Words of Jesus Podcast - Pearl of Great Price

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

Effort is required to obtain the salvation we seek. We should expect opposition. Our obligation is to dispense with false doctrines to make room for the doctrine of Jesus Christ. The exercise of power [grace] that makes the Christian super-human in this world should not give us a false notion that we are righteous enough to receive such power, or even loved enough to receive the privilege, but we should see it as our duty to exercise it. Our obedience opens the communication of daily instruction. In this way, we work hand-in-hand with our God on His redemption plan. ***Ch. 30 - Jesus Teaches the Kingdom in ParablesTHE COSTLY PEARL (Matt. 13:45, 46)            Jesus told another parable to teach his listeners what the kingdom of Heaven is. He said:            “Again, he kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls—who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, as bought it.”A NET (Matt 13:47-53)            Jesus likened the kingdom of Heaven to a net, saying:             “Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind—which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire.  There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”            Then Jesus said:            “Have ye understood all these things?”            The people answered:            “Yes, Lord.”            Jesus said to them:            “Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of Heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello my friend and welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. Don Harris here and we have been carrying you through the red ink and trying to teach you as Jesus taught his disciples. Best we can do there is go by the recorded words in our Bibles. Isn't that right? There was a group of people that it's been years ago now, but I think they had

some concerns about what Jesus actually said as if they would know. And so these highly educated men, contextual critics and linguistic experts were going through the Bible and they decided that this particular word wasn't used until this particular century so this, you know, we just redact the Scriptures and we get rid of all these things in here that can't be true. Then we go through and we find things in there that perhaps he might have said but it's likely that he didn't. Then they talk about things that he might have said this, he could have said this.

And then there were things that, yes, definitely Jesus actually said this. And not to my surprise, perhaps to yours, but not to my surprise, they came up with, I don't know, a couple of sentences out of four Gospels out of the entire New Testament. Perhaps Jesus said these two things here. Two, you know, very benign, very, very ineffectual words kind of strung together, you know, that it was just pitiful. And I'm thinking to myself, in the age that we live in, when sin has separated between us and our God, when the problems that we have could be essentially cured by communication

with God, it is the very thing that most everyone, including the church people, steer a child of God away from, which I just don't get that. Perhaps the preacher's not free himself. Maybe not. Maybe he's never figured these things out. Could be. It could be that he's never heard the voice of God or he's convinced himself that whatever voice he does hear, perhaps his uncle, his preacher uncle, or even his wife, I don't know, the voices that do guide his life, maybe he considers that all to be God. These are people who talk like, ooh, there's a sign over there. That's a sign.

Whatever they want to do, you know, if they see a shooting star, there's a sign. What is it a sign of? That God wants me to do what I think is best. Of course, they're never that blatant, but they see signs. They talk about God things. They talk about, oh, that's a confirmation. You know, that's the way they live. And the very people that tell you, don't ever get your guidance anywhere but from the Scriptures, they live like that.

It's just, it's one of the most hypocritical places that a person can find himself. You know, all the time you have Jesus screaming in the Bible at the top of His voice, come unto me, all you that are laboring or heavy laden. I'll take care of you. We're going to do well here. Everything's going to be fine. How is everything going to be fine if you're going away? I'm going to send the Spirit of God, and He's going to come into you and lead you from the inside. This is going to be a cake job. It's going to be a cakewalk. Oh, okay. Am I adding scriptures? Well, I'll tell you what,

it is a cakewalk compared to having to learn all the stuff that they want you to learn and to memorize and to, oh man, there's just so much religion out there. And very, you know, they can't even imagine, can't even imagine the God of the universe telling a guy, hey, nice day outside, get out there and mow that grass. Make this place look like it's owned by a Christian. Was that the voice of God? Could have been. I know your wife says that a lot, but it could have been the voice of God.

All right, so Jesus is talking about this wonderful treasure that's hidden in a field, and we understand, and as I was saying, that if you ever experience communication with God, you will consider this one of the greatest treasures that you have ever run across, and you will sell everything you have to get it. The pearl of great price actually adds a nuance to this that we're going to talk about today. It actually adds a nuance to this that is peculiar. And if you'll hear me, you'll see not only the wonderful characteristic of communication with God, but you might start to see it's cost. Because it is cost. There is cost involved. That guy didn't find the gold in the field and get the field for free. He sold everything he had to buy it. And when we think of selling everything

it's kind of a financial kind of a thought. But the story of the costly pearl I think if we just take just read it with a little pause and a little concern I think you'll understand that he not only tells us about the cost but he tells us the kinds of things in our life that you will eventually deem as useless. Other people deem them as very, very valuable.

But we can probably sell them and make this purchase. All right, let's look. It says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who, when he has found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Now, I realize this is using the same language

as the man who found the field, that he went and sold all that he had, but what I'd like you to notice about this fellow, he had plenty of pearls. He had plenty of them. How do I know? He was a of pearls. He had plenty of them. How do I know? He was a pearl merchant. He said he was a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. This is what he did for a living.

He knew pearls. And he knew a pearl of great price when he saw one as well. Now here's what I think that I think that becomes the twisted edge, the sharp edge, the gnawing edge of what we're talking about here. Because when you do start to understand some things and you're going to go a different way, you're going to realize right away

that there are going to be people that will oppose you in this. They will oppose you. And it's really not the opposition of you acquiring something new. Of course it could be. But most of the time, it's the dispensing of what was old in order to acquire it. This man sold pearls to buy a pearl,

but he deemed it as more valuable. In order to pick up a sound doctrine and place it within our heart and with our life within our minds, to pick up a sound theology to pick up a truth from the scriptures there is a really good chance that you're going to have to lay down whatever it is that occupies the place that this goes. You'll have to sell the old pearls in order to get the new pearl.

It's just a fact of life. I remember preaching in Africa and they wanted me to teach them about the Passover and I said, I can't. Well, why is that, brother? And I said, I can't. Well, why is that, brother? And I said, because you keep Easter. You've already got that, that shelf is all clogged in your life. There's no place to put Passover there. See, there is a getting rid of things that are pagan and wrong and ridiculous and illogical

and in some cases just plain old witchcraft. And there are, these kind of things have to go in our life in order to have a place to put truth. And many of our Christian experiences kind of looks like an old, dusty old bookshelf and there's books missing over here and there's, over here there's a cat sleeping and down here there's an old ham sandwich that got kicked up on the bottom

shelf, you know, and they're all dusty and they're all dirty and rats are running across them. And there's a few good books on the shelf, but for the most part this is not a full library. And I think that when we examine our Christian faith I think that, if we're honest, that's pretty much the condition we have. It's just a hodgepodge. All different kinds of books. People come into my office and they want to read the spines on my bookcase. They want to see what I've been reading.

So, you know, I give them things to look at, but it doesn't necessarily mean that that's me. Well, that bookcase in your life that is the place where you keep the doctrines and the ideas and the practices of your Christianity, it does tell the story. It does tell the story. I can see somebody get into a certain situation, into trouble in some way or another, and trying to figure it out. And I can just listen to them talk. If they're thinking out loud, I can listen to them talk. The scriptures that fly out of their mouth by auto-response, you know, the ideas, the churchy ideas that just kind of flow out of their face. And you know what? I can tell you every book on their shelf. I know where they got those ideas.

They didn't get them from the scriptures. They certainly didn't get them from our God. I know where they came from. I know where they came from. They were able to pick all those books up behind my house when I was cleaning the house. But I guess what I want you to do is we're going to have to clean house. But I guess what I want you to do is we have to, we're going to have to clean house. And one of the best things to do is to get rid of the bad doctrines that are similar to the good doctrines that the Lord is giving us on a daily basis. And he gives us, he gives us a truth. He gives us a doctrine, a tenet of theology, something in our life that is

actually fixing us. But you know the best thing to do to sell, the best thing to sell to buy that pearl at a great price is all the old stuff. You're going to think by the end of this show that I'm going to contradict myself because there is value in some of the old stuff. But it's up to us to have that discriminating taste to know the difference between one and the other.

Now, as he moves from costly peril, he teaches in Matthew 13 that the kingdom of God is like a net. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net which is cast into the sea and gathered of every kind which when it is full they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just. This guy evidently didn't believe in the rapture.

Did he? Because we all know that the just are going to be separated from the wicked, right? That's what I was taught. That's the rapture, right? No, this guy didn't know anything about a rapture. He said that when the angels come they're going to separate the wicked from among the just, not the just from among the wicked. The exact opposite of what we've been told. Alright, so he says the angels will come and sever the wicked from among the just and cast them into

a furnace of fire and there should be waving and gnashing of teeth there's a lot can be said in this scripture and and and talked about that that's very valuable there are some things that we're going to be talking about again as we continue because some of these concepts carry over into other things that jesus said but here I think that if we find the similarity between each one of these comparisons where Jesus says the kingdom of God is like, the kingdom of God is like this,

the kingdom of God is like that, if we find the similarities, I think we can see His message. And here, carrying through through is that what I called in the last course here with the costly pearl, discrimination. Discrimination is extremely important to the Christian. To discriminate what is good and bad, you can't just throw the net

and gather all this sustenance in, by the way. I mean, this fish is sustenance. This is what people eat in order to live. And you go out there and you cast it into the sea and you gather it all of every kind, throw it in the boat, and go home. No, you don't do that. Especially if you're a merchant. Because you're not going to sell some of that junk.

You're just not going to do it. Nobody wants it. So what are you going to do? Well, you're going to go through the arduous task. I know it was tough pulling that big heavy net in, but now comes the time when you've got to just sit down in that nasty water in the bottom of the boat and you're going to have to sit down cross-legged and start going through that net.

And you're going to have to be discriminating. And you're going to have to put the good into vessels, and you're going to have to be discriminating. And you're going to have to put the good into vessels. And you're going to have to cast the bad away. Well, hasn't that been done for us? Not that I know of. Doesn't the Bible do that for us? Not that I know of. Doesn't our pastor, our preacher, our denomination,

doesn't that do it for us? No. What about our creed? What about our articles of faith? What about, what about, what about? I had a fellow call the station one time, you know, when I was preaching on some things, and he says, why are we even talking about these things? This was all decided at the Council of Trent. So somebody else went through your catch, somebody else went through your net full of fishes, and they decided what was good and was of fishes and they decided what was good and was kept

and they decided what was bad and was thrown away. Friend, this thing called Christianity is absolutely an individual's journey to God. It is not your family. It's not your church. It's not you and your best friend. It's you. You have to make this discrimination. You have to do this. Now, this is the idea of the net. The net brings in everything. What are you going to do? Throw it all in your boat and say, well, it must be God's will? Is that it? Oh, that's confirmation. Confirmation for what? Oh, this is a sign.

A sign for what? Look, you got a job to do. You made a nice catch, but you need to understand not everything in the net is something that you need. So you can't take it all home. All of it won't fit in the freezer. You're going to have to take some things out to make this stuff fit. Again, just like the pearl, some things got to go. You want the pearl at a great price? Well, these other pearls are going to have to go. You see, it's always a trade-off. The 22 years I traveled around the country in a motorhome, you learn pretty quick, you don't just pick up and buy everything you want and carry it home. Some people do. I've seen the inside of their motorhomes, and they're dangerously packed with junk. But you got to take

on a policy. Policy is, you want to bring something in? Something needs to go. What you want to get rid of? If the answer's nothing, then you don't buy nothing. Alright, Jesus talks about these things and says that this is the way it's going to be at the end of the world. This discrimination is going to be exercised in order to find God's people among the wicked people. And he says, here's the way I'm going to do it. Now, my intention is not to make you mad.

My intention is not to hurt your feelings or to pick on your favorite preacher. So I promise not to use names here, okay? Just fill in the blank. It's easy to do because, you know, a million names will fit on the line. But in these last days, this is actually, I happen to believe that this portion of what we're about to read

is happening in our day right now. He says he's going to send forth the angels. Okay, let's look at the word angels for just a moment. That word is essentially messengers. That's the messengers of God. Something that every preacher I've ever met considers themselves to be. The messengers of God are the people who are speaking for God, which is prophecy, which is preaching.

It wouldn't violate not one grammatical rule, not in English nor in Greek, to translate this, that God is going to send his messengers to the earth. And their purpose is going to be to put out so that they may gather tares, they're going to put out tare bait. That's going to be their business.

That's what they're going to do. Have you ever wondered why? Have you ever, how many jets is enough to make you think that a guy perhaps lives in in? unrealistic opulence I Mean if well, I don't know is is one enough does he need six or nine or ninety? I don't know where does he get to the point where I don't think he's in touch with what's going on in the real world

Perhaps he's not in this for the right reasons. Look, forget that one. Let's move on to another one. Have you ever wondered as you listen to a preacher, how is it God can even allow this to continue? You got some guy that's involved in some horrible debauchery you got him some guys involved in some kind of money swindles they got they got women stuck in their office closets they've got they got money that's not been accounted for they they preach a a pitiful and an impotent gospel you know nobody's been saved through their organization

in two or three decades. And you ever look at a guy like that and say, how can God let that continue? Did you hear what he just said? You ever wonder about this? Okay, just find your favorite one to pick on if that's what you want to do. But everybody has had this feeling

about somebody somewhere along the line stepping over the line saying things that are borderline blasphemous, in some cases blasphemy altogether. Their black, wicked heart is made known to the entire world, and we sit and wonder, why doesn't God do something about that? I'm going to tell you why. Because old Reverend Hairdew, he's a messenger of God.

He's on a mission. He has likely been, not even to his own knowledge, he's likely been elected to perform this very act. At the end of the world I'm going to send forth my messengers. They're going to separate the wicked from among the just. The other parable that we talked about, he says at the end of the time,

let them both grow together unto harvest, and then we're going to gather first the tares, then the wheat. How's this going to happen? He says those are going to be angels that are going to do that. They're going to make the separation. They're going to make the discrimination here. Hmm. How you figure that the modern day preacher fits into this category?

When you hear the most ridiculous preaching you've ever heard in your life, the kind that makes your skin crawl, the kind that makes your hair stand up on the back of your neck, the kind that you hope to goodness nobody ever knows that you even heard this guy or that you're watching him on TV, afraid somebody's going to knock on the door and catch you. That guy, and you're wondering, why is he allowed to continue? Listen to what he's saying. You know what he's putting out?

He's putting out tear bait. He is trying to find just exactly where do your affections lie. Is he talking about righteousness and holy living? Is he talking about forsaking sin in your life? Is he telling you that you don't have to sin every day? That God hasn't given anybody license to sin like the scripture says? Is he telling you that you don't have to sin every day? That God hasn't given anybody license to sin, like the scripture says? Is he talking about living a contrite and holy life? Is he talking about walking humbly with God? Is he talking about doing justice in the world around us? What is he talking about?

Money. And yuck, yuck, yuck and laughing it up and having a good old time and telling one story after another about how God is blessing him or her or whoever. And what he's doing is he's just throwing candy to a crowd of starving children. You know what he's throwing? Tear bait.

Why? He's doing the work of God. I happen to believe this with all my heart. Why would God allow these things to continue? Because he commissioned them. That's why these tares are going to have to be separated from the wheat in the last days. The fish are going to have to be separated. Good into vessels, cast the bad away.

We're going to have to realize that there is coming a time when there's going to be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Why? Because some were not chosen. That's why. They were not selected. They were not set aside. They went into the tear pile. What happens to the tear pile? Well, you know, they throw a rope around it and they cinch it up nice and tight where they can pick it up like a hay bale and they throw it on a truck. You know where they're headed? To the fire. That's where they're headed. Well, what's that

truck over there? Well, that's where we put the wheat. As soon as we get done cleaning up all these tares, we're going to gather the wheat over on that truck, and those, they end up in the kingdom of God. Friend, this is not playtime. This is very serious business. The camera backs away at one of these evangelistic meetings and you see 10? It continues to pan back. 20? It continues to pan back.

Then it goes to a wide panoramic fisheye lens to get them all in. Because there's 30, 35,000 people sitting there with their little mouths open, like little birds, looking for the tear bait. What's that preacher doing? Why isn't God cursing him and killing him on stage for the entire world to see?

Because he works for him. That's why. He's got a job. He's got a job to do. you don't think that the lord does this yeah he does that a man named cyrus will tell you he was commanded to the lord to bring the children of israel into captivity and the lord says, when he's done, I'm going to punish him for it. Think about that a while. Jesus, when he was explaining all these things, he was saying that there's coming a day. You're going to give an account. You're coming today. You're going to be separated beforehand. But you know, even if you were destroyed at that point, you're coming back in a thousand years to give an

account of yourself. This is the resurrection of the dead. Now, at that particular point, Jesus looks at his disciples and says, do you understand all these things? They said yes, as you may be inclined to say yes right now but did they do you do you understand that we're not playing a game here this is not a fairy tale but this stuff is very very real and that one day you're going to give an account of just exactly how you handled these things.

Friend, this is extremely important for us to know. Extremely important. The most important thing that you're going to do today is to give this some consideration. All right, it's time for us to go now. I'd love to hear from you. Don at ThinkRedInc.com if you'd like to write. All right, until next time, Think Red Inc. Bye-bye. You've been listening to Don C. Harris of Think Red Inc. Ministries. Email don at thinkredinc.com. That's thinkredc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com.

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