JESUS CAME TO SEEK AND TO SAVE

BY Pastor Mike Taylor

44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:

46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” (Matthew 13:44-46.)

Many within God’s church read the parables spoken by Jesus in this chapter, which are parables pertaining to the Kingdom of God.  In this chapter of Matthew, Jesus gives several examples pertaining to this coming Kingdom. The two parables speak about a man who finds treasure in a field hidden or a pearl of great price:


The traditional view of most believing Christians is that Jesus is speaking of the newly converted Christian, that when he believes in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, that he gives up all that he has to obtain salvation from the Lord Jesus….Understandably, we who are chosen by God, give up much of the life we were living to become new creatures in Christ Jesus and are commanded to turn away from the evil of this world and follow Jesus Christ, taking up our cross daily and following Him. But is that what Jesus was talking about when He was talking about the treasure in the field, or the pearl of great price? Let’s see.
8 “ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians2:8-9)

We  know that it is not anything that we have done, or could have done that deserves forgiveness of sin. No amount of tithing, church attendance, charity to the poor, or any other good works we can think of can rid us of the stain of human sin. Only Jesus can do that.

3:4 “ But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit;3:6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;3:7  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7)

Jesus taught in parables and to a lot of folks they are hard to understand. Parables are an analogy. They are in story form, and they illustrate a truth drawn from the natural, material world to testify of a spiritual and eternal truth. It can teach eternal truth only because a unity exists between the material and spiritual. If the material had no similarities with the spiritual, it could not convey truth about the spiritual realities. Remember, "parable" suggests a side-by-side comparison. An earthly truth is the similitude of a heavenly one. Biblical parables thus show that the external, visible material world is a mirror through which we may understand the eternal, invisible spiritual realm.

Many times, the disciples came to Jesus to ask for the interpretation of the meaning of the parables He had just spoken to the people:

“And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" He answered and said to them,"Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand."(Matthew 13:10-13)

But do we, as Christians understand what Jesus was talking about? Only the Holy Spirit can reveal truths to you, not the traditions of men, as traditions can, even in good intentions, lead a person to believe in something that is not true. Like good works can save the sinner…not so, my reader. Remember what Jesus told the Pharisees.
9 “And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:

11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.

12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;

13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.” (Mark 7:9-13)

We as Christians must look to the deeper meaning of Jesus was talking about in the parables He spoke of….This is an example of the traditions of men concerning the hidden treasure in the field and the Pearl of Great Price and not discerning what the Lord was driving at.
6  “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.7  And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.”(Isaiah 64:6-7)

The idea of our righteousness being as a filthy rag is interpreted to mean a woman's discard menstrual cloth, a very unclean item in God's eyes and hardly what can be used to buy something so precious.

10 “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:

16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:

17 And the way of peace have they not known:

18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.”(Romans 3:10-18)

Paul speaks that we are at enmity with God.

“ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”(Romans 8:7-8)

We do not search for God, He searches for us….not the other way around.

So how can we buy this hidden treasure in a field, or this “Pearl of Great Price” if we have nothing to purchase it with? Did you purchase your salvation through your many good deeds and charitable giving? Of course, we did not!! We have nothing to offer our God that would allow Him to pardon us for sins committed against His Holy name.

Then who does the merchant represent? Obviously, it can’t be us, as we naturally do not seek God or His kingdom, so how can we purchase something so valuable?

Jesus said in  Luke “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."(Luke 19:9-10)
And again in:
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. ” (John 6:44-45)

Have you figured it out yet? Who is this merchant who gave up everything to buy this “hidden field” or the “pearl of great price’?

This merchant is seriously and deliberately searching this world to secure the best and costliest gems and treasures. It is his livelihood, and he is diligent to travel extensively because he knows his efforts will be rewarded when he finds the best and purchases them. Since Christ is the One who seeks the sinner, noted in Luke 19, and John 6 above,  the merchant cannot represent the sinner giving up all he has to follow Jesus Christ.  The Shepherd seeks the sheep, not vice versa.
4 “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”(Isaiah 53:4-6)

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JESUS IS THE MERCHANT WHO SEEKS US

The use of the word "seeking" we quoted in Matthew 13, v. 45, helps identify the merchant as Christ, as it means "to depart from one place and arrive at another." Jesus did this Himself to pay the hidden field cost and the price for the pearl. He departed from heaven and arrived on earth to complete His mission
“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”. (Philippians 2:6-8)

And again in 2nd Corinthians, Paul speaks what Jesus did for us:

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich”. (2^nd Corinthians 8:9)

Jesus our Lord,  gave up everything—He sold all—to possess us! He emptied Himself of the glory of heaven, His position beside God the Father, and took on the form of a servant, a man like you and I. He was born to die……………..for you and for me!
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.(John 3:16-18)

Can you understand the depths of God the Father's love that He would give up the most important thing in all of eternity, His only Son for something so unworthy, so unrighteous, an unclean thing in His sight? How can this be?
6 “ For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.7  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”(Romans 5:6-8)

It comes down to one complete description of God’s Love…….AMAZING GRACE!

When John Newton wrote that beloved hymn, he summed it up when God called each of us because of His mercy and grace..

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but NOW I’m found, was blind, but now I see.”

My reader, Jesus paid it all….gave up all…came from glory in heaven to pay the price for your redemption. Jesus came to pay the ultimate price for our salvation by giving His life on the cross and His ultimate resurrection to life three days later and sits at God's right Hand making intercession for each of us that call upon His Name...He loves each of us that much.

6 “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”(Romans 5:6-10)

You and I and all who believe are the treasure in a hidden field and the Pearl of Great Price. He lived, He died and rose again, that you might have eternal life. Not for anything you did, but for His unfathomable love and AMAZING GRACE. Won’t you accept His free gift…? It’s already bought and paid for. All you have to do is say “Yes, Lord, I believe”. Then internalize this great gift from God, by becoming a new creature. Not anything we can do, but what He can do in us. Although we are a lost and dying creation, God loved us, even when we were His enemies.

Jesus has for nigh 2000 years through God's Holy Spirit has been searching for those lost sheep and that sheep could be you, as it was I in times past:

4 “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”(Luke 15:4-7)

Jesus seeks that one lost sheep although He has many brethren. His mercy is boundless. You see, we didn't deserve so great a mercy, that God would give up everything He possessed (even His life), to redeem each of us that were so unworthy.

4” What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

9 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” (Psalms 8:4-9)

He came to save all who would follow Him by faith, love,  and obedience to become His treasure and His Pearl of Great Price. It was solely for our redemption and according to His unfathomable, matchless love. That love is for you, and for me.

8 “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”(Romans 10:8-13)

“For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2^nd Corinthians 6:2)

My reader, Jesus is seeking the lost sheep of this world and He came for that one purpose, to save the lost soul from their sins and eternal death and separation from Almighty God. Won't you heed His voice and accept what has already been sought after and paid for with His very life? If you have not done so, may the Holy Spirit call you now.

This is pastor Mike Taylor praying for each of you that will hear the voice of God and make that decision to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. If there is anything that I can help you with, pray with you, or just to listen, drop me a line to pastormiketaylor@yahoo.com. Or visit me online for more biblical messages from the Word of Go at www.pastormiketaylor.blogspot.com, . God bless you all,

Till we meet at Jesus feet. 

THE WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND

 By Pete Garcia -

 "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase". (Daniel 12:4 )

Imagine if you will that one-day scientists abandon the flawed and completely illogical theory of Darwinian Evolution. Imagine all that science could accomplish without having that biased monkey hanging on their neck like a dead albatross? For many of these men and women, it would revolutionize the way they analyze a problem. Rapid advances in our civilization came because men like Isaac Newton, Nicolai Tesla, and Albert Einstein did not follow the status quo. Like the harnessing of electricity, or the invention of the printing press...mankind's great leaps forward in time propelled understanding to a new level. A new paradigm opens up and thus spins off subsequent discoveries like an endless Fibonacci Spiral. What has largely kept men at bay was our own preconceived notions about what was logical, feasible, and possible. Because of that reason, knowledge was often bottlenecked at various points throughout the course of human history. A great discovery is made, and there is an explosion of new ideas that spiral out from that one and continue until it reaches a point when further progress becomes frustrated or stifled. And whether that roadblock comes in the form of a government, a church, or just our preconceived notions about how to do something. It would seem that man's capacity for increased knowledge comes in brilliant, brief flashes...followed by long periods of darkness. A great example of this is in our understanding of the prophetic scriptures, or in how we have come to know what we know. Most of the Early Church Fathers (ECF) believed in a literal return of Christ and a literal kingdom that He would establish one day in the end times. (Daniel 2:44-45, Isaiah 65:17-25, Revelation 20). I imagine we would have had considerable more information about what their thoughts on the prophetic texts were, but the ECF soon became valiantly engaged in battling the Gnostics, Judaizers, pagans, and skeptics for the better part of 250 years against them making inroads into the Church. They fought just to keep the basic tenets of Christianity intact. They were able to do all that, and still face ten periods of intense persecution by a pagan Roman Empire. (Smyrna) 

The Sealing

 However, beginning in the year 313, Constantine legalized Christianity with the Edict of Milan. Christianity went from being persecuted and fringe, to being accepted and legal. Over the course of the rest of that century, instead of Christianity going out into the world, the world would come into Christianity. (Pergamum) As Christianity became more acceptable to the establishment (Roman Empire), political correctness got its toe in the door of the church. I imagine it was not very popular to be preaching that Christ would soon return and destroy all the kings and kingdoms of the world, while under the watchful eye of an Emperor. Allegorizing scriptures provided a way for priests and bishops to remain politically correct and still keep their jobs. This had begun in earnest by an early "Christian" mystic named Origen in the 3rd Century. A century later, a Christian priest named Jerome was commissioned to translate the Bible into Latin, finishing around the year 405 A.D. Around that same time, a Christian theologian named Augustine of Hippo (who had been influenced by Origen), had begun applying that same method of allegorizing the scriptures to all of his interpretations of the Bible. This type of hermeneutics would create a new strain in Eschatology called 'Amillennialism'. Like Darwinian Evolution, Amillennialism (a= negative) clung around the neck of that Middle-Ages church like dead weight. For centuries, Amillennialism stifled the prophetic understanding of the Scriptures by dissuading the literal interpretation of the prophetic texts. It denied that Christ would literally return to earth, but that the Kingdom was spiritual and ever-present. Since Augustine was in large part, the 'doctrinal-father' for the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), 'Amillennialism' became THE eschatology for most of Christendom. Moreover, as the RCC gained power and authority, they retained their clerical power by making the Latin Vulgate the only legal and acceptable translation of the Bible. The only people still able to read and speak Latin were the clergy within the RCC, which ensured that they would have a monopoly on anything that was called "Christian" for the better part of 1,000 years. (Thyatira) 

Removing the Veil

 However, the times they were a changing. A scholar named John Wycliffe in the 1380's had handwritten a new translation in English. He quickly came under the ire of the Roman Catholic Church. After his death, his works were burned and he was declared a heretic. Another man followed Wycliffe not long after named John Hus who also began handwriting Bibles in English. He did not fair so well as he was arrested and burned at the stake in Germany. The first printing press was invented around 1450 (Guttenberg) and the first book to ever be printed was the Guttenberg Bible in 1455 (in Latin). (The first English Bible ever printed was the Tyndale Bible [1526]) Now that the Bible was becoming more accessible, and eventually available in something other than Latin, there was an explosion of interest into Christianity. For the first time in over a millennia, people could finally read the Bible in their own language. They did not have to rely on a priest to tell them what a Bible said. The early 1500s brought about a long overdue desire for change within Roman Catholicism. The Reformation began as a protest-movement led by a Catholic monk named Martin Luther who was sick of how corrupted the system had become. With the selling of indulgences for the absolution of sins, the "good-works" salvation system, and the abuses by RCC clergy, Luther had finally had enough. On October 31st, 1517, he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. The rest as they say is history. Protestant groups began popping up all over Europe as the word was put into the vernacular of the common-man. Although the "protesters" may have corrected many of the doctrinal abuses on orthodox Christianity by the RCC, their major failing was that they kept the Catholic Eschatological view point of Amillennialism. (Sardis) The First Great Awakening occurred toward the end of the 1700's, and Protestant Missionaries were being sent out around the world to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. An evangelistic movement broke out in Ireland in the early-1800s called the 'Plymouth Brethren'. They came together and began to study their Bibles in a literal manner shaking off the confines of dead denominationalism altogether. Just as Martin Luther rediscovered the soteriological doctrine of salvation by grace through faith, so too did these Plymouth Brethren rediscover some long, lost truths. The result of returning to a literal understanding of the entire Bible, led them to the conclusion that the Bible is a) dispensational, b) Pre-Millennial, and c) that they were somewhere near the end times. Therefore, it wasn't that John N. Darby and company created Pre-Millennial Eschatology out of thin air, but really, only rediscovered what had been hidden in plain sight for almost 2,000 years. (Philadelphia) "About the Time of the End, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the Prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamor and opposition" Sir Isaac Newton

 

Precept upon Precept

 Sir Isaac Newton wrote more about biblical prophecy than he did on any other topic. He was particularly fascinated by the books of Daniel and Revelation. Nevertheless, even with all his mental genius and boundless energy to write and study the prophetic word, he remained largely "ignorant" of prophetic events that even the average Bible prophecy student today takes for granted. Back when I was at the Omega Letter where I had written for a number of years, many of us had looked (and still do) up to Jack Kinsella as not only a pastor, but also a mentor. He provided a straightforward and simple understanding of not only Bible Prophecy, but of what it means to be a Christian living in these last days. Jack's mentor was Hal Lindsey. Hal's mentors were most likely men like Lewis Sperry Chaffer, Cyrus Scofield, and Clarence Larkin. Larkin and Scofield picked up on what the Plymouth Brethren had been doing decades earlier, which was simply returning to a literal understanding of the Bible. Thanks to those men, we know that we are in that last church age that precedes the coming of our Lord. (Laodicea) Each group or generation of men learned from the previous, and that knowledge was passed on, built upon, and measured against the current events of that day. So we here today, are the recipients of over a 150 years of accumulated learning and study. This learning has been greatly accelerated by the use of the Internet, study bibles, commentaries and teachings. What had been hidden to many in Christianity only a century ago, has come to light with the return of national Israel to their ancestral homeland. But even as early as 1919, Cyrus Scofield noted in his Scofield Study Bible, that Israel HAD to become a nation again because a literal reading of Ezekiel 36-37 demanded it. I imagine he caught a lot of grief for including that in his Bible back then...that was...until 1948. However, we only know what we know today, because we have stood on the shoulders of giants. Not only do we benefit from their diligent study and willingness to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, but also we have accumulated more history then them. We have had the privilege to see Israel become a nation again. We have seen the formation of revived Roman Empire via the Europe Union, coming together into a single political and economic body. We have seen the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reemergence of Russia. We are now seeing Red China rising and the US declining. We are seeing the push for a New World Order that will one day lead to a one-world currency, religion, and political body. We are seeing the signs of increasing natural disasters in both frequency and intensity. We are seeing technology moving at a frightening pace that allows men to play god and computers to become like men. Communications have become global with an instantaneous reach. Artificial intelligence is leaving the realms of science fiction and becoming reality. There is in increased fascination with the supernatural, occultic, and unexplainable. 

Closing Thoughts

 Although I heard, I did not understand. Then I said, "My lord, what shall be the end of these things?" And he said, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. Daniel 12:8-10 Once again we are reaching that point in time where the prophetic text has been studied, preached, taught, and dissected so many ways...by so many great teachers, that it seems impossible that we could still pull any new information out of what we already know. Any study, about any verse of the Bible is available many times over in either written, audio, or video formats. I do not know what else can be brought out of the most intensely studied book in the history of the world. These are indeed exciting times, but the watchmen can grow very weary in seeing how rapidly the world is sinking into spiritual and moral depravity. It weighs heavy on our hearts. We are instructed to be ready, to watch, and to lift our heads up when these things begin to happen. Nevertheless, there is one other thing I do know, and that is we will have the privilege of seeing what the prophets, apostles, early church fathers, and those godly men of old, longed to see. If we are patient, and watching, we will be that generation in the not too distant future who hears the shout, the voice of the Archangel, and the Trump of God calling us home. "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:1-3 Even so, Come Lord Jesus!