The Kingdom of Heaven's Value

We'll open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 13, please, as we continue our study in the Gospel of Matthew. Just kidding. She's seeing who's paying attention. I next, a week from today, I'll be at Greg Withrow's church filling the pulpit for him. so I didn't want to start John 7 and then get interrupted, which might be a lame excuse, I'm not sure. But nevertheless, here we are.

So we will take a little detour this week and look at a couple parables from Jesus in Matthew 13. we'll start in verse 44 we'll read to 50 but to be honest with you I think we're only going to get to 46 which is fine Matthew 13 verse 44 the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up Then, in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and he buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all he had and bought it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind, and when it was full, men drew it ashore.

So it will be at the end of the age, the angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Let us pray. Oh God, what a wonderful Lord's Day you've given to us, Lord. and we are several different people here with different circumstances going on, some circumstances harder than others, but God, we have one wonderful and true living Savior.

He is the one who has done all things well for our salvation, and he's established his gospel kingdom, one of infinite eternal value oh Lord would you help us to be a people to see you even right now and see that wonderful value would you help our hearts to be tuned to sing your praises even as we hear the word of God proclaimed and would you help me to say of something of value let it be pointing to Jesus so that these listeners here can see Jesus believe Jesus and value Jesus. Oh God, we need your help. We need your spirit and you've promised us to give us your spirit when we look to Jesus in faith.

And so Lord, would you be faithful to your promises like we know that you are. Thank you for this time. Thank you for this Lord's Day. Thank you for this gospel of grace that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord. To him be glory forever and ever and to eternity. Amen.

Well, I absolutely love springtime. I love all the activity of springtime. Everything is busy. The animals are, the bugs are, the people are. We're all about moving around. And really, it reminds me just how much everything has value in creation.

God has created everything to have value. It's really, if you ever just think about it, especially in the springtime, when everything's so busy, they're all busy because they all have value that they contribute to creation. the bugs, the birds, the everything. God has created everything to have value. I've tried expressing that to my family when they see a spider in the house.

I try telling them, even that has value in our home. It can do good things in our home, but they treat it like World War II just started and they go to war on that spider. But everything has value. In fact, everything is just, the presupposition you can have when you study creation is that that thing, that particular thing you're studying has value in the whole realm, in the whole grand scheme of things.

And that's why we, as God's creatures, like to value things. That house down the road got demolished finally. We're all happy about that, aren't we? Anyone who's around LaRue, we're happy about it. Why? Because it had no value.

It looked like a house you'd go into in a horror movie and get killed, like one of those dumb things you do. Don't go into that house, right? It had no value. And so we are glad to see something that has no value to be demolished. Because there's something within us that we want to value things. Because all things are supposed to have value.

And as we go through our lives, you know, in the grand scheme of things, we are to value certain things in each segment of our life, right? When we are children, we are meant to value our parents. We're meant to value our siblings. What happens if we fail to have proper value for our parents and our siblings as children? It doesn't go too well, does it?

Or if you think about when you become a student and you're in school, we are meant to value learning, value the school system, value our teachers. What happens when students do not value those things? It does not go very well. Or when you get a job, you need to value your job. When you get married, you need to value your spouse. When you have children, you need to value your children.

What happens when you do not value your spouse? What happens when you don put the proper value in your children It is not very good All things have value and we are meant to see the value in them and appreciate that value And when we fail to do so it means serious problems are occurring The parables that Jesus had before us here this morning shows us the way that we are to value his kingdom. We are to value the kingdom of Christ or what he has brought to us. as we first come into it and as we are sustained and that we are to value his kingdom.

And you know how Jesus likes to do things, is he's extreme with these things. He says, you cannot follow me unless you love me more than your mother and your father and your husband and everything. And here, Jesus provides a parable that says, you are to value my kingdom beyond anything that you can value in this world. And this is what we learn here from these parables.

And so let's look at these things as it challenges us. Do I value the kingdom like Christ has taught me to value his kingdom? Or am I not valuing it at all? We're going to be challenged in this way as we look at his parables here. So let's look at the parables. Let's look at what he says here in verse 44 of Matthew 13.

Jesus begins by saying, the kingdom of heaven. Let's stop there for a moment. This is why we're not going to get beyond where I wanted to get to. because you've got to explain the kingdom of heaven. It's one of those things to where if you're not careful, you can hear it all the time. And if someone asks you, okay, what is that? You'd be like, uh, the kingdom of heaven.

If you think of what heaven is, heaven is this beautiful place where perfect and wonderful and warm fellowship with God exists. That's what heaven is. It's a place where beautiful, think of all the nice, you know, think about on Easter when your family was just loving one another, just cherishing one another, beautiful fellowship with one another, and that is like the heavenly realms where we can share sweet communion and fellowship with God.

That's what heaven is. It sounds lovely, doesn't it? It ought to. And then the kingdom of heaven is that reality militantly crashing down onto earth. And the reason why we should use that language is because earth is under this kingdom or domain of what? Darkness.

And Adam and Eve sinned. They were supposed to bring the kingdom of heaven onto earth, but they brought the domain of darkness instead. So now you have a world that hates God, and God hates or is angry with them. And so the kingdom of heaven is that beautiful reality bursting forth or militantly taking over or crashing down into earth. Everything Jesus did 2,000 years ago was to set up this beautiful reality of heavenly things onto earth.

Everything he did from his righteous life to his death on the cross to his resurrection was all that he would create this realm a beautiful, warm fellowship with God on earth where there was a domain of darkness in its place. This is what the kingdom of heaven is. It's the blessed fellowship with God here on earth taking over the domain of darkness. You see, the domain of darkness, its only job is to keep you from fellowship with God.

That's what Satan is doing. And Jesus came to undo that work of Satan. colossians 1 13 through 14 says he has delivered us that is jesus from the domain of darkness and he transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins that's what the kingdom of heaven is it's that militancy jesus came to conquer that darkness and bring us into a different dominion christ's death and resurrection is the legal basis for this kingdom and his spirits and dwelling make up the subjects of this kingdom that's what the kingdom of christ or heaven is and so jesus says the kingdom of heaven that realm of heavenlies transferring or going into the earth into the domain of darkness the kingdom of heaven and jesus says in verse 44 is like again we gotta stop there that's why we're only gonna get so far But is like is a standard introduction to a parable. This is when you know Jesus is about to say a parable.

The kingdom of heaven is like. You see, Jesus is going to use an illustration to help us understand what his kingdom is like. He uses an illustration from the physical world that we have experienced or we can imagine experiencing. And it can tell us something about what his kingdom is like. You see, when you are born and bred in the kingdom of darkness, it is not too easy to understand what Christ's kingdom is like.

It's a whole different realm. Sorry. Imagine, imagine going from the realm of America to the realm of California. No, of North Korea, right? Two totally different places. And before you go, you would have to know, okay, what is it going to be like? because it's not going to be like this, right?

That's why I don't leave America. It's not worth it. But here we see Jesus is telling people who are in the domain of darkness, this is what the kingdom of heaven is like, because it's different than what you're used to. He's going to explain it via parable. What is that parable? Well, the parable begins like this.

He says, the kingdom of heaven is like, and he says, treasure hidden in a field. treasure hidden in a field. You see, this is a time before banks were backed or are backed up by the federal government right We live in an era where all these banks FDIC you see on there I think that the correct acronym and that basically says that if this bank goes belly up the federal government will back up the funds here. So you can be rest assured that your treasure will be safe here because the federal government is never going away.

The eternal United States of America. That's what we believe. That's what we think. So that's where we put our treasure because the government has its back. But you see, before the Great Depression or Or during the era of the Great Depression, that didn't happen. So you had people that put their treasure in the bank, the bank went belly up, and their money went with it.

And so you have this interesting thing, you look in the history books, during the Great Depression when this happened, people would put their treasures in very strange places. Their mattresses and the ground. It's safer there than in the bank. In the ancient world, it was no different. You keep your treasure on your person, you could get robbed. You keep your treasure in your house, it could burn down or that could get robbed.

And so maybe you bury your treasure in the ground. But then what happens? You bury your treasure in the ground, you tell no one about it, and then you die. Well, all that treasure is in the ground and no one knows about it. So here, Jesus begins his parable with a reasonable thing that could happen in the world around him. That treasure is hidden in a field.

And then in verse 44, he continues, which a man found. Now, how did this man find the treasure? We don't know. Maybe he was using the field as a shortcut to get somewhere, and a heavy rain brought up some of the treasure, and he saw it glimmering in the sun, and so he investigates, and there it is, the treasure. Or maybe he was working the field for someone, and he's digging, and lo and behold, there's the treasure.

We don't know, but what we do know is that the hidden treasure is found by this man. Now, moving forward, we're going to see just how valuable that treasure is. Everything this man does just screams out, this thing is worth a lot. And one of the things I want you to keep in your mind, kind of overflowing the next few words, is that he doesn't seem to deliberate at all.

He doesn't like, okay, let me think about, okay, is this worth it to do all this? He just acts right away because of how valuable this treasure is. Well, what does he do? The first thing he does in verse 44 is he covers it up. You notice he covered it up. He wants to defend it.

He wants to protect it. He doesn't want anyone else taking this treasure. This treasure he sees is so valuable. The first thing he does is he covers it up to make sure no one else can see what he has seen. He protects it. He's making sure that no one sees it.

But then look what Jesus goes on to say. then in his joy, he goes and he sells, underline that word, all that he has, and he buys that field. You see, then his brain goes to, if I'm going to own this treasure, which is very valuable to me, I need to buy this field. Because it's not enough to simply find the treasure. Whoever owns the land that the treasure is found in, that's who it belongs to.

So immediately he thinks, I need to buy this land so this treasure can be mine. And notice that he goes and he sells not just some, but everything he has. And then notice the attitude he has while he does it. He does it with joy. It's one thing to sell everything you have and buy that because it's worth a lot. But to do it with an attitude of joy just means that there is no question in my mind, I need to do this, it is that valuable.

I think about my children who always get snacks after they get up from nap. And let's say they have two pretzel rods, right? You've ate pretzel rods before, surely. And I say, okay, I'll give you a, oh, ants, ants, celery, ants, peanut butter on the celery. Ants on a log. I'll give you two ants on a log if you give me your pretzel rods, right?

That might be a hard decision. you know they might have anguish over it i gotta give up this in order to get that it might be worth it i don't know there might be anxiety in that little little heart of theirs what if i give them a really big brownie i will give you this big brownie if you give me those two pretzel rods they're gonna forget that they're even holding pretzel rods they're gonna be so joyful give me the big brownie it is worth it to me it's that valuable so here we have this man the treasure is so valuable that he gives up everything and he does it with joy and it's like immediate this thing is worth it now jesus gives another parable right after this one and it's pretty much the same message but it has a certain nuance that i want to grab hold of because we're going to use it as we look at the spiritual nature of these variables, or these variables, these parables. And let's look at that nuance there in verses 45 and 46. Again, Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who's in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all he had and bought it.

You see, very similar story, isn't it, right? Comes across this great valuable jewel, this pearl, and he doesn't seem to think anything of it. He sells everything he has and he gets that one prize valuable jewel. But I think the nuance here is that where the man in the field happened upon the treasure, right? He just happened upon it. This merchant was looking for treasure or looking for the pearl.

He knows what he's doing. He knows what he wants. In fact, he assumed a merchant was typically very wealthy. So he had the world's goods, so to speak. He had it. He's been looking for it.

And when he comes across this one pearl, he gives it all up that he has the abundance because that one pearl is more than anything else that he could have You see the little nuance This is the one who looking for it and he seemingly has a lot of it and he finds the one that is better. Okay, now, this isn't just story hour with Jesus, right? This isn't just Jesus telling us really cool stories for us to laugh and marvel at and then go home and feel good about ourselves, but he's telling these parables to make a spiritual point.

We need to remember that. He's telling these parables so that we can get an idea of what his kingdom is like. So what is his kingdom like in light of these parables? What truth is he uncovering? Well, there's several that we'll see this morning. The first truth these parables show about Jesus' kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, is the kingdom of heaven is of the greatest value of any treasure or pearl on earth.

The kingdom of heaven is of the greatest value of any treasure or pearl on earth. You know, Christianity is just not a call for you to get just moral enough so you don't end up in the fires of hell. And the reason why I say it like that is my mind goes there because that's exactly the type of Christianity I had up until 18. is that I want to do my own thing because I value that and I just got to do enough of this religion stuff so I don't end up in fire for eternity because I don't want to do that.

So I kind of have to put up with this Christianity thing just enough for me to get out of the lake of fire. And the parable here does not allow for such a truncated view of the kingdom of Christ. The kingdom of heaven is of the greatest value of anything on this earth. is what Jesus is teaching us here. The call of the kingdom is life and fellowship with God, which is of the greatest worth that you can imagine, beyond anything else you can have in this life.

Especially we see that with the parable of the merchant. The merchant had all the good things this life has to offer. He was a man who was always looking for good things to collect, valuable things to collect, everything this world has to offer, he had it. But then when he sees the pearl of great price, when he sees the kingdom of Christ, the greatest value of all, he says all that is nothing as compared to the value of the kingdom of heaven.

You see, the first truth Jesus is teaching us is the kingdom of heaven is of the greatest value of any treasure or pearl or anything we can have on earth. Now, the second thing Jesus is teaching us here is that despite the great value of the kingdom of heaven, despite the great value of it, it is hidden or buried in the earth to the world. You understand that?

That despite the fact that it is such a great, valuable thing to the world, it is completely and utterly hidden. How something so valuable as the kingdom of heaven, how can that be hidden is a very good question to ask. And the answer is, it is the work of the kingdom of darkness. Remember how Jesus came to bring that kingdom of heaven with militancy behind it?

Well, the kingdom of darkness doesn't like that too much. And so Satan does everything he can to make sure the beauty, the value of that kingdom is hidden in the earth or hidden to the world. To keep people in darkness. Ephesians 4. 17 through 20 explains this very well. Paul says, Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, and they walk in the futility, the uselessness of their minds.

The kingdom of darkness makes their mind useless. They do not understand, like they should, of the great pearl, a great value that Christ is in his kingdom. They are darkened in their understanding, he says. and they're alienated or far away or separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. There's no greater value than to have life with God.

What is this life if it's not to spend it with the blessed one? And in their ignorance and their darkened state because of the Satan, the prince of the power of the air, they are blinded to it. And it's because they are ignorant. And he says it's because their hearts are hearted. Paul says in verse 19, they have become callous, and they've given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

He says, but that is not the way you learn Christ and his kingdom, because you've been awakened. The point is that the kingdom of heaven is hidden to the world because the domain of darkness hides it from the world. And it's not just simply people who just practice all sorts of sensuality and crazy sins that we look at and we just kind of wag our finger at.

It is this insidious, even, kind of darkness. That this created realm is supposed to be used to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And the domain of darkness says, do not worry about glorifying God forever, and I say this often, but rather just look at the created realm and try to find your joy there. right this is why romans 14 17 paul says the kingdom of god is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness peace and joy and the holy spirit you see paul isn't saying it's bad to eat and drink that's that's not his point but his point is is that your life does not consist of just simply eating and drinking like an animal and the kingdom of darkness says no the value of life is found in eating and drinking like an animal.

Where the kingdom of God, Paul says, is one of righteousness, peace, joy, and the Holy Spirit. Unity with God. So that when you eat and drink, you do it as an act of worship. to God and the full enjoyment is found there. This is why he says in 1 Corinthians 10 31, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. You see, the kingdom of heaven is hidden by Satan utilizing sin as his tool.

He buries it and he causes us to think that the greatest value I can have in life is not with God, rather it's of the things of the world without God. He uses that sort of sin as his tool. So the kingdom of heaven is of great value, yet it is hidden in the domain of darkness. And the third truth that we see from these parables is that despite being hidden by Satan and our flesh and our sin, people do uncover the treasure and find the pearl.

This parable is teaching that despite the hiddenness, it is found, Praise be to God. And the question we need to ask ourselves is, how is this treasure found? How does it work? How does it happen? How does it go from being hidden in the earth to all of a sudden, a man comes across it, or a merchant finds it? And to answer that question, how it goes from hidden to revealed, I want to look at chapter 13 of Matthew.

Let's stay in the parables here and answer that question, utilizing these parables in this chapter. Look at the beginning of Matthew 13. You have the famous parable of the sower. One of the most famous parables is one of the sower. And the parable of the sower is, rightfully, what we understand is the different soils that the seed falls on and creates different plants.

You have the soil that's the rocky ground that nothing happens. Then you have the soil that the plant grows in, but then it is surrounded by, oh, no, no, it's a rocky soil, and so it goes up right away because it has no root, and then it gets burned by the sun. Then you have this third soil where it looks good, it grows, but then there's all these thorns and weeds surrounding it, so it eats it, and then you finally have the good soil where the plant comes up, it produces great fruit, and it's a happy ending there.

But one thing I want to put your mind to is that how does the plant happen to begin with? How does it work that there's a plant to begin with? And the answer is found when he explains the parable in Matthew 13, when he says in verse 18, here's in the parable of the sower, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom. So the plant happens when the word of the kingdom is thrown out there, proclaimed, and then it's received.

In fact, in Luke 8, 11, he explains the parable this way. Now, the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. Now, what point am I getting at here? Is that in order for the value of the kingdom of heaven to go from hidden to revealed, the word of the kingdom must be proclaimed and heard by the one if he's going to see the value of the kingdom. There's no other way for the kingdom to go from hidden to revealed than the word of God being proclaimed to the person in which then he's awakened to see the value of the kingdom.

And the reason why that's so important to see is that we live in an era where the kingdom of heaven has kind of lost favor in the world, in our society, in the West. And one of the reactions we can have is, let's make it look more valuable by doing this, that, and the other. I remember going to youth group one time in high school, and there were more Xboxes than there were youth.

It was insanity. They were everywhere. If we can just maybe make Christianity look more valuable, using this, that, and the other, maybe they'll find it valuable. But the point is that there is only one way that the hidden value of the kingdom is revealed, and that is by the word of God being proclaimed. Always. If you notice, it's interesting. you look at farming, because that's what we're using here, the word of God, the seed being thrown out.

If you look at Greg farming and you look at the Amish farming, it looks very different. It doesn't look very much the same at all. You look at Greg and all his machinery, right? And then you look at the Amish and they have less machinery and horses and all the other goofy things that they do. And the strange thing is that they're essentially doing the same thing, aren't they?

It's not like Greg found out a new way to farm where he throws the seed up and something magical happens. They're putting seed into the ground and then it's producing a plant and the fruit. And the point is that the way people are, the value of the kingdom is revealed to them has stayed the same forever. And that is the word of God is proclaimed and the spirit then works in that message and dwelling in their heart to receive the word of God. and they respond by saying, there is something valuable here.

The word of Christ, the word of the kingdom is that we are wicked sinners, that our life is meaningless whenever we are at odds and enmity with our God that our greatest issue is not this that and the other It is that we hate God and God is angry with us Yet, because of the love of Christ, because of the love of God, he has sent his Son to give us peace and unity with him by his death and resurrection. When the Spirit works in that word being proclaimed, all of a sudden the whole thing shifts and the value of the kingdom is revealed and it changes that person forever so although as we saw in this parable that the beauties and the value of life with god on this earth is hidden because of the domain of darkness it gets revealed and people see it through the word proclaimed and received by the holy spirit all of a sudden i see the value of the kingdom. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2.12, Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

No longer domain of darkness, no longer ignorance, no longer hardness of heart, but now with the word of God proclaimed of the kingdom, we see the value. We see the treasure. We see the pearl of great value. And the fourth truth we get from these parables, the fourth truth these parables teach about the kingdom of heaven is when you uncover the value of the kingdom of heaven, you must hide or keep safe the treasure.

Remember what the guy did. Remember what the man did in the field. He sees it. Wow, there's something really valuable right there. Never seen it before, but there it is. And what does he do immediately?

He hides it. He covers it. What is Jesus teaching us here is that whenever we have been awakened to the beauties and the value of the kingdom of heaven, we must guard that treasure with everything we have. Now, Jesus isn't saying you've got to guard it from other people who want to have that valuable treasure. They want life with God too, but you're like, no, it's my life with God, not yours.

He's not saying that. We see in John 7, verse 38, Jesus says, Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. That means there's enough to go around. You don't got to worry about someone stealing it for their own sake. There's enough treasure for it to go around. But the point that's being said here is that the domain of darkness hates.

Satan hates. Your flesh hates the idea of you seeing the value of the kingdom of heaven. And it will do everything it can to take that value that you see and just put it back in the earth. and so what we got to guard it protected against is the domain of darkness satan trying to take that what we have experience of seeing and have been awakened to away you know it's like pilgrim's progress you remember christian is awakened to the destruction that he's in and the city of destruction so he gets out of dodge to find the celestial city and apollyon doesn't say, well, okay, that's fine.

That's his choice. He can make his own decision. He's human. No, he chases after him. He says, you're coming back with me. Come back.

And he asks, Christian has to fight him to get him away. The point is, is that when we see the pearl of great price, when we see a value, when we see the kingdom of heaven, Satan will do everything he can do, utilizing our flesh to no longer find that thing valuable anymore. No longer find life with God valuable. How does he do that? What does he do? What are his strategy?

What does he do? Well, let's look at Matthew 13 again. Let's look at the other parables. I think he does it by creating an environment of thorns around us. Remember what we just talked about in the beginning of Matthew, that you have that plant that comes up and then you have the weeds and the thorns all around. Satan will try to use the thorns all surrounding you to choke out the life of the plant, will choke out the ability for you to see the value of the kingdom of heaven.

And we know that the weeds, the thorns, that is the cares of the world, Jesus says. And so we know that Satan will try to use the cares of the world for you to no longer to see the value of the kingdom of heaven. And the cares of the world are things that are true cares of the world. Jesus calls it in Matthew 13, he calls it riches and cares of the world.

It is needful for us to care about money. It is needful for us to care about the things of the world. But when it's, the problem is, is whenever it becomes everything to us that we no longer see the value of the kingdom of heaven. It has choked it out. And this is what Satan will do in which we need to protect ourselves against. A new job is needed and helpful and good that pays more.

But what happens when the new job takes you away from family, church, reading scripture the cares of the world will all of a sudden cause you to see it's not that important for me to spend time with the Lord it's not that important for me to go to church and be with God's people the cares of the world crowded out or a problem for me at least I want to speak for my wife is new babies cares of the world important thing it good I think it good to have babies But I tell you what it changes your life for like six weeks straight to where you don know where you at Completely lost for a while. And it's easy for it to just kind of linger on and on and on. I'll stay up, I'll sleep in longer, I'll sleep in longer.

All of a sudden, the cares of the world, good things, choke out the value of the kingdom of heaven. You see, Satan will use the cares of the world to try to cause you to no longer see the value of the kingdom of heaven. And that's why you need to protect it. You need to hide it away. You need to make sure that no one takes your treasure, your view of the treasure away.

And he'll use the scorching sun. He'll use the fear of persecution. Remember the other, Matthew 13, the other thing that will crowd out or that will stop a fruit, a plant from bearing fruit is the scorching sun and it has no root. The plant has no root because of the rocky soil. Satan will use the fear of persecution to cause you to not see the value of the kingdom of heaven.

Now, it might not be persecution of the government. it might just simply be people ridiculing you at work making fun of you at school whatever it may be it's just other people's opinion that is hard to receive and it might cause you to start thinking maybe the kingdom of heaven isn't as valuable as I once thought it was you see this parable is teaching us that when we see the value of the kingdom of heaven when we were awakened to it we must protect and guard it immediately before it gets snuffed out by the domain of darkness and the last thing this parable that i'm going to point out is teaching us the fifth truth these parables teach us about the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of heaven is so valuable that the only proper response is to be willing to sell everything you have for this kingdom with joy the only proper response is to guard it and then be willing to sell everything to maintain and have Now, when Jesus says that they went and sold everything, he's not teaching us that we need to purchase salvation or workspace salvation. You cannot purchase the kingdom of heaven. Entering it is a gift from God by grace through faith.

But you know that you have received such grace through faith when the value of being close to the Father through Jesus is such a treasure to you, anything that stands in the way is easily dispensed of. is easily done away with. I will sell that, so to speak. I will get rid of it easily so that I can have the value of being close to God in Christ. I remember having early on in a besetting state of mind and coming with the realization that this sin doesn't hold a candle to having a union and a closeness with my God.

It doesn't even come close. The value of being near to my God and with a good conscience and to walk with Christ is so much of a greater value than what the domain of darkness offers in this sin. The point is that when we come to see the value of the kingdom of heaven, we must be willing to dispense of anything that would get in the way, including sin, including the cares of the world, and including persecution or hardship from others.

We must be willing to dispense of any of that that would get in the way. It's interesting. The first thing, sin. We must be willing to dispense of sin or get rid of sin in order to have that kingdom. The very tool that Satan used to keep you in the domain of darkness, sin, you now use to give to Jesus to reveal how much you value his kingdom. Think about that.

The temptations to sin that you used to so lovingly and willingly practice. Whenever you see the value of the kingdom of heaven, now you lovingly and willingly and with joy give it to Jesus and say, I don't want this anymore. It's used right in the face of Satan now. You need to value the kingdom of heaven so much that you are willing to dispense of your practice of sin that you once so joyfully did, now you joyfully dispense of it.

The second thing, you need to value the kingdom of heaven so much that you are willing to dispense of your own well-being Your own life. You need to be willing to be persecuted, so to speak, for Christ. No longer do you care about your own life. You don't care about your own reputation. You don't care what people say about you. You don't care what they might do to you.

You will dispense of all that in order to have the kingdom of heaven. For the sake of Christ, Paul says, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. for when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul says, for the sake of knowing Christ, I'm content with hardships, insults, persecutions. I will give up my whole life in order to have Christ.

And the third thing you need to be able to dispense with sin and your own well and also the cares of this world You go from allowing the cares of this world and possessions to dominate your mind to being willing to dispense with it all to be close to Christ You notice what the writer of the Hebrew says in chapter 10. He says when talking to the Christians there, he says in verse 32, But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction and sometimes being partners with those so treated for you had the compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, which is the very opposite of having the concerns of money and everything crowding you, is that you joyfully give it up so that you can have the pearl of great price. He also says to them in Hebrews 12, 28 through 29, Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. The point is that when we see the value of the kingdom, we protect it and we dispense with anything that would get in the way with it, our own lives and the cares of this world, we dispense of it all, including our very sin, because it is that valuable to us. and so in many ways we are like the merchant in the second parable we have access to much of the world's treasures it is amazing how wealthy and rich we are and we hear it all the time but we ought to hear it all the time because it is truly amazing how wealthy we are we have access to the world's all the world's toys we have access to it here so much of it we're like the merchant who have plenty of it. We have more money, better health, greater access to the things of this world than anyone in prior times.

In many ways, we are like that merchant that we see in that second parable. And we need to learn the point that Jesus makes in the parable about the merchant. He was an expert in the things the kingdom of darkness could give. And with that knowledge, when he saw the kingdom of heaven, he gave it all up. Has your eyes been open to the value of the kingdom of heaven in this way?

Or are you blinded by the God of this world and darkness today? Or did you come to Jesus saying a sinner's prayer with no value of the kingdom that he's brought? Did you start well, but have you been letting the fear of persecution, the worries of the world, money, and everything else to cloud the value of the kingdom of heaven? Jesus doesn't stand before you now ready to beat you up and browbeat you.

He stands before you now as the eternal, valuable one who has done all things well for your salvation, righteousness, and peace with God. Turn from the darkness of valuing other things and be like the merchant who gives it all up for the greater prize of Christ and his kingdom. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-control, upright and godly lives in this present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself up for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Let us pray. Oh God, I thank you for what Christ has brought. I thank you, Lord, that although we were once darkened in sin, ignorant, hating one another, being hated by others. Lord, we were convinced that if we just had this, that, and other things of the world, we would finally find joy and happiness, that our value was there. But thanks be to Christ.

For he's brought a kingdom. And he's enabled people to proclaim the word of this kingdom. And we are the people here who have heard this word, and the spirit has caused us to see the value of this kingdom of heaven the value of being near to god and walking with him and all that we do instead of trying to use this world as a mean as an end of it to itself lord it's so easy for us to fall back into this state of not valuing the kingdom of heaven instead valuing other things things of this world lord we can be afraid of persecutions and hardships from others.

We can let the cares of this world, good things, crowd it, cause us not to see the value of the kingdom of heaven. Would you, Lord, remind us of just how valuable it is to walk with Christ in all these things? Would you remind us that it is important for us to be able to do away with physical well-being, prosperity for the sake of knowing Christ and his kingdom?

Would you remind us of these things? all of us, Lord, are struggling with this in different ways if we just have a mind to put our mind to it to understand it. Help us to see Christ instead in his glory and his love for us and how he's working salvation. He's working the kingdom in us. Help us pursue him instead and value what he has done and is doing and will continue to do.

And we thank you for this great work of Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.