In the sermon 'The Pearl of Great Price' by Jason Dohm, several parables from Matthew 13 are explored to illustrate the immense value of the Kingdom of Heaven. The parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price highlight the overwhelming worth of the Kingdom and the joy of discovering it. The dragnet parable addresses the final judgment, where the good and bad will be separated, emphasizing the importance of being true followers. Jesus' use of parables is explained as a method to reveal truths to those ready to understand while obscuring them from others. The sermon also discusses the people's skepticism in Jesus' hometown despite his wisdom and miracles, due to their familiarity with him. Furthermore, the role of scribes is examined, portraying them as informed and active participants in God's Kingdom, tasked with understanding and teaching the Word. The sermon calls for personal reflection on one's understanding of and commitment to the Kingdom, urging believers to prioritize God as their ultimate reward.

Matthew 13. Our sermon text starts in verse 44 to the end of the chapter today. 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 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 had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to shore, and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels but threw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age the angels will come forth separate the wicked from amongst the just and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said to them, Have you understood all these things? They said to him, Yes, Lord.

Then he said to them, Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old. Now it came to pass that Jesus had finished these parables, that he departed from there. And when he had come to his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas and his sisters are they not all with us?

Where then did this man get all these things? So they were offended at him but Jesus said to them A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house and he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Oh Heavenly Father, we come to you, Lord, we ask that you give us ears to hear Lord open our hearts and our minds to hear what you have to teach us through these parables Lord We thank you for these words that you give us, Lord, to let us understand you. Lord, please help us to please help Jason as he comes forward, Lord, to speak through him, to teach us, to let us apply these things in our lives, to be ambassadors for you, and to be able to share this good news, Lord. We thank you for your Son.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, we're finishing our month in Matthew 13. And it's been rich looking at these seven different parables. The title of the sermon this week is The Pearl of Great Price. It's around one of the three parables that we'll be speaking of today.

Now the flow of this narrative and the teaching that we've been studying actually began at least in chapter 12 verse 38. I say at least because it's possible that things even preceding verse 38 of the last chapter could be tacked on there, but we're not sure. At the very minimum, you can tell just by what Matthew says that all this has happened on the same day. So from chapter 12, 38 all the way through the 58 verses in chapter 13 has happened on the same day. At the very end of chapter 12 we have this confrontation between Jesus and the scribes of the Pharisees.

And they ask him for a sign and his response is to make comparisons. And he compares them to the men of Nineveh, these gentile famous sinners, famous for their sin, and he compares them to the Queen of the South, the Queen of Sheba, this gentile queen who didn't have the word of God in her everyday life, but had heard things about Solomon in the kingdom of Israel and so she came from afar to see whether the things that she had heard about his wisdom and that his wisdom had come from God were true. And then Having compared them to the Gentile men of Nineveh and this Gentile queen, Jesus compares them to a demon possessed man who has been freed from this demon, but he's not occupied by God. And so he just tidies up a little bit. And what that means is that the demon comes back, and he comes back with seven demons more wicked than himself, and the end state is worse.

And Jesus says this generation is just like that. This generation has been given all these advantages and all this generation has done with its advantages is just to tidy up. It's not occupied with God, it's not occupied by God, but it's just dusted a little. And the end condition of this generation will be worse than at the beginning because of how they've done. And then chapter 12 ends with Jesus pointing at his disciples and saying, Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." And really here at the end of chapter 12, when he says that about his disciples, that the disciples of Jesus Christ are his family, even more so than the flesh and blood that is standing outside waiting to speak with him, he is beginning to teach about the Kingdom of Heaven even then.

Right here at the end of chapter 12 is really where you have to say Jesus is starting to teach about the Kingdom of Heaven there. The Kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom where the family, the brothers and sisters who never were but become that way through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. This tells us something about the kingdom of heaven and then he just continues to pile it up and continues to teach and continues to teach about the Kingdom of Heaven. Verse 13 says, on the same day that he has had this clash with the scribes and the Pharisees, he leaves the house, he goes out by the lake, and there are so many people and they are pressing in on him that he has to get in a boat and set the boat out a little ways to get the people off of him so that he has a little distance and he sits in this boat and he teaches them. And he teaches them through parables.

And he begins by teaching the parable of the soils. There are seed that is on four different soil. And in one soil, it's just snatched away. Nothing happens. And in the second soil, it's rocky.

And so it can't take root. It looks like it's taking root, but it springs up and the sun beats down on it and it withers away. And the third seed, it springs up, but it's got thorns around it. It's got weeds that actually choke it out. And Jesus explains what those weeds are.

But then there's a fourth soil that the roots go down deep, it has the moisture that it needs, and it bears fruit. A hundred-fold fruit, sixty-fold fruit, thirty-fold fruit. And then Jesus teaches why the parables. Because the disciples are puzzled that all this teaching is now not as plain spoken as was earlier in Jesus' ministry. He's changed how he's teaching the multitudes.

And he's teaching them through parables. So his disciples come to him and say, why? Why are you teaching in parables? And he tells them, blessed are your eyes, for they see, and blessed are your ears, for they hear. Jesus has determined that these things will be hidden from some and they will be given to others.

It is actually the mercy of God that they are revealed to anyone. The wonder of the parables isn't that they are hidden from some. The wonders are that they are revealed to any because all men have darkened their hearts through rebellion and disobedience. And it's only the mercy of God that causes anyone to be blessed so that their eyes see, and to be blessed so that their ears hear. And then Jesus proceeds to the parable of the wheat and the tares, and he gives them a private explanation.

So these first two parables in chapter 13, he's given the parable, and then later on when he's just with his disciples, he gives his disciples the private explanation. He gives them more and he fully explains to them what he's teaching through the parables. And then we had the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven last week. So we've been in this for a month, but Jesus, this is two-thirds of the day for Jesus or something like that. And so it's been very compressed.

He's been teaching all this time. This week we tackle the final three parables in chapter 13, or four parables, depending on how you count it. If you count the householder being like a scribe, then it's a fourth parable. But we won't fuss over the count because we're going to talk about them all anyway. And the three main parables are the treasure hidden in a field, the merchant seeking beautiful pearls and the dragnet.

So before we get into the details of the text, let's pray. Father, I thank you that you're teaching us more about your kingdom through this text. How many times have your people considered this text on the Lord's Day and been blessed by the things that you have taught through the Gospels. God, we thank you that you've left this mighty deposit and we pray that you help us to be faithful stewards with these things that you've left for us, that you've given to us. That we might know what your kingdom is like, how we ought to conduct ourselves within your kingdom, and ultimately that we might honor King Jesus.

Help us to squeeze the most out of this text that we can, in Jesus' name, Amen. Verses 44 through 46, the treasure in a hidden field and the merchant seeking beautiful pearls. So you have these two parables and they're side by side and they teach much the same thing. It's not exactly the same thing but it's kind of coming at the same thing from different angles. So they're very alike but they're not exactly alike and The first thing that I want to observe is that Jesus does this a lot.

Jesus frequently takes the subject at hand and comes at it back to back, one right after the other from different angles. And he is pounding the point home. So I want to give you seven examples that we've already hit in Matthew, where he does that. The first is Matthew 5, 14 through 16. Jesus says, a city on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket.

So he's communicating one thought, but he's coming at it from two different angles. He talks about a city on a hill, and he says you can't hide it. And he talks about a lamp, and he says you don't put it under a basket, you put it on a lamp stand. And so there's this repetition that helps us get what Jesus is trying to teach us. We see it again in Matthew 6 verses 26 through 30 where Jesus talks about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.

What's he trying to drive home? A single point that God's people can trust him to provide because he feeds the sparrows and he closed the lilies of the field. So again, right in sequence, one right after the other, Jesus is driving home a point through repetition, through taking a pairing and coming at the same point from a couple of slightly different angles. We encounter it again in Matthew 7 verse 6. Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine.

And he's talking about how you deal with the unregenerate, people who aren't saved, with their sin. And there's a way that you treat brothers and then there's a way that you treat those who are not brothers and it's not the same way. But Jesus again takes two examples, dogs, and you don't throw what's holy to the dogs and pigs. You don't throw your pearls out there to be trampled on by the swine. We see it again in Matthew 9 verses 16 and 7, where Jesus talks about a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment and new wine into an old wine scan.

And he's talking about how the old covenant relates to the new. And so he uses these two examples of a new patch on an old garment and how it tears. And new wine into an old wine scan, and how that causes the wine scan to burst. We see it again in Matthew 10, verses 24 and 25, where Jesus says, a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. So when Jesus is making a point that will be treated like Jesus was treated, 07 and we shouldn't expect to be treated well when Jesus was treated poorly.

And he comes at it sequentially, one right after the other, from slightly different angles. And he says, this is how it is with teachers. A disciple is not above the teacher. This is how it is with teachers. A disciple is not above the teacher, this is how it is with servants.

A servant is not above his master. So if the teacher gets treated this way, if the master gets treated this way, then the student and the servant can expect to be treated that way. We see this again in Matthew 12 verses 25 where Jesus says, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought into desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand." He's making a single point that he's not behind the demons that he's casting out, but that a house divided can't stand. So he talks about a house divided against itself, and then he talks about a kingdom or a city divided against itself. So again, we just see another example of sequentially back to back Jesus making a single point through multiple examples.

They come at it from just a slightly different angle. And he's giving us the full or view through the repetition. And then finally, we've seen it here in Matthew 13, verses 31 through 33, where Jesus talks about the mustard seed. The kingdom of heaven is like something that's really little. It's more little than any of the other seeds.

It's despised. Jesus' disciples are fishermen and a tax collector. But it's not always going to be that way. The kingdom of heaven is going to start that way, but it's going to turn into something else that's bigger than anything else in the garden. It's big enough that the birds can come nest in its branches.

And then the very next verse, Jesus talks about leaven. It's small. It seems like it's nothing. Leaven's just dust practically, but it's very active dust. And when you put it in, it works unseen, but it permeates through the whole batch of dough.

Fifty pounds of dough, three measures. That's what we saw last week, that it will work its way through 50 pounds of dough, even though you can't see it working. Man, do you know it's there because it transforms the whole lump. So Jesus uses the mustard seed and then follows it right up with 11. And we're seeing that again in the two parables.

And the treasure hidden in the field followed sequentially right on the heels of it. Jesus comes back and talks about the merchant seeking fine pearls. And It's really significant where these parables happen in the progression. They happen right after Jesus talking about this little despised mustard seed. Smallest seed in the batch.

Now he's talking about the Kingdom of Heaven and what it's like. He started out with the wheat and the tares. The Jews had expected the end of the story to be when the Messiah came. Remember at the end of the wheat and the tares is where there's this great judgment, there's the great separation between the just and the unjust, and there's glory and immortality for the good guys, and there's eternal damnation for the bad guys. And the Jews were expecting that when the Messiah came, that this would be that time.

Jesus is teaching through that parable. Nope, not the right sequence. That's not how redemptive history is going to work. And there's going to be this period of time where the wheat are going to grow side by side with the tares. And it is not the will of God to separate them at that time.

God has his own reasons for that which he explains in the parable. But it's not his will. They're going to grow side by side. But don't think that that doesn't mean that there's not a time in redemptive history where there's a great separation. There will be that time, but it's not until the end.

And then Jesus teaches about this small despised mustard seed, and then he teaches about this leaven. And it's not the glory. It's not the glorious kingdom that the Jews had expected or anticipating or waiting for. They wanted political liberation from these oppressors and they got something very different than that. So Jesus Having talked about how the kingdom is going to be so much different from their expectations, now comes back to talk about the beauty and the value of his kingdom.

Even though it might be this small little seed, this small little despised seed, It is of immense, immeasurable value. It's a treasure. It's a pearl of great price. And so in one way, Jesus might have started out with parables that would be discouraging to his disciples because it wasn't what they were waiting for. And yet Jesus comes back with these parables to say, the Kingdom of Heaven has value beyond your wildest dreams.

It is beautiful and it is of immense worth. The first parable is the parable of the treasure hidden in a field. And remember, all six of these parables begin with the same words, the kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom is like a treasure. The kingdom of heaven is a treasure.

That's what Jesus is saying, but it's hidden treasure. It's hidden treasure. Now if we go to other places in scripture, even where the things that Jesus has just been teaching, we'd say, it's hidden in plain sight. It is hidden in plain sight, and yet it's hidden. To those who have eyes to see, it is revealed to them.

Back in chapter 11 verse 25, Jesus says, I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to the babes. So Jesus is picking back up on a theme that he's been teaching on regularly, that to some it's hidden and to some it's revealed. And we have this parable where there's a finding, where there's a revealing, where there is a discovery of a treasure and a man finds it. And this man comes upon this treasure and he says, a treasure! I found a treasure!

And he reacts like you'd expect someone to react when they found a treasure. He's overwhelmed by it. He's blown away by the value of what he's seemingly stumbled upon. And he's overwrought and he re-hides the treasure. Now, don't bog down in the ethical dilemma of the re-hiding of the treasure.

That's not the point. Don't even let your mind go there about whether he should have told the landlady. No, no, no. It's not about that. It's about this man's reaction to the treasure.

The point is, this man who's found the treasure is captivated by it. There is No way this man is going to lose the treasure. No way. He's not going to risk for one second not having this treasure. So he re-hides it.

That's why he re-hides it. He can't risk losing this treasure because it has become an obsession for this man. He must have his treasure. So nothing is going to separate this man from the treasure that he's found. No person is going to separate him from this treasure, and so he hides it.

And nothing that he's ever owned before is going to separate him from this treasure and so he hides it. And nothing that he's ever owned before is going to separate him from this treasure. So he goes in, he sells it all to buy that field. He's not going to be separated from anything that he used to have an appreciation for, nothing. He's going to go sell it all to buy that field, knowing that the field is a small price to pay for the treasure that is built into it.

So he's going to get way more than he gives by buying that field. Here's the kicker. Here's the kicker from the parable. For joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has for joy over it. He can't wait to get home to sell his stuff.

He's covering up that treasure, nothing to see here, move along. And He's hustling home to sell all of his stuff, to get rid of all of his stuff, so he can get back there and get his hands on that treasure. This is not Eeyore who's sad to part with his stuff. This is Tigger who can't wait, who for joy over it, sells all of his stuff. I wonder if Dan has given them a Winnie the Pooh analogy over at Hope.

We'll ask him when we get over there. It's for the joy over it. There's not a weeping parting with his stuff. It's for the joy over it. He can't wait to get home to sell all the things that he used to think had value so that he can get back and he can have this treasure.

This is what the Kingdom of God is like when God gives eyes to see and when God gives ears to hear. You realize things about the kingdom that you are in. Those things that always seem to be just fine about where you are standing, all of a sudden are so unsatisfactory. The things that you thought you'd just persist in forever, and that would be just fine. Now that you've seen the treasure, there's no unseeing it.

And you have to have it. And you're preoccupied with this treasure. And so you're running home to sell your stuff. You realize that you're in a kingdom of darkness. You never knew it.

You always thought it was just the kingdom. It's just where everybody is. Aren't we all in the same place? No. And now you can see it for the first time.

And it's a kingdom of darkness. You say, I've got to get out of this kingdom. I've got to get in that kingdom. There's life in that kingdom. There's joy in that kingdom.

I can't be here Another day. And it's nothing to abandon the kingdom that you're in. Abandon the kingdom of darkness? Of course you'll abandon the kingdom of darkness. Of course you'll sell all that you have to buy that treasure.

Paul says this in Colossians 1, 13 and 14. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Now put that way, who doesn't want that? Put that way, who doesn't want that? He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love.

Put that way, Who doesn't want that deal? Who doesn't want to be conveyed out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son of His love? And yet as we sing in the hymn, Thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come to the banquet table prepared by God because they can't see it. They don't know they are in a kingdom of darkness. They don't know that they can be conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of his love.

It's a hidden treasure. You've never seen it that way before. You've never understood that you were in the kingdom of darkness and that there was a kingdom of life to be conveyed into. It was hidden from you, but now you see it and you can't be another day without that treasure. You have to sell your stuff now to have that treasure.

Paul says this in Philippians 3, verse 7 and 8. But what things were gained to me, these I have counted lost for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ." This man is going home to sell his rubbish. He's going home to sell his rubbish. Have the rubbish.

Buy my rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. The things that were game, yesterday, an hour ago, ten minutes ago, they were game. But now they're rubbish. And you'll gladly part with all of it to buy that field and have that treasure. Now, what does it mean to buy the treasure?

Surely the kingdom of heaven is not for sale. How are you going to buy the treasure? Isaiah 55.1 tells us, Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Jesus has already been saying this in the Gospel of Matthew in different ways. In Matthew 6 verse 24 Jesus says, No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God in mammon. In Matthew 10, 38 and 39, Jesus said, And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

And he who finds his life will lose it. And he who loses his life for my sake will find it. The point of buying the field is not you have something that God needs, not you have something with which you can pay for it. The point is you can't have them both. You just can't have all the old stuff and the field with the treasure in it.

You can't. God will not allow it. He's a jealous God. He's a consuming fire. You can't have all the old stuff and the new field with the treasure in it.

You cannot have both. And this is the essence of repentance. It's a turning away from one thing in order to turn towards the other thing. This is why Paul calls it in Acts 20, repentance toward God. It's not just turning away from things.

It's turning toward God. This is the nature of repentance. That's why John the Baptist and then Jesus, and then it'll be Peter, and then it'll be Paul, all have the same message. Repent! Repent!

This is what this parable conveys when it says, buy, sell everything and buy that field. Turn away from all the old stuff and turn toward the treasure which is the kingdom of God. To go back to Paul's terms, we're selling our rubbish to gain a treasure. God doesn't want the price of that rubbish. He's not in need.

If he was hungry, he would not tell us. Listen to Revelation 3, 17-19. Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesalve that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.

Therefore be zealous and repent." This is what Jesus is teaching in this parable. He counsels us to come and buy gold refined in the fire. He comes and counsels us to buy white garments. And he says like Isaiah, come without money and buy. This is the mercy of our God.

John Calvin says this, But though the heavenly life and everything that belongs to it is the free gift of God, yet we are said to buy it when we cheerfully relinquish the desires of the flesh, that nothing may prevent us from obtaining it." So I'll leave this parable with one question. Do you know this? Do you know this? Not do you know all the stuff related to it? Have you intellectually said yes to the factual propositions?

That's not what I'm talking about. Have you been gripped? Have you been like the man who found the treasure and then he re-hides it because no man will keep him from this treasure? And he sells all that he has because nothing that he used to think was valuable will keep him from this treasure. If you only know the facts surrounding it, but you do not know this deep in your soul and haven't felt that, you're probably not regenerate.

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. And when a man found it, he hid it, and he went and sold all that he had and for joy over it. He sells it all and bought that field. The second parable, so much like it but not exactly like it. It's the parable of the merchant seeking beautiful pearls.

And again it starts the same way. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. But the structure is not the same. In the first parable, the kingdom of heaven was like the treasure. In the second parable, the kingdom of heaven is like the treasure seeker, the merchant who is seeking beautiful pearls.

There's been a switch here. And Knowing how to view the Scriptures in that Jesus makes arguments based on verb tenses and Paul makes arguments based on whether one word is singular or plural. You can't look at the switch here and say that switch doesn't have a significance. So it's talking about much the same thing, but it's not exactly the same thing. First we have the kingdom, which is the hidden treasure, But now we have the kingdom, which is the seeking merchant.

In this one, the kingdom is the seeking merchant. He's looking for something. He's on the lookout for beautiful pearls. What is the merchant seeing? Well, you'd have to say, reading the parable, that he'll know it when he sees it.

I mean, he's seeking beautiful pearls. It tells us that. But It doesn't say that he's bought any yet. He's he's on the lookout He'll know it when he sees it and then one day he says that is the one That's the pearl You kind of get the sense that he's been hoarding. He's been hoarding, waiting for the one.

And he sees it, he says, okay, all my stuff for this one. He must have that pearl. One pearl of great price, just one. He's been seeking beautiful pearls. He's a pearl merchant.

He trades in Pearls. But when he sees that one pearl, he says, I am out of business. I am out of business. Everything for that one. And like the first parable, he is willing to sell all to have it.

To have it. In Revelation chapter 1 verse 8, God says this to the Apostle John, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Three verses later in Revelation 1, 11, he says again, I and the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. I want to submit to you that God Almighty Himself is the pearl of great price. That God Himself is the great end of the kingdom, the great object of the kingdom.

The object of incomparable beauty and worth that this Merchant has been on the lookout for is God himself none other than God Revelation is full of creatures and angels and multitudes that say over and over and over again, Lord, you are worthy. Lord, you are worthy. Lord, you are holy. You are holy, Lord. In Genesis 15, 1, the Lord comes to Abraham in a vision.

He says this, Do not be afraid, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. Exceedingly great reward. Abraham, I am your exceedingly great reward. God had given Abraham many things already. This is late in Abraham's life.

He has not been given an heir yet, but he's been given a God-fearing and beautiful wife. He's been given wealth. In fact, his household is so prosperous that when his nephew gets taken away, a captive of war, he just arms his 300 servant and goes out there and takes his nephew back. Abraham's been given wealth beyond anything we're likely to ever see in our midst. Abraham's been given precious promises, but when God comes to him he says, Abraham, I am your exceedingly great reward.

I am your reward. God is the exceedingly great reward of his people. It has been true for Abraham. It was true for Moses. It was true for all the prophets who lived like John the Baptist.

They were eating locusts. They were wearing this camel hair stuff because God is their exceedingly great reward. Some of them were prosperous, some of them were kings, some of them had nothing, but they all would sell all for God, to have God. Yes there are many beautiful pearls in the kingdom, aren't there? There are many beautiful pearls in the kingdom, aren't there?

There are many beautiful pearls in the kingdom. There's the Word of God. Where would we be without this mighty deposit that God has given us. I shudder to think what life would be like without this testimony. There is the grace of God through Christ.

There is the works of God on our behalf to deliver us from all manner of circumstances that happen in this life. There's the fellowship of the saints. Isn't it precious to come here and be among brothers and sisters? Side benefits, that's all they are. All those things.

Even things like the Word of God, the grace of God. Side benefits only. Icing the cake is God. God is the exceedingly great reward of His people. God is the pearl that the kingdom says, This is our object that we will give all for.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Oh subjects of the kingdom of God, our business is to make much of God. He is worthy. We will spend our eternity worshipping Him, proclaiming that He is worthy and that He is holy. And we should not wait until then.

We should sell all that we have to have this exceedingly great reward. It is God Himself. Does this describe you? Are you the person who has seen who has seen this one pearl of great price and has been so happy to sell all to have it. In Revelation 2 verses 4 and 5, Jesus rebukes the church of Ephesus and he says, you have left your first love.

Remember therefore from where you have fallen. Repent and do the first works. You can't talk about this without just pondering what it's like to have a first love. What is that like? It is not dim.

It is white hot light. It is not cool. It is a furnace heated over seven times. What is a first love like? So you can't talk about having left your first love until you contemplate what it's like to have a first love.

And you have to start with the question, do I know that? Do I know that? Have I had a love like that where I can call it a first love and say that matches up with experience that matches up with a time in my life where all you could think about was that? Do you have something in your spiritual life that is parallel to that. Oh man, I do.

I do. I remember the first days. They were so sweet. When the forgiveness of God was still fresh, so fresh. It was days old, it was weeks old, it was months old.

And I would do anything for Jesus Christ. I was doing the most radical things in those days. Because I had seen this object. Our calling is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. And in one way we say, that's crushing, I can't do that.

And in another way, those who have seen the Pearl of Great Price say, of course, of course, How can I love God with less than that? He's so worthy. And we're captivated and we're consumed by this vision that is before our eyes and we must have it. We must have that object. Search your hearts.

Have you ever had this white hot first love? Have you ever had it? If I'm saying these things and you're saying, I don't know what this guy's talking about, what is this guy talking about? You are not born again. I tell you, you are not.

The ones who have seen the pearl Know it. They know it. Because it has become an obsession for them. Think back to the four soils. Think back to those four soils.

The second soil, rocky, springs up, sun comes out, it's gone. Because trials and tribulations came. I don't know, I have to pay that. Not interested. The person that had seen the pearl of great price doesn't say, I didn't know that was the cost.

Not interested. Says, sure. If I had more, I'd pay more. The third soil that springs up and the thorns choke it out, what were those thorns? The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.

The person who has seen that pearl of great price, cares nothing for riches. He'll give all of His riches to have that pearl. So if you're saying, God, you can't touch that. God, you can't have that. You're not like this man.

You're not like this merchant that is seeking a pearl of all pearls. Have you ever had this white hot first love? And if you have, if you go back in your memory banks and say, man, it was jubes for me just like what that guy's describing up there. I remember those days. They were such sweet days.

Then the question has to be, have you left it? There are people in here that are saying yes to that question. I know there are. There always are. That's why Jesus has given us the letter to this church so that we'll stumble on it every once in a while and say, Wow, I have departed from my first love.

I need to repent and do the first works. Verses 47 through 50. Again the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which when it was full they drew to shore. And they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So It will be at the end of the age.

The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth." This is the parable of the dragnet. Our family has actually seen this done one time. Been going to the beach for 40 years, never seen this done. But a couple of years ago we saw it done, a long net out into the ocean.

And these guys had a tractor and their pickup truck on the beach. And the tractor actually dragged the net in. It's a drag net. It's just like what it reads like in the text here. And I bet the net was 75 yards long, really long net, way out.

And then the net just sat out there a few hours, and then the tractor starts dragging the net in and creating this U. And the shore is the barrier, right? And so these fish are out there and that It's getting closer and closer to the shore and when they drug that up there were hundreds and hundreds and Hundreds and hundreds of fish And they did exactly what's described in the story. They got all these fish, drug up there on the sand, and they start going through these fish. Good, bad, good, bad.

The good going to the bed of this pickup truck, which they completely filled up with fish. They had one of these big pickup trucks, and they completely filled it with fish. And then there were some that were too small. They were the wrong kind of fish, and they're just throwing them back. They're separating out the good fish exactly like this parable.

And Jesus says the kingdom of God is like that. The kingdom of heaven is like that. It's like a net. And it collects up all kinds. All kinds of fish get collected up in the net.

That's the thing about nets is they're not very discriminating. If you're there, you're caught up in the net. Back in chapter 4, chapter 419, Jesus is starting to call disciples. He calls Peter and Andrew first. He says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

Jesus has a whole kingdom set up to fish for men, a whole kingdom, to bring in men. It can be somewhat indiscriminating sometimes. There's all kind of men end up in that net. Some are good and some are bad. But the parable says when the net's full and then he explains that this is at the end of the age.

That's when the net is full. At the end of the age, there's a great and final separation of the good fish from the bad fish. This is not without context in the Old Testament. In Leviticus 11, 9 through 12, God defines good and bad fish. Leviticus 11, 9 through 12.

And the ones with fins and scales, they're good fish. Eat up, fins and scales. If they don't have fins and scales, they're an abomination. So You go from good, edible, have at it, to this is an abomination. Now when we come to the New Testament in 1 Timothy, Paul says this in 1 Timothy 4, verse 4, For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving.

Here's what that says. Those things that didn't have scales, didn't have fins, There was nothing intrinsically wrong with those things. They've been created by God. They're good. And in the New Testament, have at it.

It's ceremonial law. It's teaching that there is to be a distinction between those who are good and those who are an abomination to God. It's one of those pictures built into the Old Testament law that teaches us things about the Kingdom of God and Jesus is putting the floodlight on this teaching. That's all the good and the abominable fish were about in the Old Testament. Not that they were intrinsically nutritious, but that God was teaching his people something.

To be different, to be a peculiar people, and to understand that there's a distinction between those things that are good and those things that are abominable and to keep those distinctions bright. The end of this parable, or this parable, actually the whole parable, reads just like the wheat and the tares. Gathering up, then separating good from bad, eternally, finally. In fact, if you look at verse 42 and you look at verse 50, you'll see they have exactly the same words and exactly the same sequence. It's the same phrase, 42 and 50.

And cast them into the furnace of fire, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. The wheat and the tares ends that way. This parable is all about that phenomenon, that there will be a day of judgment at the end of the age. Here's the difference. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, the field is what?

The field is the world. In the world, the wheat will grow side by side with the tares, and this is the will of God, And the wheat is not supposed to do anything about that. God is going to sort that out at the end. The dragnet is the kingdom of God. And we're being taught here that in the church, we have one here, we have one down there, there's another one down there, and another one down there, there's probably four churches till you get to the stoplight.

There's going to be a mixture in those buildings on those Sunday mornings. It's going to be those who are the Lords and those who say they're the Lords, maybe look like they're the Lords, but are not the Lords. And there will be a day when all that is made right, when all that is fixed. Because in the final state, there's not going to be any of that in the Kingdom of Heaven. There will only be the Lord's.

And there won't be any faking it, and there won't be any talking about it. There will only be those who he knows and those who he does not know. How many times have we hit upon this? It, it's gotta be eight times so far in the book of Matthew. God is so merciful to keep bringing us back to this point so that we'd consider our latter end.

People, there are people among us who have, you fooled, me fooled, themselves fooled, but God is not fooled. And he keeps bringing us to these texts to consider it so that we would consider ourselves whether we're in the faith. Verses 51 and 52. Jesus said to them, Have you understood all these things? They said to him, Yes, Lord.

Then he said to them, Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old." As a master teacher, Jesus is checking for comprehension. Did you understand this? Yes, Lord, we understand. By the way, this is not a final pronouncement. We get to Matthew 15 in a couple of weeks.

Jesus teaches another parable and then Peter comes and says, what in the world does that mean? And Jesus in Matthew 15-16 says, are you also still without understanding? So they've understood what's here, but they've not turned the corner to completely understand all the things that Jesus has been teaching them. But at least they've understood these parables that Jesus is teaching them about his kingdom. Jesus speaks of his disciples as scribes.

He's speaking of his disciples as scribes, instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven. So they are scribes and better than scribes because they actually understand the things that Jesus is teaching about the kingdom of heaven. This is what Jesus is laboring to do, to make his disciples scribes who understand the kingdom. Now, you and I don't spend a lot of time contemplating scribes, but the Jews would have known exactly what this was about. Here's what my Bible dictionary says about a scribe.

A man learned in the Mosaic law and in the sacred writings. An interpreter. A teacher. Scribes examined the more difficult and subtle questions of the law, added to the Mosaic law decisions of various kinds thought to elucidate its meaning and scope. The scribes or the expositors, they're taking the Word of God to say, to unfold it and say this is what the Word of God means and they're applying it.

That's their job. To understand it thoroughly, well, completely, and then to say this is what it means and this is how you apply it to your life. That's what a scribe is. Here's the poster child for scribes in the Old Testament. It's Ezra.

Ezra was a scribe. Here's what it says in Ezra chapter 7 verses 6 and then 10. Ezra 7, 6 and 10. This gives us insight into what Jesus is talking about when he talks about a scribe. This Ezra came up from Babylon.

And he was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses which the Lord God of Israel had given. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. This is what a scribe fashioned by the hand of God does. He's one, prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord. Two, he does it.

Three, he teaches it. That's what Ezra 7.10 says. He prepares his heart to seek the law of the Lord. He acquires wisdom from the law of God and he does it. He's not just a learner, but he's a doer and he teaches it.

He's not just a repository of the things that God has given him, but he dispenses what God has given him for the benefit of others. So God wants this kind of scribe, and so God wants to take this kind of man that he has fashioned, and also instruct him in the kingdom of God, in the kingdom of heaven, so that he has in his treasures new things and old things. And he is ready to bring out of this storehouse, this treasury, The things that have been given to them by God, both new and old. Now remember chapter 10. Jesus is getting ready to send the disciples out.

And chapter 10 is all those instructions that He gave to them before He sent them out two by two to preach and to heal. In verse 1 of chapter 10, he calls them disciples. He calls them learners. He calls them students in verse 1 of chapter 10. And then in verse 2, He switches and says 12 apostles.

So in verse 1, it's 12 disciples. In verse 2, it's 12 apostles. So they're going from being learners, from being students, from being disciples, to those who are sent out. That's what an apostle is, a sent out one, somebody who is sent out under orders. And this is what Jesus is doing here.

He's continuing to teach these men to convert them from fishermen and a tax collector into scribes, men who know the Word of God inside and out and have been instructed concerning the Kingdom of God, and he is making them apostles, sent out ones. Ones who are ready to take this storehouse of good and dispense it. Matthew Henry says this, laying up is in order to laying out for the benefit of others. In other words, the only use that God has for giving you these treasures is to later dispense them out. You lay up so that you can lay out, as Matthew Henry says.

Here's what John Calvin says. And now the Lord, after having taught them in this kind and familiar manner, warns them at the same time that his object in taking so much pains to instruct them, was not merely that they might be well informed, but that they might communicate to others what they had received. Jesus is not teaching us so that we'll be well informed. He's not. He's teaching us so that we'll be doers and then teachers of His Word, like the scribe Ezra, who had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, to do it, and to teach and instruct the people of Israel.

Verses 53-58. Now it came to pass when Jesus had finished these parables that he departed from there. When he had come to his own country, he taught them in their synagogue so that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom in these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?

And his sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things? So they were offended at him. But Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house. Now he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

Finally Jesus returns to his hometown. It says own country twice here in the New King James and in both of those locations in the New American Standard and the ESV and the NIV, they render it hometown, which is both are acceptable translations. But undoubtedly this is Nazareth. This is Jesus of Nazareth. Even the demons know him by that name.

Nazareth is his hometown. So here he is. He comes back to his hometown, likely his home synagogue. Nazareth, not a big place, probably not a multi-synagogue kind of place. So here he is in the synagogue that he grew up in, and he's teaching.

And the people who were there when he was a little boy, when he was a wiggly little boy on the third row, are hearing him teach and seeing him do these astounding things. And so they're astonished. And they ask two questions. The first question is this, where did Jesus get this wisdom in these mighty works? The NASB and the NIV, instead of mighty works, say miraculous powers.

And that's a better translation. Because the focus of the actual Greek words is not that they're not the works. It's the ability to do the works. Where did Jesus get that ability? It's one thing that the mighty works are being done, but it's another thing that our hometown boy has the ability to do them.

Where did he get that? The second question they ask is this. Don't we know this man's relatives? Don't we know them all? Isn't this a carpenter's son?

This is not a man raised on the knee of a rabbi. We sure know that. He was raised on the knee of a carpenter. Where did he get these things? Isn't his mother's name Mary?

Don't we know his brothers by name? One name, two name, three name, four name, we know you all. Aren't his sisters here with us? We know the whole family. Where did you get these things?

They should have answered their own questions. The answers would have taken them to the right place. If you didn't get them off being on the knee of a rabbi and He has all this wisdom from heaven, and he has the ability to do miracles. Where did it come from? Good question.

Had they answered it rightly, they would have known they were in the presence of the Messiah. But they concluded, because he grew up there, because they knew everything about him, so they thought that he couldn't possibly be authentic. John Calvin says this, they are struck with amazement at the novelty of the occurrence that Christ, who had not learned letters, but had been employed from youth to manhood in a mechanical occupation, is so eminent a teacher and is filled with divine wisdom. And what is this but to reject a prophet whom God has taught because he has not been educated by men? You didn't go to Harvard?

And it should have been their greatest sign that he had been educated by God. That he didn't have these. These lack of credentials in a way should have worked in his favor to say, wait a minute, something is going on here. How does a man get all this if he doesn't go to Harvard. It's been taught by God.

Jesus says in verse 57, a prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house. Our prophets just simply have to come from another hometown. Our prophets can't come from our hometown. That's how it works. We can't believe that God would use mightily the people and the things that we are so familiar with, we just can't believe it.

We just won't accept it. So though the Son of God be in our midst doing miracles and preaching wisdom from heaven, we say where did you get these things? This can't be real. And Jesus identifies this as a common human frailty. And so this is our opportunity to ask, are there very familiar things or people that God has put in our lives that we've despised when we should have received it as from the Lord.

These people would have done well to ask themselves that question. Are there people or things that are so familiar to you, you're in and around them every day, that you've despised and undervalued, but they're what God is using. Verse 58, Jesus did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. There's a parallel passage to this that's in Mark 6 that recounts this same situation. In Mark 6 verse 5 we read this, now he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them And he marveled because of their unbelief.

Then he went about the villages in a circuit teaching. Three observations from this text and the parallel text in Mark 6. The first is the things that is so pooh-poohed by the Gospel writers would turn Youngsville upside down. If we went to the hospital out of here and just took some cancer patients out of the ward, out of hospice care, if we went down to the graveyard and just raised up somebody's aunt from the dead, Youngsville would be a buzz. This tells you something about what Jesus was doing in His ministry.

He just healed a couple of people. He was hardly able to do anything. What Jesus had done that is being described here was done in Youngsville. The town would be abuzz. What was it like to live in the time of Jesus and see all his mighty miracles and this sort of thing would just kind of be set back on the back burner.

Yeah, he just healed a few people. Secondly, you cannot help but to conclude that there were blind people, and sick people, and demon possessed people. They may very well have been healed if these people had honored Jesus. Now I know we have to square that with the sovereignty of God and the providence of God. But the text says that he didn't do many miracles there because of their unbelief.

Had they honored him, there would have been people who would have been relieved. James says, you have not because you ask not. May it never be. What might God do in our midst if we will believe Him, if we will honor Him? It matters.

People who are Calvinist down to their little toe and Love the sovereignty of God and embrace the providence of God as I do Should look at this text and say it matters if you believe God pours it out when people believe and honor him. He pours it out. Thirdly, Jesus isn't stopped by the unbelief of these people. He's not stopped. He's made unwilling to do the same things in the same scale as we have seen in other places but he is still healing people.

And then in Mark it says, then he went about the villages in a circuit teaching same Galilean towns that he's been going around since chapter 4. Just continuing the circuit, same towns. Here's what Matthew Henry says, Christ does not take refusers at their first word, but repeats his offers to those who have often repulsed them. Don't you love Jesus? He does not take refusers at their first word, but he repeats his offers.

And often he repeats them again and again and again because we have a God who is full of mercy. He doesn't have to repeat his offers. He is God. And yet, he's tender. He's full of mercy.

He does repeat His offers. A few concluding remarks. Really they are in the form of questions. Has God shown you clearly His Kingdom? So you can say, I'm just like that man who found a treasure hidden in a field just like him, I know the day I had to have that kingdom.

So that you realize, I'm in a kingdom of darkness. I am at odds with God Almighty. There's a kingdom with life. I'll give everything to be conveyed into that kingdom. If so, if God has shown you clearly the Kingdoms and He has conveyed you from the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, is God your one great preoccupation?

Remember, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. Who, when he had found one of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it? For the people of God, we ought to have one great preoccupation. We ought to act like we've seen something of such great value. We'll sell all that we have to buy it.

Let's pray. Oh, Father God, may it be so among us. This is such a hard text to preach, knowing how often my heart is cold. Your people ought to be preoccupied with you, God. They ought to be.

You are worthy. Forgive us God for the thousand ways that we've said you're not worthy. I pray, oh God, that you would reveal yourself to us. That we would find ourselves swept up with this preoccupation, having seen this one pearl of great price. And that the thought of God would consume us and that you would say to us what you said to Abraham I am your exceedingly great reward and that we would be so satisfied.

God, we thank you for this text. We pray that you would bring forth fruit, a hundred-fold fruit from it, in Jesus' name, amen.