Entering the Kingdom B

And when we talk about the kingdom of the Lord, we're talking about salvation. We're talking about Christ Himself and the gift of salvation that He gives, the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ, the preciousness of what it is to be in His kingdom. The blessedness of the kingdom is so valuable that it is the most valuable commodity that can ever be found and only a fool is not willing to sell everything he has to gain it. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Perhaps you go to church each week and read your Bible frequently and even tell others about your faith, and still at times you wonder how committed you really are to Jesus Christ and His kingdom. How can you tell whether you love Christ more than money, or your career, or even more than yourself? Consider that today as John MacArthur continues his look at the parables of the kingdom with a lesson that can help you evaluate your devotion to the Savior.

And here now is John MacArthur. Matthew chapter 13, verses 44 through 46. Matthew 13, 44 through 46. The Lord said, Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant man seeking fine pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Now, what are the principles from the two parables? What are the principles? I'm going to give you six principles.

Listen carefully. Number one, the kingdom is priceless in value. The kingdom is priceless in value. Both parables are designed to teach us the incomparable value of the kingdom of the Lord. And when we talk about the kingdom of the Lord, we're talking about salvation. We're talking about Christ Himself and the gift of salvation that He gives. The knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. The preciousness of what it is to be in His kingdom. The preciousness of fellowshipping with the King. The preciousness of being a subject of the sovereign. The blessedness of the kingdom is so valuable that it is the most valuable commodity that can ever be found and only a fool is not willing to sell everything he has to gain it.

Nothing comes close in value. Secondly, this lesson, the kingdom is not superficially visible. The treasure was hidden, right?

And the pearl had to be sought. It isn't just lying around on the surface. The treasure is not obvious to men. The value and the preciousness of the kingdom of heaven, the value and the preciousness of salvation is not viewed by men. They don't see it although it stands there and looks them in the eye. The world looks at us and they don't understand why we're all about this business of worshiping God. They don't understand why we want to give our lives to Jesus Christ. They don't understand why we want to live and obey a code of ethics and rules that goes against the grain of our deepest lusts and drives.

They don't understand why we price this so highly when it means so little to them. No, the kingdom is not superficially visible. Third thought, the kingdom is personally appropriated.

And this is the crux of the parables. The kingdom is personally appropriated. It is not enough to be under the influence of the kingdom. It is not enough to just be under the influence of the church or the influence of Christianity.

It is not enough to just, as it were, lodge in the branches or be touched by its permeating influence. There must be personal appropriation. And at some point in time, in order to do that, men and women must come to the point where they realize the value of it. A fourth principle, the kingdom is precious, it is hidden and it is personally appropriated. And fourthly, the kingdom is the source of joy. If you look at verse 44, it was for the joy that the man had when he found the treasure that he sold everything to buy it.

It was joy. Now that is a very, very insightful addition to this parable. It doesn't have to say that in there, but it does and it's very, very important. Because the Lord is acknowledging something that I have believed to be true all my life and it's confirmed here. The basic desire of all human beings on the face of the earth is to be happy.

That's it. You say, well, I know some people who love misery. Yes, they are happy being miserable, but it is happiness that they are after. I don't understand that approach, but if misery makes them happy, it still proves the point. The world is seeking for happiness, for joy. People want to feel good.

The Lord knows that. Joy. I mean, Jesus even said in John 15, 11 to His disciples in summing up the best of what He had to offer. The things I've spoken to you, I've spoken that my joy might remain in you and your joy might be what?

Full. And 1 John 1, John says, these things I write unto you that your joy might be full. And in John 16, our Lord says in verse 24, hitherto have you asked nothing in My name. Ask and you'll receive that your joy may be full. And Romans 14 says the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is joy. In Romans 15, that great benediction says that God may grant unto you joy. People want to be joyful.

They want to be happy. And here it is. It is all bound up, isn't it, in the treasure. True joy comes in the discovery of the kingdom of heaven in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the kingdom is precious.

The kingdom is hidden. The kingdom is personally appropriated and the kingdom is the source of true joy. For the joy of it, this man sold everything he had to take that treasure for his own, for joy's sake.

Nothing wrong with that. The Lord wants us to rejoice. The Bible says rejoice always and again I say rejoice. We should be the most rejoicing of all people, for we have found the treasure.

There's a fifth principle and this is a very, very helpful one. The kingdom may be entered from different circumstances. The kingdom may be entered from different circumstances. Now there are some similarities. In both cases, you have a man. In both cases, they find something of great value. Both cases, they understand its value. And in both cases, they are willing to pay any price for it. So they're very similar, aren't they?

But there's one big difference. In case number one, the man just comes across the treasure. In case number two, the man knows exactly what he's looking for. Now even if number one was a treasure hunter, he didn't know what he was looking for.

Number two did. Now what does this tell us? Well, the man in the field most likely was not looking for treasure. He was going through whatever routine he went through, working or plowing a field or building something or preparing some of the soil for whatever. And he was in the field and he was going along seeking sustenance for his life, doing what he did and he stumbled across a fortune. Now there are people who enter the kingdom like that, aren't there?

Sure there are. The apostle Paul, was he seeking to enter the kingdom? Not on your life. He thought he was in it. He was on his way to Damascus to kill Christians. The next thing he knew, God blasted him out of heaven. He landed in the dirt and he was redeemed.

He was just doing his thing. He was just plowing his field and he stumbled into a fortune. Well how about the Samaritan woman? She was thirsty.

She came down to a well to get a drink of water and went home redeemed. And then there was the man born blind and all he really wanted out of life was to be able to see and he went away redeemed also. And you know, there are some people who come to church to mock the preacher and then they get saved.

So you better be careful. There are people who aren't particularly seeking that but they stumble into the treasure. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, when he was young, sort of resolutely attended church because it was a thing to do but he didn't know Christ. And he wasn't seeking Christ.

He was content with his religiosity. He was only 15 years old one morning when he decided to... It was a New Year's morning and he decided it would be proper to go to church. His biographer says there was such a blizzard of snow that he was not able to reach the church he was in the habit of attending. When I could go no farther, he said, I turned down a court and came to a little primitive Methodist church.

The preacher who was to have conducted the service never got there because he was held up by the weather and quickly one of the officers had to be brought forward to conduct the service with a congregation of perhaps 15 people. The man, said Spurgeon, was really stupid. His text was, look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. And he just kept repeating it because he didn't have anything else to say. And something about young Spurgeon caught the preacher's eye. Young man, he said suddenly, you look very miserable.

Miserable in life and miserable in death you will be if you don't obey my text. And suddenly he literally shouted, young man, look to Jesus, look, look, look. And said Spurgeon, I looked.

And then and there the cloud was gone and the darkness rolled away and that moment I saw the sun. He wasn't searching for anything but it got him anyway. He stumbled into a fortune.

Few people who have ever lived have affected so many souls as Charles hadn't Spurgeon. I don't know who that stupid guy was who just kept repeating the text, but it was of God. And then there was the other, the one who looked for the pearls. He knew what he was looking for. He wasn't the mundane man that the man plowing the field was. He wasn't the guy who was content with the secular or the mildly religious.

This guy was really seeking something of genuine value. To me, this is the true seeker. This is the Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8. This is the Cornelius of Acts 10. This is the Lydia of Acts 16. This is the Philippian jailer of Acts 16.

This is the Berean of Acts 17. This is the one who's seeking God and seeking virtue and seeking that which is of true value. But what he doesn't understand in his seeking of religion which always comes through the works of men is that all of it is wrapped up in just one pearl.

Just one. He was looking for pearls. He was looking for things that were valuable. He was looking for goodness and honesty and virtue and God and forgiveness and peace and joy and heaven and salvation. And maybe he thought it was all over the place in a multitude of pearls and the shock to him was that it was all in one.

Everything he needed was in one. And so there are people who come into the kingdom almost by accident, only not from God's side. And then there are people who search. But the kingdom can be entered from different circumstances. Now the last point.

Now you get this one because this is so important. The kingdom is made personal by a transaction. The kingdom is made personal by a transaction. In both of these cases, the word buying or bought is involved.

Now some people just get really nervous here and they say, wait a minute. You're not telling us you buy your salvation. You're not telling us they bought their salvation.

Listen carefully. In a sense, the Bible says they did, but you have to understand in what sense. Now certainly the story itself is a real treasure bought with money, a real pearl bought with money, but that's only the story. The kingdom of God is bought, but you don't take the money out of the parable into the kingdom.

So whatever the exchange is here, it wouldn't be money. In fact, the Bible says you can't buy your salvation with money. A rich man can no more buy his way into the kingdom than you can shove a camel through the eye of a needle.

That isn't the point. And the Bible tells us that salvation is God's free gift, Romans 3. And it is not of works lest any man should boast.

We don't purchase it on our own with our own goods, but it is bought nonetheless. There's a great Old Testament passage that people always relate to salvation by grace, and it's in the 55th chapter, and I'll just read it to you. The first verse of Isaiah 55, 1. It says this, Ho, every one that thirsteth, come to the waters, and he that hath no money come by and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. And everybody says, ah yes, without money, and ah yes, without price. And you don't need any money, but they forget that it says come and buy, come and buy, come and buy. You buy it, you just don't buy it with money.

There is a purchase transaction in salvation. You say, well what is it? Well it isn't money, and it isn't human works. You say, what is it? There's got to be an exchange.

Here it is. The transaction is this. You give up all you have for all He has.

Did you get that? That is the essence of the transaction of salvation. I give up all I have and God gives me all He has. Now listen very carefully.

I do not want to be misunderstood on this point, and you need to understand it clearly in your own mind. In Luke 9 57, It came to pass that as they went on the way, a certain man said to Him, Lord, I will follow Thee wherever Thou goest. I'm going to come into Your kingdom. I'm going to be Your follower. I'm going to be Your subject. You're going to be my Lord. And Jesus said to him, all right, then foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. All right, here's the price, your comfort. You give your comfort and I'll give you my kingdom.

No deal. He wouldn't make the transaction. The next guy says, I want to follow you, but I want to bury my father. Now his father wasn't even dead yet.

He wanted to hang around for the inheritance. Jesus said, you let the dead bury their dead. You come with Me and preach the kingdom.

No deal. The first guy wouldn't give his comfort. The second guy wouldn't give his money, his inheritance. And another says, I will follow Thee, but let me first go say goodbye to everybody at home in my house. And Jesus said, nobody putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

You cannot plow a straight furrow looking the opposite direction. And this is no deal either. This guy can't give up his family. Now you don't get saved by money and you don't get saved by all of these other elements. That isn't the salvation factor, but it is indicative of whether you are willing to make the transaction of salvation which says that nothing stands between my willingness to give up myself to receive you.

That's the issue. In Matthew chapter 10 and verse 37, He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth daughter or son more than me is not worthy of me. In other words, if you are not willing to give up, if it needs to be given up, your family, then you're not going to enter the kingdom. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. And here it comes. He that findeth his life shall...what?...lose it, and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.

There's the transaction. You give up all you are and you receive all he is. That's salvation. In Matthew chapter 16, and I could go on forever with scriptures on this, but 1624 Jesus said unto His disciples, If any man desires to come after me, here is the transaction, let him deny whom?

Himself. Salvation is an act where I exchange me for him as ruler of my life. That's the basic principle. A rich young ruler came to Jesus in Matthew 19 and he said, What do I have to do to get in your kingdom? What do I have to do to have eternal life? And here's what Jesus said, If you want to be in my kingdom, then go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and then you will have treasure in heaven. You want my treasure, just like the treasure in the field, you want my treasure, then give away all of yours. Now do you get saved by giving your money to the poor?

No. You come to Christ and you are saved when you are willing to abandon everything to affirm that He is the Lord of your life. That's the transaction.

That's the transaction. We exchange ourselves, our sin, our will, our control of our lives for Christ's leadership. Now I don't think that people who are saved at the moment they're saved understand all the ramifications of that.

I don't think they understand all the elements of that. But I believe true salvation is marked by a willingness to do that as that understanding unfolds. It's not saying, Well, you can get saved when you've stopped your sinning and stopped your cursing and stopped your drinking and stopped your arguing and your fighting and your lusting, then come to me.

No, no, no. It is saying, I can't get rid of those things. I exchange all my own will and my own strength and my own resources. I strip myself bare and I receive your strength and your power.

That's the transaction. A willingness to abandon everything, everything under Christ's lordship. An illustration of this is in Philippians chapter 3 and I want you to listen carefully to it.

Here's Paul. It says he's going to tell you what he had in his flesh. This was what he had that he would consider his riches. This would be his all that he possesses.

This was his stuff. He says, I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel. I was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee. In other words, the stuff that was in his account was his Jewishness, his belonging to the tribe of Benjamin. And that was important because Benjamin was one of the good tribes, historically. And so he was identified as a true Jew, as a Pharisee. He had zeal.

He was righteous according to the law and he was blameless. Boy, my Judaism, my self-righteousness, my holiness and all of these things. That was my stock and trade.

That was my reservoir. But when confronted with Christ, what happened? Those things that were gain to me, those I counted what? Loss. And that's the transaction. Yes, I count all things but loss.

I count them dung manure that I may gain Christ. You see, there's the man buying the treasure, right? There's the man buying the pearl. He will liquidate everything. All of his self-righteousness, all of his own resources, all of his own self-will is abandoned to the affirmation of the lordship of Jesus Christ. And he does not understand all that that implies. He does not understand all that that means, but the willingness is there. Any price is worth it if I can be found in Him, if I can know Him, if I can attain the resurrection of the dead. Any price. And I think the cost factor in the presentation of salvation is not stressed often enough.

We are calling for a transaction. In Luke 14 the Lord says, A man builds a tower. If he does, he counts the cost, whether he's sufficient to finish it. If a king makes war, he counts the cost, consults whether he's able with 10,000 to meet him that comes against him with 20,000.

Nobody goes in blind. You count the cost. And there's cost, but it's worth the cost. The pearl is so valuable and the treasure is so valuable that it's worth any cost. The kingdom is precious. The kingdom is hidden. The kingdom is personal. The kingdom is joyous. The kingdom is entered from different circumstances, but always the price is to abandon myself to receive the supreme sovereignty of Jesus Christ. John MacArthur, with his study from Matthew 13 that's helping you grasp the amazing blessing that's yours when you're part of God's kingdom. The title of our series here on Grace to You, The Parables of the Kingdom. And now, John, before our time gets away, it's always a joy to hear how the Lord is using Grace to You's Bible teaching to encourage and equip believers both near and far. And with the letters you have in front of you, I think far is the operative word. These are people who've written to us from a long way from where we are here in California. Yeah, for sure.

This is from Beryl in England. For many years I attended charismatic churches. I often came into conflict with church leaders when I respectfully said, but the Bible says.

Five years ago I moved to a new town. The more I read my Bible, the more I realized I couldn't attend any of the many charismatic churches there. I came across Grace to You on the internet. The more I listened, the more amazed I was. Nearly everything that I had been trying to say over the last 40 years that had fallen on deaf ears was being preached by you. And now I can't stop listening. I can honestly say that your teaching has been a lifesaver for me.

I just wish I'd heard it 40 years ago. Thank you, Beryl. That is tremendously encouraging. Isn't it wonderful, Phil? We all know this.

For a searching heart, the Bible has the ring of truth. That's right. And this is another illustration. Here's one from Archer. My name is Archer.

I'm 17 years old and I live in Australia. I've been having some trials and sad times lately and I've been listening to a few of your sermons to help keep my eyes on the Lord. The series Abiding in Christ from John 15 where Jesus said I'm the true vine has helped me a lot.

My mom has encouraged my dad to listen to you, too, and I can see him growing and changing. Thank you for your biblical teaching. I'll be praying for you and your ministry. Thanks for those prayers, Archer, and we're delighted that the Word of God is making a difference in your life down in Australia.

And here's one from Miles who says he lives in extreme northwest Montana. I live in a valley that barely gets radio signals, he says. I don't have TV service and my internet is remarkably slow. Occasionally I pick up Grace to You Radio on KMBI and I can listen to your sermons and read your articles online. Sometimes I have to wait for an hour or two while a sermon loads, but it's worth it. I serve in my local church and share the gospel with neighbors, friends, and family. Thanks again for your ministry. That sounds like a place I'd like to live. Not me.

That would be hard with a slow internet connection. Wow. Thank you, Miles. We know that Scripture is the Word of God.

It never returns void. It does the work God intends it to do. Grace to You is able to reach you with God's Word. We're able to bring God's Word one verse at a time to folks all over the planet. Amazing, amazing outreach. And when you support Grace to You, you are part of that.

You're a partner in a very real sense. Pray for us. Thanks for standing with us financially as you're led and as you're able. We rely on the support that you provide for us.

Yes. Even though these men have very different lives and come from very different cultures, they were all radically changed by biblical truth, and that will always be our goal here to connect as many people as we can with God's transformative Word. If you would like to help in that, make a donation when you contact us today. You can mail your tax-deductible donation to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Or call us toll-free, 800-55-GRACE. And of course, your giving to your local church needs to come first.

We affirm that. But just know that your gift of grace to you as the Lord leads will help make a profound difference in the lives of people like you. Thanks for your faithfulness. And again, you can donate when you call 800-55-GRACE. You can also give online at gty.org. And when you get in touch with us, let us know if today's lesson encouraged you.

And please tell us if you or someone you know has come to faith in Christ through our Bible teaching. You can email us here at letters at gty.org, or write to Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. And our email one more time, letters at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson, reminding you to watch Grace to You television Sundays on DirecTV channel 378, or check your local listings for Channel and Times, and then be here tomorrow for another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You. .