Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Pearl That Reorders Everything: The Incomparable Worth of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:45–46)

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The Pearl That Reorders Everything: The Incomparable Worth of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:45–46) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to the show. We are getting straight to
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  Business Today. This is reformed thinking.
• 0:05
  It's good to be here. We have a very specific mission
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  for this session. Usually we take a wide angle
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  lens. We're looking at cultural
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  trends, big historical movements, that sort of thing.
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  But today we're going micro. We are zooming in on just two
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  verses, 2 verses in the Gospel of Matthew. 2 verses that I
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  would argue really hold the DNA of the Christian life.
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  They really do. But before we even open the
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  text, I want to talk about something else, A mechanism
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  that, well, it runs our lives. It's the air we breathe.
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  I want to talk about valuation. Evaluation.
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  That's a concept we usually reserve for, you know, real
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  estate or the stock market. Sure, but if you strip away all
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  the biology, what are human beings?
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  We are essentially appraisal machines.
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  Think about it. We wake up and we have a limited
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  amount of currency. And I don't just mean money.
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  I mean time, emotional bandwidth, focus, and every
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  single choice we make from what we eat for breakfast to who we
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  marry. It's an active valuation.
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  We are constantly saying this is worth that.
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  That's the economic reality of the human soul.
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  I like that. We're traitors.
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  We are. We're always swapping one thing
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  for another. You trade your time for a
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  paycheck. You trade your paycheck for, I
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  don't know, comfort. You trade your comfort for
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  excitement. It's a constant exchange.
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  Precisely. And this makes me think of John
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  Bunyan. You brought up the Pilgrim's
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  Progress in the notes for this deep dive, specifically that
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  scene of Vanity Fair. Oh, it's a haunting image, It
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  really is. Bunion pictures the world as
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  this chaotic year round carnival, right?
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  It's a marketplace where everything is for sale.
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  Titles, honors, lusts, pleasures, and the terrifying
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  brilliance of Vanity Fair is the marketing.
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  The trinkets are polished to such a high Sheen that they look
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  like diamonds. And the real diamonds, if you
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  can even find them, are usually covered in mud.
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  That is the way of the world. It screams at us that the good
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  life, you know, financial independence, the corner office,
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  the perfect reputation, that that is the simum bonum.
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  The highest good. The highest good, the one thing
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  that, if you have it, justifies the loss of everything else.
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  The world tells us that if we just secure that next asset,
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  we'll finally be full. But the tragedy, and we see this
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  in the data, we see this in biographies of the rich and
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  famous, is that people spend decades trading their life force
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  for these things. They buy the trinkets, they fill
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  their bags, and then at 60 or on their deathbed, they open the
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  bag. And it's empty.
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  Or even worse, it's full of things that can't stop death.
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  That's the crisis evaluation, and that is exactly why we're
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  looking at Matthew 13 today. We're looking at the parable,
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  the Pearl of great price, because Jesus is about to step
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  into that marketplace and just flip the table.
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  He's going to show us the true summum bonum.
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  So we're in Matthew chapter 13, verses 45 and 46.
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  It is a tiny story, I mean really short.
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  A merchant finds a Pearl, sells everything he has, and buys it.
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  It is short, but you can't let the brevity fool you.
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  This is not just a Sunday school story about how nice Jesus is.
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  This is a story about the ruthless total cost of the
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  Kingdom. That's what we want to get at.
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  I think for a lot of our listeners, especially if they
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  grew up in the church, this is felt board material.
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  You know, it's cute, but we want to look at the Greek, we want to
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  look at the context and we want to look at the theology
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  specifically through the lens of the Westminster Confession to
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  understand what is actually being demanded here.
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  We're going to see that this is all about the exclusivity of
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  Christ. It's about a complete reordering
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  of the entire heart. So let's set the scene Matthew
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  13. This isn't just a random
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  collection of anecdotes, is it? No, not at all.
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  If you're reading Matthew chronologically, chapter 13 is a
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  massive pivot point, a huge one. OK, up until now, Jesus has been
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  very public. He's doing miracles.
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  He's teaching the Sermon on the Mount.
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  He's engaging the crowds. But here, right here, the
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  temperature changing. It feels heavier, darker almost.
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  It is the chapter of rejection. The religious leaders are
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  actively plotting against him. The crowds are starting to want
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  a political revolutionary, not a suffering savior.
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  And so Jesus switches tactics. He starts speaking in parables.
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  And the disciples are confused by this, right?
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  They actually pull them aside and ask, why are you doing this?
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  Why are you suddenly speaking in middles?
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  And. His answer is, I think, shocking
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  to the modern year. We live in this age of seeker
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  sensitive churches where the goal is to make everything as
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  accessible and easy as possible. Make it frictionless.
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  Exactly. But Jesus quotes Isaiah 6 and he
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  says essentially I am speaking in parables to hide the truth.
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  To hide it. That sounds completely
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  counterintuitive for an evangelist.
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  It sounds backward to us, but it's biblical.
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  He hides it from those who are proud to hide it from those who
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  think they are wise. This is the doctrine of judicial
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  hardening. That's a terrifying concept.
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  In Reformed theology. It is.
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  Jesus is saying that spiritual sight is not a natural ability
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  like having 2020 vision. It's a gift.
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  It's a gift of grace. He tells the disciples to you it
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  has been given to know the secrets, but to them it has not
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  been given. So if you're reading this text
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  and you actually see beauty in it, that isn't because you're
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  smarter than the Pharisees were. No, not at all.
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  It's because the Sovereign God has peeled back the cataracts on
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  your soul. That is the only reason the
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  merchant in our story sees the Pearl at all.
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  OK, now there is a twin parable right before this one, verse 44,
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  the parable of the hidden treasure.
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  A man is digging in a field, hits a chest, covers it back up
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  and goes and buys the whole field.
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  They're twins, yes. The outcome is identical.
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  Total liquidation to gain the prize, but the setup is
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  radically different and that difference really matters.
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  The guy in verse 44 wasn't looking for treasure.
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  He wasn't a treasure hunter, no. He was a plowman, a day laborer.
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  He's just doing his job, sweating in the sun, probably
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  working for someone else. And then clunk.
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  He hits it. He just stumbled over it by
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  accident it seems. And that's a picture of
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  sovereign grace surprising the Sinner.
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  Think of the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus.
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  Paul wasn't looking for Jesus. He was looking to arrest
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  Christians. He was an enemy of the faith.
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  And suddenly, boom, the treasure found him.
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  But our guy today in verse 45, he's a different breed entirely.
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  Very different, the text says. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is
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  like a merchant in search of fine pearls.
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  This man is not stumbling, he's hunting.
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  Let's drill down on this character.
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  The text calls him a merchant. The Greek word is emporos.
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  Emporos, and this is a technical term.
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  In the ancient economy, you had two main types of sellers.
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  You had the Capello's and you had the Emperors.
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  Break that down for us. What's the distinction there?
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  Well, the Capello's was your local retailer, the guy with a
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  vegetable stall in the village market.
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  He sits there, pretty passive, waiting for someone to come by
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  and buy a carrot. He marks up local goods.
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  That is not this man. So who is the Emporos?
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  The emporos is the wholesaler, the importer, exporter.
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  This is a man who probably owns a ship, or at least charters 1.
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  He travels, he leaves the safety of the harbor and crosses the
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  Mediterranean. He deals with foreign markets.
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  He risks his capital in the high seas.
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  So he's an adventurer, a risk taker?
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  He's a professional seeker and more than that, he's a
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  connoisseur. You don't send an amateur to buy
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  pearls in the ancient world. You have to know the difference
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  between a high quality gem and a cheap knock off.
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  This man is an expert appraiser. I love that distinction.
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  He isn't a casual browser, he's not just window shopping, and
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  the tech says he is seeking fine pearls, Plural.
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  That grammar is so vital, so town T.
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  It's a present active participle.
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  It implies continuous habitual action.
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  This is his life, it's his vocation.
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  He wakes up every single day thinking, where are the pearls?
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  And notice he's looking for fine pearls, Colusse.
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  Beautiful noble pearls. He isn't looking for trash, he
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  isn't dumpster diving for his meaning, no.
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  And this is where we need to apply this to the listener.
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  Who is this man? Spiritually speaking, This
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  represents the serious Enquirer. This is the person who isn't
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  satisfied with the base pleasures of the world.
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  They aren't just trying to get drunk or get rich quick.
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  They are looking for meaning. They're looking for truth.
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  They're gathering pearls of a different sort, maybe the Pearl
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  of moral respectability. Oh, absolutely.
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  I'm a good citizen. I pay my taxes.
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  I'm faithful to my spouse. That is a fine Pearl.
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  It shines. People admire it.
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  Or the Pearl of intellectualism or philosophical wisdom.
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  I read the classics, I understand philosophy, I know
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  how the world works. Another fine Pearl.
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  Or even religion itself. Especially religion.
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  I go to church. I know the liturgy.
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  I have a reputation for piety. These are all fine pearls.
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  They're not sins in the traditional sense.
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  In fact, they are good things. But the merchant is collecting
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  them one after another. And yet he keeps searching.
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  Why, if he has a bag full of fine pearls, why is he still on
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  the ship? Why risk of the storms?
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  Because he hasn't found the sumum bonum.
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  He's still hungry. The bag is full, but the soul is
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  empty. He knows, deep down that his
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  morality hasn't actually fixed his heart.
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  He knows that intellect hasn't solved the problem of death.
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  He knows his religion feels hollow.
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  This brings up a theological knot.
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  We need to untie that. We're reformed, folks.
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  We believe in the Westminster Standards.
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  We believe in total depravity. Romans 3.11 No one understands,
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  no one seeks for God. Great.
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  So if the Bible says flat out that no one seeks for God, how
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  can Jesus tell a story about a man who is actively seeking the
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  Kingdom? Is Jesus a pledge?
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  Is he saying we can find God by our own effort?
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  Never. No, we have to thread this
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  needle very carefully. It's absolutely true that the
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  natural man, left to himself, will never seek the biblical
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  God. OK, he might seek a God of his
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  own making, a God who affirms him, a cosmic therapist.
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  But not the Holy One of Israel. He hates that God.
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  So what's happening with the merchant?
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  What is this? Seeking this.
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  Seeking is the result of what the Puritans used to call
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  preparatory work, or what some might call prevenient grace.
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  It's when the Holy Spirit begins to stir up a holy restlessness
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  in the soul before conversion. It's Augustine.
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  It's precisely Augustine. Thou has made us for thyself, O
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  Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in the
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  that restlessness that is a gift of grace.
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  So when you, the listener, feel dissatisfied with your career or
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  your success feels hollow, that isn't just, you know, midlife
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  crisis or depression. That might be God.
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  It is God making the world taste flat.
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  He makes those fine pearls, your achievements, your morality.
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  He makes them feel weightless in your hand.
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  He is driving the merchant to the market.
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  He is preparing you to recognize the true value when you finally
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  see it. Let's move to that moment, the
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  discovery verse 46, who on finding 1 Pearl of great value.
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  The Eureka moment. The Greek shifts here, doesn't
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  it? He was seeking Zotanti
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  continuous, and then he found Hirun Berarist tense.
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  It's a definitive one time event.
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  It happened. And look at the number he was
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  looking for pearls, plural. He finds 1 Pearl hina singular.
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  The exclusivity of the Kingdom. And this is where the gospel
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  just offends the modern mind. We live in a pluralistic age.
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  We want a collection. We want a necklace where Jesus
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  is 1 bead and our career is another bead and our political
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  identity is another bead and our yoga practice is another bead.
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  We want a balanced portfolio. Right.
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  Diversification is the first rule of investing, after all.
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  In the world, yes. In the Kingdom, it is fatal.
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  The Kingdom of Heaven is not one item in a collection.
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  It is the one Pearl. It stands alone.
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  It demands to be the only ultimate treasure.
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  If you find this Pearl, you realize that everything else you
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  have collected is just, well, it's just glass.
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  The text describes it as pollutamon, very precious of
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  surpassing worth. We need to identify the Pearl
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  explicitly. It's the Kingdom, yes, but what
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  is it specifically? It's the King himself.
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  It is Christ. You cannot have the Kingdom
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  without the King. The Pearl is Jesus.
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  It's his righteousness, his forgiveness, his person.
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  I want to pause on the image of the Pearl itself.
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  The source material brings up a beautiful point about what a
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  Pearl actually is. Biologically, it's unique among
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  gemstones. It is absolutely fascinating.
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  Think about a diamond or a Ruby or an emerald.
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  Those are minerals. They are inanimate.
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  You dig them out of the rock, you cut them, you Polish them.
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  They are, at their core, cold, hard stones.
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  It's like Pearl. A Pearl is organic.
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  It's the only gem formed by a living creature.
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  And how is it formed? They're suffering through a
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  wound. Precisely.
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  An irritant, a grain of sand, a parasite, something.
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  It enters the shell of the oyster, it invades the soft
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  tissue, it wounds the creature. And to deal with that wound, the
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  oyster begins to cover it with nacre.
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  Layer upon layer upon layer of this iridescent substance, the
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  Pearl is literally a healed wound.
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  That preaches. I mean that really preaches.
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  It points us directly to the gospel.
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  Why is Christ the Pearl of great price?
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  Because He is the Man of sorrows.
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  He was wounded for our transgressions.
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  By His stripes we are healed. The beauty of our redemption,
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  the beauty of our justification, is formed out of the suffering
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  of the Son of God. That gives so much more weight
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  to the value. It isn't just that it's shiny,
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  it's that it's sacrificial. And that is why it is superior
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  to all the other fine pearls he's been collecting.
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  The merchant knows quality. He's an expert.
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  He looks at this Pearl, this suffering servant, this glorious
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  king, and he says this is in a completely different category.
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  Let's compare them for a minute. The fine pearls of the world
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  versus this one Kingdom Pearl. Well, worldly pearls, money,
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  fame, even a good moral reputation, What do they do?
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  They adorn the outside. They make you look good to other
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  people. They impress men.
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  They're accessories, right? And they're temporary.
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  You can't take them with you when you die.
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  But the Kingdom Pearl, it doesn't just adorn the body, it
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  rescues the soul. It reconciles you to the holy
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  God. It handles the problem of guilt.
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  That's the big one. I can have the Pearl of success,
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  but at 3:00 in the morning when I'm staring at the ceiling and
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  remembering my failures, my moral failures, that Pearl
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  doesn't help me. Success cannot wash away sin.
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  Money cannot bribe the judge of all the earth.
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  Philosophy cannot conquer death. Only the Pearl of great price
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  does that. It endures forever.
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  So when the merchant sees it, he makes a calculation, a very
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  rational calculation. It's just simple math at that
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  point. It is this 1 is worth more than
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  all of those combined. And that calculation leads
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  immediately to action. This brings us to the
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  transaction, the Great Exchange. Verse 46 continues, He went and
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  sold all that he had and bought it.
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  The verbs are so fast here. Went, sold, bought.
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  There's no hesitation. He doesn't go home and think
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  about it for a month. He doesn't form a committee.
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  He doesn't check the market forecast.
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  He sees the value and he acts instantly.
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  Let's talk about that word, sold Pep Rockin.
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  It's in the perfect tense. That implies an action that is
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  completed in the past but has permanent, ongoing results.
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  It's done. The bridges are burned, the
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  inventory is liquidated. There's no going back.
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  Now we have to stop here because we're using the language of
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  buying. He bought the Pearl, and if
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  we're not careful, this sounds like we're earning our
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  salvation. This is crucial, absolutely
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  crucial. This is where we must
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  distinguish Reformed theology from any kind of workspace
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  system. If you read this and think, OK,
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  if I sacrifice enough, if I give away enough money, if I become
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  poor enough, then God will be obligated to give me the
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  Kingdom. You have destroyed the gospel.
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  You've turned it into a transaction between equals, like
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  you have something God needs. Which the Westminster Confession
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  strictly forbids. We are dead in our sins.
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  We have no currency to buy God. Ephesians 2.8 to 9.
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  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not
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  your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a
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  result of works. So what does Jesus mean by buy?
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  How do we understand that word? We have to make a distinction
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  between price and cost. OK, unpack that.
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  That's a vital distinction. The price of the Pearl is the
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  blood of Christ. Jesus paid the price to satisfy
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  the justice of God. We contribute nothing to that
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  price. Justification is absolutely free
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  to US. Isaiah 55.1 says Come buy wine
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  and milk without money and without price.
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  So the purchase price is $0.00 for us because it was an
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  infinite price for him. Correct, But the cost.
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  The cost is surrender. The cost is discipleship.
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  The metaphor of buying here means appropriation, that means
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  making it yours. And the metaphor of selling
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  means repentance. You cannot hold the Pearl while
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  your hands are full of other things.
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  Exactly. Imagine your hands are gripping
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  bags of sand. Your sins, your pride, yourself
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  righteousness, your secret idols.
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  God holds out a diamond to you. You don't have to pay for the
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  diamond, but you do have to drop the sand to be able to catch it.
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  You can't serve 2 masters. So selling all is a picture of
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  displacing idols of repentance. It is total liquidation of your
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  old allegiances and notice it says he sold all that he had.
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  Does that mean every Christian needs to sell their house and
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  live in a van? Are we talking about some kind
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  of monasticism here? Not necessarily, although for
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  some, like the rich young ruler, Jesus did demand that literal
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  selling because money was his God.
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  But for most of us, selling all is about allegiance.
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  It's about the heart. It means there's nothing I hold
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  on to that I wouldn't give up if Christ asked for.
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  It it's the great exchange. I'm giving up myself
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  righteousness, which the Bible calls filthy rags, to receive
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  his imputed righteousness. And when you put it that way,
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  it's a fantastic deal. Who wouldn't make that trade?
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  I'm trading rags for riches. I'm trading guilt for peace.
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  I'm trading death for life. This is why the parallel parable
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  in verse 44 says the man sold everything in his joy.
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  In his joy, that is the key emotion.
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  It isn't a funeral procession, it's a celebration.
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  No, he isn't crying as he sells his stuff.
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  He's laughing. He is thinking.
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  These people don't know what I found.
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  They think I'm crazy for selling my business, for selling my
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  house, but I know what I'm getting.
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  I am getting the better end of this deal by a long shot.
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  It really changes the way we look at sacrifice.
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  We often look at Christians who give up high paying careers to
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  go to the mission field or people who stay single to serve
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  God and we think, oh poor them, they gave up so much.
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  But if they have seen the Pearl, they don't feel poor, they feel
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  like they won the lottery. If you Kitty the missionary,
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  it's because you don't value the Pearl as much as they do.
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  I want to shift gears a little bit and get a little polemical
• 18:26
  here, because if we understand the Pearl correctly, it really
• 18:29
  exposes a lot of bad theology that's floating around the
• 18:32
  church today. It certainly does.
• 18:34
  The Pearl is a sharp instrument. It cuts right through the fluff.
• 18:37
  Let's start with the big one, the prosperity gospel.
• 18:40
  The prosperity gospel is a heresy that essentially says
• 18:44
  come to Jesus and he will give you the world.
• 18:48
  He'll give you more of the other pearls.
• 18:50
  He'll give you the health, the wealth, the private jet, the
• 18:52
  promotion. So in that framework, Jesus is
• 18:54
  just the means to an end. The end is the worldly stuff.
• 18:58
  Precisely. In that system, the pole of
• 19:00
  great price is actually the money for the health.
• 19:03
  Jesus is just the merchant you used to get it.
• 19:06
  But this parable says the absolute opposite.
• 19:09
  The merchant doesn't buy the Pearl to diversify his
• 19:11
  portfolio. He liquidates the portfolio to
• 19:14
  get the Pearl. He loses the worldly stuff to
• 19:16
  get Christ. The prosperity gospel says you
• 19:18
  get Christ and the worldly stuff as a package deal.
• 19:21
  It completely reverses the valuation.
• 19:23
  It makes Jesus a servant of our greed.
• 19:25
  It's idolatry wrapped in Bible verses is what it is.
• 19:28
  What about the other side of the spectrum, the idea of cheap
• 19:31
  grace or easy believe ISM? This is the idea that you can
• 19:34
  have the Pearl without the selling.
• 19:36
  You can walk up to the counter and say I'll take the Pearl,
• 19:39
  please. But I'm keeping my sin, I'm
• 19:41
  keeping my autonomy, I'm keeping my pride.
• 19:43
  I'm keeping my secret life over here.
• 19:45
  I'd like to add Jesus to my life like a software update.
• 19:49
  Just run it in the background. Right.
• 19:51
  I want fire insurance for hell, but I don't want a Lord for my
• 19:54
  life. This parable just destroys that.
• 19:58
  You cannot buy it without selling, not because you're
• 20:01
  selling earns it, but because the nature of the transaction is
• 20:04
  exclusive. If you claim to have Christ but
• 20:06
  you haven't repented, if there has been no selling of the old
• 20:10
  life, then you haven't really found the Pearl.
• 20:12
  You've found a plastic imitation from a gumball machine.
• 20:16
  A gospel without lordship is a counterfeit gospel.
• 20:19
  It is Dietrich Bonhaber had the term for it.
• 20:21
  Cheap Grace. Grace without discipleship,
• 20:24
  Grace without the cross, Grace without Jesus Christ living and
• 20:27
  Incarnate. There's also this seeker
• 20:29
  sensitive pragmatism we see. We touched on it earlier with
• 20:31
  the parables, the idea that we need to lower the price to get
• 20:34
  people interested. Don't talk about sin, don't talk
• 20:37
  about hell, don't talk about self denial.
• 20:40
  Just tell them Jesus will fix their marriage and make them
• 20:42
  happy. It's treating the Kingdom like a
• 20:44
  product on a shelf that isn't selling, so we have to mark it
• 20:47
  down. 50% off clearance sale. Get your salvation now.
• 20:51
  But think about the merchant. He's an expert.
• 20:54
  He knows value. If you walk up to a diamond
• 20:57
  expert and offer him the Hope Diamond for $5, what's his first
• 21:01
  thought? He thinks it's a fake.
• 21:02
  It's glass. Exactly.
• 21:04
  He gets suspicious. The way to attract the elect the
• 21:08
  tool seekers, the one that God is drawing, is not to lower the
• 21:11
  cost, but to reveal the worth. Show the glory of the Pearl.
• 21:15
  If you show them Christ in His Holiness, in his love, in His
• 21:18
  Majesty, then the cost of selling all seems completely
• 21:21
  reasonable. It's a bargain.
• 21:23
  If you present a small, weak, desperate Jesus, then even a
• 21:26
  little bit of obedience seems too expensive to pay.
• 21:29
  That's a profound point. The problem isn't that the cost
• 21:32
  is too high, it's that our vision of the value is too low.
• 21:35
  Amen. We're offering a discount,
• 21:37
  Jesus. And then we wonder why no one
• 21:39
  wants to buy. So let's bring this down to the
• 21:41
  listener to you. We need to do some diagnostics.
• 21:44
  We need to check our own inventory.
• 21:46
  We do we need to ask the hard question, What are the fine
• 21:50
  pearls in your life that you are afraid to sell?
• 21:53
  If Jesus walked in right now physically into your room and
• 21:57
  said I want that thing handed over, what is the thing?
• 22:00
  Your hand would grip tighter. For some listening, it's
• 22:03
  moralism. The good person card.
• 22:06
  I'm a good person. Yes.
• 22:07
  I don't drink, I don't smoke. I vote the right way.
• 22:10
  I'm not like those other people you are trusting in your own
• 22:13
  resume. Selling that means admitting you
• 22:16
  are a wretched Sinner who needs grace just as much as the drug
• 22:19
  addict in the gutter. That is a hard sell for a proud
• 22:22
  heart. It's painful to let go of your
• 22:23
  own righteousness. For others, it could be
• 22:25
  intellectualism. I know the theology.
• 22:27
  I can quote the Westminster Shorter Catechism backwards, but
• 22:31
  knowledge puffs up. Are you willing to sell your
• 22:33
  pride and being right to have the humble heart of Christ?
• 22:37
  Are you willing to look foolish for Jesus?
• 22:39
  What about control or comfort? Oh, that's a big one, the idol
• 22:44
  of security money planning. We are terrified of the future,
• 22:49
  so we build these little walls of gold bars or 4 O1 KS around
• 22:52
  us to sell. That means to truly trust
• 22:55
  Providence. It means saying God my security
• 22:58
  is in you that in my bank account.
• 23:00
  And reputation the. Fear of man.
• 23:02
  That's a huge 1 today. What will people think if I
• 23:05
  really follow Jesus? If I speak up about biblical
• 23:08
  truth at work, I might get cancelled.
• 23:10
  I might lose friends. If you value the applause of men
• 23:14
  more than the approval of God, you are holding onto a fake
• 23:18
  Pearl. And that fake Pearl will drag
• 23:20
  you to the bottom of the ocean. This is hard work.
• 23:22
  This kind of diagnostic is painful.
• 23:24
  It's surgery, it has to be, but remember, the goal is in pain.
• 23:28
  The goal is joy. Let's go back to that the joy of
• 23:31
  the exchange. The merchant didn't go home and
• 23:32
  sulk. He was thrilled.
• 23:34
  He was joyful. We have to recover the joy of
• 23:36
  salvation, the reason we struggle to sell our sins and
• 23:39
  because we still, on some level think they make us happy.
• 23:41
  We've been deceived. We think if I give up this lust,
• 23:43
  if I give up this bitterness, I'll be miserable.
• 23:45
  But the truth is that lust is killing you.
• 23:48
  That bitterness is eating you alive from the inside out.
• 23:51
  It's a poison candy. When you see Christ for who he
• 23:55
  is, you realize I'm not giving up happiness to be holy.
• 24:00
  I'm giving up misery to find true joy.
• 24:02
  As CS Lewis famously said, we're like ignorant children making
• 24:06
  mud pies in a slum. Because we cannot imagine what
• 24:09
  is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.
• 24:11
  We are far too easily pleased. We are the Pearl is the holiday
• 24:15
  at the sea. The mud pies are all those other
• 24:17
  trinkets were clutching. I want to connect this to union
• 24:20
  with Christ. We mentioned the Westminster
• 24:21
  Confession earlier. Chapter 13 deals with
• 24:23
  sanctification. How does all this connect?
• 24:25
  The power to sell all doesn't come from your willpower.
• 24:28
  It just doesn't. You can't just grit your teeth
• 24:31
  and say, OK, today's the day. I'm going to stop loving the
• 24:33
  world. That never works white
• 24:35
  knuckling. It always, always fails.
• 24:37
  No, the power comes from union with Christ.
• 24:40
  Because here's the beautiful thing, the twist in the story.
• 24:43
  Jesus is not just the Pearl. In another sense, he is also the
• 24:47
  merchant. Explain that That flips the
• 24:49
  script. Well, think about what Christ
• 24:50
  did for us. He was in the glory of heaven.
• 24:53
  He had everything. He was rich beyond all measure.
• 24:56
  And what did he do? He sold all.
• 24:58
  He emptied himself. As Philippians 2 says, he took
• 25:01
  on form of a servant. He became poor so that we by his
• 25:05
  poverty might become rich. He paid the ultimate price to
• 25:08
  buy us. He bought us.
• 25:09
  We are the Pearl in that scenario, which is shocking
• 25:12
  because we aren't valuable in ourselves.
• 25:14
  We're covered in mud, we're irritants, but He set his love
• 25:17
  on us. And because He sold all for me,
• 25:20
  I can now, empowered by His spirit, sell all for Him.
• 25:23
  We love because he first loved us.
• 25:25
  The indicative who we are in Christ always leads to the
• 25:28
  imperative what we do for Him. My obedience flows from His
• 25:32
  finished work. I don't sell my stuff to get Him
• 25:34
  to love me. I sell my stuff because I have
• 25:37
  seen and been overwhelmed by his love.
• 25:39
  That takes all the pressure off. It isn't me generating the zeal
• 25:41
  in a vacuum. It's me responding to the
• 25:43
  massive love I've already received.
• 25:45
  That is the heartbeat of reformed thinking.
• 25:46
  Grace precedes everything. As we wrap up this deep dive, I
• 25:50
  want to issue a final call to our listeners.
• 25:53
  We have been talking about this merchant who acts, who sees and
• 25:58
  then buys. The time for browsing is over.
• 26:00
  There are people listening right now who are perpetual window
• 26:04
  shoppers. They listen to podcasts about
• 26:06
  theology. They go to church.
• 26:08
  They like the idea of Jesus. They respect the ethics of the
• 26:11
  Kingdom. They like the aesthetic of
• 26:14
  Christianity. But they haven't bought the
• 26:15
  Pearl. They haven't closed the deal.
• 26:18
  They're still holding onto their autonomy.
• 26:20
  They are dating the church, but they haven't married the
• 26:23
  bridegroom. And the warning of this text is
• 26:25
  that you can admire the Pearl from the other side of the glass
• 26:28
  and still go to hell. Admiration is not salvation.
• 26:31
  Appropriation is salvation. You must take him.
• 26:34
  You must bow the knee. You must say mine.
• 26:37
  And to the world, that looks like utter foolishness.
• 26:39
  It does to the world. The merchant looks bankrupt.
• 26:43
  Look at that guy. He sold his house, he sold his
• 26:44
  business. He's got nothing left.
• 26:46
  What an idiot. But he walks around with a
• 26:47
  secret in his pocket. He knows he's the wealthiest man
• 26:50
  alive, and that is the Christian life.
• 26:53
  We are, as Paul says, having nothing and yet possessing
• 26:57
  everything. So I want to leave you with a
• 26:59
  provocative thought. If someone looked at your life,
• 27:02
  your actual life, your calendar, your bank statement, your search
• 27:05
  history, your anxieties, what would they see?
• 27:08
  Would they see a person who has found the treasure?
• 27:10
  Or would they see a person who is still frantically collecting
• 27:14
  trinkets? Would they see the piece of the
• 27:16
  veil or the panic of the marketplace?
• 27:19
  That's the question. The Pearl is before you.
• 27:21
  The King is before you. He is worth everything.
• 27:23
  Lose your life for his sake and you will find it.
• 27:25
  Thanks for listening to Reformed Thinking.
• 27:27
  We'll see you next time.