasure caused many people to think deeply and to work more deeply in the Word of God. One or two persons said that they had some problems and they wanted to discuss with me about those problems. I'm very glad that they have been studying the questions relating to Matthew chapter 13, verse 44, the parable of the hidden treasure.
I would like to say only very briefly that, first of all, any problems or objections relating to the exposition of the hidden treasure as the church will relate equally to the exposition of Luke chapter 15, the three parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Any problem that you could think of as arising in connection with the parable of the lost treasure or the hidden treasure will arise just as much in connection with those three parables in Luke 15, which, without any dispute, all refer to the lost person.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. For example, there are still some who think that a sinner is of no value whatsoever until he is saved. That shows just how deeply the old ideas stick with us. One or two persons confessed to me that they still felt that a sinner had no value until he was saved — that any value he has, he acquires when he is saved. If that is the case, as I said, the same objections would apply to Luke chapter 15. For then, the sheep would have no intrinsic value, or the coin is somehow less valuable because it does not happen to be in the owner's pocket, or the son is less valuable to the father because he doesn't happen to be at home. It's hard for us to get over old prejudice, isn't it? Is not a son as dear to the father when he is at home or when he is not at home, when he is overseas or when he is in Hong Kong by himself? Surely the son is always valuable. Even if he is lost, he is none less valuable, none less precious to the father. Surely a coin, a silver coin, is still a silver coin, whether it is in your pocket or whether it is lying on the street for the moment, until somebody picks it up. Surely a sheep is of value — it is still a sheep, even if it is not in the fold for the moment. We must bear in mind this very fact. As I said, any objection to this parable will be exactly the same objections which would face the parables in Luke chapter 15.
If it is said, for example, that in this parable there is no active seeking of the treasure on God's part — it is just said that he found the treasure, the element of seeking is not being stressed — any of you familiar with the parables in Luke 15 will find exactly the same situation there. In the parable of the lost son, the father is nowhere said to be seeking the son at all. He stays at home. He does not seek the son in that parable. It is the son who returns to the father. It is the son who comes back. The father in that particular parable seems to be completely inactive. He does not go forth searching for the son. So you can see that this objection applies less to the parable of the hidden treasure than to the parable of the son. Because in the parable of the hidden treasure, we are only assuming that he was not looking for the treasure. It does not say he doesn't look for the treasure. But in the parable of the son, it actually is clear from the parable that the father is not out there looking for the son.
One parable is designed to emphasize one particular thing. It is not designed to cover every aspect of the gospel. The parable of the lost son does not emphasize God's searching for the lost, because it wants to emphasize only one thing: the repentance of the sinner as necessary to being found. In the same way, in this particular parable in Matthew, the parable of the hidden or the lost treasure, it wants to emphasize only one thing: that the finding of the treasure is very costly to God. He sold everything in order to obtain that field.
If it is objected that Christ could not be looking for a hidden treasure because it would imply that he does not know where the treasure is, this objection is quite useless because the same objection would apply to Luke chapter 15. We could say that if Jesus is a shepherd looking for the lost sheep, then it implies that he doesn't know where the lost sheep is — otherwise the lost sheep would not be lost. But this is to miss the point. The stress in the hidden treasure parable is not on the seeking but on the finding. The notion, because a treasure is lost, therefore the person who is looking for it does not know for the moment where it is — that is not the point of Scripture, but it has to be brought forth in a parable in this way. What God is seeking is our response. It is not that he does not know where we are, but he is still seeking a response from us. That cannot be brought out in picture language, so it has to be brought out in the way the Lord tells the parables.
There is one more thing, which was the reason why my heart was inclined to thinking of the hidden treasure not as the church but as Christ. It was because of a verse in Colossians chapter 2, verse 3: "In Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden." Now that is the verse that greatly inclined my heart to thinking of the treasure as Christ. Except until you begin to think much more carefully about it and much less superficially, then you realize that it does not apply. First of all, in Colossians chapter 2, verse 3, it is not speaking of a treasure but all treasures. What it speaks of is not that these treasures are in a field, but all the treasures are in Christ. The only way to make Colossians 2:3 apply to Matthew 13:44 would be to say that Jesus is the field in which the treasure is hidden, in which case you buy the field, you buy Jesus, not because you are interested in Jesus but because you are interested in the treasures in him — the treasures of wisdom and understanding. That is very serious. Jesus becomes only a means to an end and not the end itself. We could not accept that as scriptural teaching. Jesus himself is the end, the purpose, the goal of our searching, and not just a means to obtaining something else in him. Colossians chapter 2, verse 3, applies to the following parable, though not to this one.
Having given the matter very careful consideration, I think you will see that the exposition of the hidden treasure as the lost sinners whom Jesus finds and seeks is the only really exegetically correct one. The hiddenness in the field — that Jesus finds us and then he hides us in the field — is so fully documented in Scripture that there are enormous numbers of verses on this matter. In Psalm 83, verse 3, the saints of God are called "the hidden ones." In the Revised Standard Version it is translated as "the protected one." The Hebrew word is the word "to hide." We can go on all the way through the Bible right up to Revelation chapter 12, verse 6, where the woman representing the church or the kingdom of God is hidden by God in the desert, who prepares a place for them in the wilderness.
Something very important comes forth out of this parable. If the parable of the hidden treasure does not refer to Jesus sacrificing everything in order to save us, then this most central element of the Lord's teaching actually occurs nowhere in all of the Lord's parables — that would be very surprising indeed, that his own saving work does not appear in a single parable. But once we realize that this refers to Jesus' saving work — saving the lost — then this element of the Lord's teaching of redemption does appear in the parables.
Now with that in mind, let us come to this beautiful parable of the pearl, the pearl of great value. Let me read this parable to you, which is just one sentence. Matthew 13, verses 45 and 46: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it."
The Lord Jesus says the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a merchant. The word "merchant" here means a businessman, a wholesale dealer in fact — quite a big businessman. He is looking for fine pearls, not just any kind of pearls, but fine pearls. On finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold everything that he had — remember I stressed that he was a big businessman, which means he had pretty lot of things to sell — and he bought that pearl.
Let me tell you something about pearls. I suppose none of us here are great experts on pearls. If you put some pearls in front of me, I am ashamed to say I wouldn't know the difference from one to the other. If you put a plastic pearl in front of me, a well-polished one, or a pearl made of sugar, or a cultured pearl, or a truly genuine pearl, I have to say that I probably hardly know the difference. I mean, I could tell the sugar pearl by licking it, I suppose. I'm not sure how I would tell a well-polished plastic pearl from a genuine pearl. I frankly don't have any idea. Pearls are things of enormous value, and yet you have to be an expert to tell the difference from one to another. Today you have ladies who have a whole string of pearls around their neck, and they look beautiful, but some of them could be bought for a few dollars, whereas others probably would cost in the thousands of dollars. I wouldn't know one from the other.
In the days of the Lord Jesus, they didn't have plastics, so they could not produce a plastic pearl, and they didn't have cultivated pearls such as the Japanese have been producing. They had to find genuine pearls, and these genuine pearls were produced in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. In the Red Sea, the place is swarming with sharks. A diver had to go down, often to considerable depth, at great risk to his life. They didn't go down with oxygen tanks and all this sophisticated gear — they just had to dive, hold their breath, go down, look for the oysters, bring them up, and all the time watch out that they don't get eaten by a shark in the process.
Pearls come in different colors and different sizes. Some pearls are of a pinkish shade, some of a bluish shade, some are pure white. Others are quite small, others are very big. Depending on the color, the size, the shape, and the flawlessness — if the pearl has no flaw in it, is perfectly round, perfectly spherical, and of large size — only so will that pearl be of great value.
We read in ancient times, pretty close to the Lord's time, that Caesar gave a pearl to the mother of a friend of his — a pearl which was worth a quarter of a million dollars. One pearl worth a quarter of a million dollars. According to the ancient historian Pliny, Cleopatra had a pearl that was worth in modern-day terms five million dollars. One pearl worth five million dollars — that must have been a huge, beautiful, perfect pearl. It gives us an idea how enormously valuable pearls were in those days: a pearl of perfect beauty, of large size, of beautiful color, of radiance, of luster — enormously valuable.
This time the Lord tells us this is a merchant, a big businessman, a man who has a wholesale business, who is looking for fine pearls. Clearly this is not the first time he's been dealing in pearls, since he's looking for fine pearls. But he discovers one exceptional, rare pearl for which he has to give up all those other pearls that he's been dealing with before. He has to give up his entire possession — his yacht, his house, his car, in modern-day terms — in order to buy this one pearl, five million dollars' worth. It has to be a big businessman — how else do you afford a pearl like this?
What then does this pearl represent in the Lord's teaching? Expounding the Bible is not a matter of guesswork. It has to be, if it is to be responsible Bible exposition, a matter of careful checking of cross-references. We are not left in the dark, because we do see how the Lord uses the word "pearl." The first time is in Matthew chapter 7, verse 6. The Lord Jesus says, "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not cast your pearls before swine." Two things emerge when you examine this passage.
First, notice the Bible principle of parallelism. The word "pearls" stands in parallel to the words "what is holy." "Do not give what is holy to dogs; do not cast your pearls before swine." Holy and pearls stand in parallel. Dogs and swine stand in parallel. This is a very well-known biblical way of speaking in which the same thing is stated in parallel form. This immediately gives us a clue that when the Lord Jesus is speaking about pearls, he is thinking about something that is holy.
The second thing is that what is holy has to be discerned. Dogs don't appreciate the difference between something that is holy and something not holy. Don't give pearls to swine, because swine, that is pigs — if you give them pearls, they might turn around and attack you after having trampled the pearls underfoot. Why? Because pearls don't taste very nice for eating, and swine are only interested in food. If you gave them rice, they appreciate that. Rice is also white and round. But if you give them pearls, which are worth hundreds of thousands of times more than a grain of rice, they will attack you because they feel cheated. They don't understand the value of a pearl. So what is being spoken of is that the pearl, like what is holy, has to be discerned — its value has to be understood.
The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 that spiritual things must be discerned spiritually. A dog and a pig do not have spiritual discernment. The non-Christian may also not understand what is holy or what is spiritual, for he does not have spiritual discernment. From all this we begin to understand that in the Lord's teaching, the pearl is a picture of something that is holy and spiritual, which only a spiritual man will be able to discern.
The third thing we notice in Matthew 7, verse 6, is that he speaks of "your pearls." These pearls are something that we can possess, that we can make our own. This holy, spiritual thing is something we can possess. So what can that thing be? For the next steps of exposition, we need to return to the Old Testament. If we look at Proverbs chapter 3, verses 13 to 15: "Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gets understanding." Notice the words "find" and "get" — what he finds is wisdom, spiritual wisdom, spiritual understanding. "For the gain from it is better than gain from silver, and its profit better than gold. She" — that is, wisdom — "is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her." In other words, Proverbs is saying this spiritual wisdom is more precious than jewels, more precious than anything you could desire. Why? Because as you read on in Proverbs, you understand that it is through wisdom that you come to know God. It is through wisdom that you come to have eternal life in God. No wonder wisdom is so precious.
If we look at Job chapter 28, verse 12, we find something quite similar. "But where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding?" Notice — wisdom and understanding, and the person looking for wisdom, as looking for fine pearls, reminding us immediately of this parable of the pearl. "Man does not know the way to it, and it is not found in the land of the living." This spiritual wisdom cannot be found in this world. "The deep says, 'It is not in me,' and the sea says, 'It is not with me.' It cannot be gotten for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price." Comparing with gold and silver and jewels. "It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire." "Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold." "No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; the price of wisdom is above pearls." Notice the word "pearls" appearing here. "The topaz of Ethiopia cannot compare with it, nor can it be valued in pure gold." "Whence then comes wisdom, and where is the place of understanding?" Here is the merchant looking for spiritual jewels. "Where can we find it?"
The Old Testament is not without an answer. In Psalm 19, verses 7 to 10, where then do we find this wisdom and this understanding? In the Word of God. That's where you'll find it, in God's Word, which is here described as the law of Yahweh, the precepts of Yahweh, the commandment of Yahweh. "The law of Yahweh is perfect" — remember the word "perfect": completely round, no blemish, no spot, like a perfect pearl, no marks in it, nothing wrong with it — "reviving the soul. The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple." Notice the word "wisdom." "The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart." Remember the joy upon finding this pearl of great price. "The commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean..."
# The Parable of the Pearl (Part 2)
Here is something again, more precious than gold and even than much fine gold. A lot of fine gold is not comparable to the Word of God. Now we are pressing forward. The pearls, we begin to see, as we trace the exegesis of this through the Scriptures, refers to the Word of God. Now we understand. "Do not cast what is holy to the dogs. Do not waste the pearls upon swine." The message then is this: the Word of God is something very precious to those who seek after it. But for those who don't want it, don't stuff it down their throats. They won't be grateful. In fact, you will ask for hostility with no benefit either to them or to you. Never stuff the Word of God, that precious Word of God, down unwilling throats.
So now we begin to see that the pearls in the teaching of the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 7, verse 6, refers to the teaching of God, the Word of God. This is something that is holy, that has to be spiritually discerned, and that we can have as our own possession — storing up God's Word in our hearts. As Paul says to the Colossians, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." We have his Word in us. We possess that Word for ourselves. This is exceedingly precious.
But we have not yet finished with our understanding of the pearl. Because we begin to realize, as we saw in the earlier parables, the parable of the seed and the sower, that the Word of God is in fact embodied in a person — namely Jesus himself, who is called the Word of God, in John chapter 1, verse 1. He is the Word. He is the very embodiment of God's Word. God's Word is expressed in Jesus. Jesus is the one in whom you'll find all spiritual wisdom and understanding and knowledge. He is the pearl of great price. That is exactly where Colossians chapter 2, verse 3, comes in. All the treasures of wisdom and understanding and knowledge are hidden, or stored up, in Christ. Now we understand that Jesus is that pearl of great price.
You can see that as we follow the procedure of exegesis, we do not follow any kind of guesswork. Scripture gives us, step by step, clues to understanding what it means. We must follow it through step by step until we understand the message. So Jesus turns out to be this pearl of enormous price, of priceless value.
The next thing we have to notice here is the uniqueness of this pearl. This is not one pearl among many pearls. Jesus is a pearl with no comparison. There is nothing to compare with him. It says here, "one pearl of great value." This oneness stresses uniqueness. The uniqueness of this pearl is not to say there are lots of such pearls in the world. There is this one pearl of great price.
This word makes me think very much of Luke chapter 10, verse 41, where the Lord Jesus says to Martha, "Martha, Martha, you are troubled about many things, but one thing is needful." Not the many, many things, but one thing is needful. Our lives have to become wonderfully concentrated. I wonder if your life is concentrated, or whether it is scattered. Many people live a scattered life. A scattered life does not have any clear purpose or direction. But this man knew what he was looking for. He sought after it, he found it, he bought it — that one pearl which cost him everything.
Now, is it wise, you would say in your mind, to lose everything for one pearl? Why not settle for a bunch of cheaper pearls? Have a collection of cheaper pearls, and then you can still keep your car, your house, your field, your business, whatever. These are not so valuable pearls, but settle for something mediocre. Isn't that the thinking that most people have? We have not understood the Lord's words. "You have many things. You are troubled about many things, but one thing is needful in this life." Concentrate on one thing.
In whatever area you think about it, a person who tries to do many things ends up doing nothing well at all. But a person who may be diversified, nevertheless learns to concentrate and become really good at one thing — that person will break through at some point. I found this method applies everywhere, in every area. If you want to be good at anything, you have to concentrate on that one thing.
Take a very trivial example. I used to learn Judo. Many of you know that Judo has many kinds of different holds and grips — some trip over the legs, some over the hips, some over the shoulders, some this way, that way, and so on. My question, as I pondered this matter, was: how do you become good at Judo? Would I have to perfect every particular throw? It dawned on me: if I master one throw to perfection, I would be nearly unbeatable. I decided to test this principle.
I mastered one throw — the shoulder throw, coming over the top. You take a person by the arm or the leg, and you swing around and throw him right over the top of your shoulder. A very devastating throw, of course, which was one of the reasons why it was chosen. When you come down with that throw, you don't get up again — not in a hurry, anyway, unless you are a Judo expert yourself. The shoulder throw was also effective because most other throws depend on your having to hold his clothing. Suppose it's a hot summer day and he's wearing a thin shirt — what exactly do you hold? You grab his shirt and you end up holding his shirt in your hand. The shoulder throw had the enormous advantage that you don't have to hold his clothing. You just hold his wrist, that's all you need, or his forearm. With one flick, you grab his wrist, and the next second, he has gone for a flyer. Of course, he ends up in a plane crash at the other end.
I spent hours perfecting this one throw. Every movement I worked out in detail — how to move, if the other person moves, what I have to do. I worked this out to perfection so that I became good at only one particular throw. The day came that I was ready to try it out — on an expert, a true Judo expert, to see if I could throw him. My instructor, who was a huge fellow, six foot, black belt, muscular like anything compared to my bony system — I thought, well, fair enough, it's David against Goliath. He was in fact a weight lifter as well, so you can imagine how strong he was.
I said, "Can I have a little workout with you?" He said, "Oh sure, sure, sure." So we had a little workout, and I picked my moment and blitzed suddenly, quickly. What a shriek of surprise came from him as he went sailing through the air and hit the tatami, the mattress, with such a bang — the whole 200 pounds of him. He was so taken by surprise and shocked. I thought, so it does work. So it does work.
I began to learn from this not just something about Judo, but a lesson concerning life as a whole. That is to say: concentrate on one thing if you are going to be good. Don't mess around with a hundred things — eventually you are not good at any of them. If I tried every throw, I could not perfect any one of them except with a great deal of time. But by concentrating on one effective throw, I was able to perfect it to such an extent that I would be able to take even an expert.
The same applies to the spiritual life. I find many Christians are simply scattered. They don't become good at anything. If you want to live the Christian life effectively, you've got to ask yourself before God: what are my gifts? I am going to concentrate on that particular gift until I become really good in serving the Lord. If every Christian thought about it like this, I tell you, the church would be full of people who are outstanding. One person may become an outstanding singer, praising the Lord with his or her voice — becoming very good. Everybody can sing quite well, but you become exceptional. You have perfected one thing. If that's your gift, if you've got a voice and you can sing with it, work at it. Train every day. Develop your volume, your control, your range, until you become outstanding.
You will discover one interesting thing as well: when you become good at one thing, you become pretty good at all the others, too. Somehow this one advance pulls all the others up and raises your general standard very much higher, for some reason. You find that you are better than most even on the other things, but exceptional in one thing.
Or, take for example, you find that you have a gift in leading a Bible study. Work at it. Learn how to study the Word of God more deeply. How to present the Word of God more effectively. Every one of you has a gift. If I understand my Bible right, there is nobody in the church who has no gifts. You may be good at writing — use your writing. Improve it. Don't be satisfied with mediocrity. Improve how to improve your sentence structure, how to make your sentences clearer, how to improve the whole general presentation of your message in writing. Every area — you've got some gift you can use for God. Concentrate on that.
But above all things, what a Christian will do is concentrate on gaining the pearl of great price. Because the reason why you concentrate on this is a further objective. I concentrated on one throw not because I just wanted to be able to throw people for the fun of it. I wanted to do this as a matter of self-defense. The reason why we do these things is self-defense, is it not? So I perfected it so that I could, in any situation, incapacitate an assailant. Of course, I was not a Christian in those days — I think you understand that. In these days, I might react somewhat differently. But what I am saying right now is that the reason I perfected one move was with a wider and further purpose — of gaining the objective of effective self-defense.
Our serving God — what for? Why would you want to sing well? In order to please him whom we love. In order to win Christ, to gain Christ, is it not? Why do you want to do this? Because you love him. How do we say, "I love Jesus"? Well, do something to express your love for him. Should we not so live as to be pleasing to him if we love him? Your singing will be the means to the end of pleasing him, of winning this pearl of great price. Or whether you are leading the Bible study well — the objective is to bring blessing to others and be pleasing to him. That again becomes the means to that great end.
In the Christian life, in the Lord's teaching, the principle is always like this: it is a principle of all or nothing. This man sells everything, such is his fine concentration, in order to accomplish this one objective of gaining the pearl. He loses everything. He counts it all as rubbish, that he may gain this pearl of great price. That is the Lord's teaching to his disciples: don't be scattered. Don't try, on the one hand, to love the world, live in the world, make your nest in the world, and on the other hand, to win the pearl of great price. You cannot do it. This pearl will cost you everything. If it doesn't cost you everything, you will never get it. It's as simple as that.
If you want Christ, the Lord Jesus is telling us, if you want this pearl, this Word of God which is summed up in Christ, it's going to cost you everything. I think there are too many Christians who don't seem to understand this yet. By the way I observe how they live, they have not yet understood. They still think that they can have the best of both worlds and still end up having eternal life, having this pearl of great price. No sir, you will not. That's the Lord's teaching, not mine.
Always in the Lord's teaching, the same thing is: "If you want to be my disciple, sell all and follow me." In Matthew chapter 19, verse 21, he says the same thing to the rich young ruler: "If you want to be perfect" — and perfection, if you understand biblical teaching, is the minimum requirement. This is not moral perfection, but perfection of commitment, total commitment, which is the minimum for salvation. When the Lord said to the rich young man, "If you want to be perfect," it doesn't mean if you want to become morally perfect. We never become morally perfect in this life. We never become sinless and spotless. But one thing we can do: if you want to be perfect, the Lord is saying, is to love God with all your heart, your whole soul, your strength, your mind. That is what perfection is about in the Bible. It is total love for God. Then he says to the rich young ruler, "Sell all that you have. Come and follow me."
The same thing he says to his disciples in Luke chapter 12, verse 33: "Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father's purpose to give you the kingdom. Therefore sell what you have, give to the poor. Follow me." That pearl — how much is it worth to you? You want to have the pearl for nothing? You want Jesus for nothing? That's not the Bible teaching. That pearl is going to cost you everything. Until it does, you haven't got the pearl. Simple as that. You may have discovered the pearl, you might, like this merchant, have seen the pearl. But discovering the pearl is not to own the pearl. That merchant, having seen the pearl, having discovered the pearl, had to go first and sell what he had and purchase the pearl.
What then does this mean? This means simply this: a total commitment to Christ. It means loving him with your whole being. Concentrating your being on him. If you don't do this, your Christian life will count for next to nothing in this world. Your witness for Christ will count for next to nothing. No wonder so many Christians go through life and their witness doesn't really do anything. They are not lights in the world. They behave like any non-Christian, they think like any non-Christian — they are just a little bit more religious, that's all. That's not being a Christian, in the Bible teaching. The biblical teaching is total commitment — that wherever you go, your dedication, your commitment, your total love for Christ stands out. Everybody knows you are committed to Christ. You have given all to follow him.
I have said endless times that I am not talking about full-time service. I am talking about an attitude of heart to Christ. Many people who are in full-time service have not got any total commitment. For them, being a pastor is a profession, their bread and butter — or in Chinese, their "fan wan," their bowl of rice. It has nothing to do with total commitment. That's their job. I hope that if they have this job and they are also totally committed, that's fine. But these two do not necessarily go together.
He searched for the pearl. Are you searching for this pearl? Do you seek what is spiritually valuable? If you are seeking only for the world, then this parable is no use to you. This parable talks to people who are seeking for this thing of eternal value.
Notice this in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 29, which is perhaps what the Lord Jesus also has in mind here. Moses says to the Israelites: "But from there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul." You will find God. Yes, you will. That is a promise. If you search for him with all your heart, with all your soul. Now if you have not yet found God, remember these words. You may be seeking, but not with all your heart and with all your soul. You still lack this determination of purpose. God will be found by those who search for him with all the heart and with all the soul — with that total commitment to seeking for the truth, and saying, "If I find God, I am willing that it should cost me everything."
If God does not mean that much to you, then what are you seeking for? He obviously doesn't mean very much to you. He is not a pearl of great price to you. What does Jesus mean to you? An ordinary pearl? One pearl among many? Then you have not understood the value of the pearl, and you are not worthy of obtaining that pearl. "He that does not take up his cross and follow me, he that does not deny himself in following me, is not worthy of me." You have not understood the value of this pearl.
We are not talking about believing in some religion. We are not talking about believing in some religious teacher. We are talking about God manifest in the flesh. We are talking about one whose value is without price. You could not put a price tag on him. If you have not yet understood this, then clearly you think that what you possess is worth more than that pearl. If this merchant thought that his whole possession was worth more than that pearl, then clearly he would not sell all that he has to buy that pearl, would he?
If you go to a jeweler out there on St. Catherine's Street, and you find a pearl in the window that costs $300, well, you look at your possessions and you say, "I can pay $300. I don't have to sell everything to buy that pearl." But if you see a pearl there which says $300,000 — aha, that's a different matter. Now you realize that this pearl is of such value that the only way you can get it is going to cost you more than everything you've got. How much value do you put upon Jesus? By the way I see many Christians live, Jesus is obviously not very valuable to them. They are willing to give one or two hours on a Sunday to Jesus. Maybe one or two hours on a Friday. Maybe even five or six hours on the weekday. Maybe they give him a few dollars here and there. But is he worth everything? That is the one question. That pearl goes only to the person who sells all, who is totally committed. That is the kind of Christianity that Jesus taught.
Can you say with Paul, in Philippians chapter 3, verse 8: "I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may win Christ"? To Paul, this pearl of great price is worth everything — more than everything. All the valuables he ever had, he counts them not just as valueless, but as rubbish, that he might win Christ, the pearl of great price.
In conclusion, consider this beautiful pearl — the pearl as a picture of Jesus. The roundness of the pearl, representing the perfection of Jesus. The whiteness of the pearl, representing the holiness of Jesus. The radiance of the pearl — you see how the pearl shines when you look at it in the light — representing the beauty of Jesus. Remember also that the pearl is produced by suffering. So also the holiness of Jesus is the product of suffering, as we read in Hebrews chapter 5 — that he was perfected through suffering. And finally, the priceless value of the pearl, that we have already seen.
Can you think of Jesus as that beautiful, priceless pearl, worth everything you have? Only so. I hope this message of the Lord's teaching comes through to you. The whole emphasis of this parable lies in this one thing: that to obtain this pearl will cost you everything. If it doesn't cost you everything, then you have not obtained that pearl, and you will not obtain it. Understand that carefully.
Let us now be quiet before God in prayer.