The Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ

——Please open up to Philippians chapter 3, verse 4——

I must be honest – I struggled in writing this sermon.

Because as I wrote out my thoughts, I kept writing, and deleting, and writing, and deleting...

Nothing seemed sufficient to adequately communicate, with soberness, the weightthis text should have upon our souls.

And I shudder to think that I may poorly represent what God has spoken in this text.

The reason this text is a trembling matter is because Christianity has a disease.

I’m not speaking now of genuine Christians. I’m speaking about Christianity.

What has become a name separated from its meaning, a political force, a system of morality seldom kept by those who espouse it…

…this “American Christianity” of the 20th century is on its death bed—decaying before our very eyes.

And it crumbles because of this: it doesn’t know Jesus.

It quickly calls everyone who says they follows Christ a Christian – but this is not the truth.

We have all been told what a Christian is.

We have had it defined by debaucherous celebrities, media, news, churches who know nothing of the Scriptures.

A Christian knows Jesus. And this is the subject of our text this morning: Christ Himself.

Christianity has forgotten her Christ. She has no regard for His work. She knows not His voice. She’s ignorant of His instructions.

Our world knows nothing of Scripture, it doesn’t know it, and it doesn’t care about it.

And we’ve been told that a Christian can be generally uninterested in the Savior and His teachings.

That is a lie.

Sola Scriptura - Scripture alone. The foundation of that greatwork of God which wrung out the hearts of men and convictedheretics of truth.

If American Christianity knewthe Scriptures, then it would know its Christ.

And if this Christianity KNEW its Christ, then it would be vibrantin its holiness and truth.

But America is filled with churches totally empty of the presence of Christ.

They leave with encouragement – but it is the encouragement of the flesh.

They leave feeling uplifted, as they do violence to the teachings of our Lord.

My aim is not such things: but that we would let Scripture speak to us of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.

Christianity has seen such ignorance of its Christ before, in that time when the church forgot His word.

You see – in the days prior to the Reformation, Christ was obscured, his offices robbed by deceitful men.

No longer could burdened and weary men come freely to Christ… Christ was made to be distant.

A newmediator was invented – one to bridge the gulf between us and Christ, one to distribute grace on His behalf.

Mary—blasphemously called the one “full of grace.”

So too did the pope intercede, providing some means by which men may receive grace.

Christ’s graces gave us a foundation, but without our own efforts, we could never be worthy of God’s Kingdom.

To supplement our unrighteousness, special ceremonies were devised, extrabiblical sacraments, even indulgences: the promise of grace for money.

The Pope and the church would help us in our weakness to be righteous enough,

…That perhaps we could squeak into at least purgatory.

Christ was only the first link in this chain, each link being equallycritical to our final salvation.

With Scripture obscured, and its Savior distant, the purityof the Gospel was at risk, the heart of Christianity under siege…

But the Lord had promised: the gates of HELL would not prevail against His Church.

And so – on October 31st 1517, 504 years ago this very day –

…the Lord used Martin Luther’s 95 Theses to speak a reform of Christianity in the west—and to prompt a return to the Gospel of grace.

The Reformation recovered Scripture as the only reliable ground for Christian life.

And also toughed men to see Christ as the center of all things.

That He ALONE grants eternal life by means of faith alone, all this given by grace alone to the glory of God alone.

The recapturing of Scripture resultedin the recapturing of the person, work, and officesof Christ.

And if we claim to be Christians – we can not continue even one more secondwithout His Word.

Observe the undercurrents of the age: Christ has once-more become obscuredto so-called Christians.

He is now only a political revolutionary.

A championfor the oppressed.

His love overcame all judgment….

He was a moral firehose…..insightful, intelligent…..

He can help you, he can free you so when you want to sin—just feel bad, you won’t have to go to hell.

Pray this little prayer, your life will be so happy. #Blessed. [Pause]

This is not our Lord. This is not Jesus.

I don’t care who you are – I don’t care if you’ve been a Christian since you were in diapers…

I don’t care if you were dragged out of bed to this building by guilt…

I don’t care if you had a dramatic salvation experience last night…

If you have been fooling yourself with this nonsense, you don’t know the Savior, and you are no Christian.

Church – learn to be enraged at this:

Your Messiah has been cheapened, reduce to a trinket, a good luck charm.

Christian solider – pull out your shield, strap on the sword of the Spirit, stand against these flaming arrows of deceit in their tracks.

[Pause]

Today: Let’s consider our Great High Priest.

May the Spirit of God lay Him bare before us. May he give us eyes to see His divine glories.

May He cut through the cultural fog that fills our minds with silly nonsense and obscuresHim.

May we see the value of our Lord, and would that our hearts delight in Jesus.

May the darkened and wicked soul be roused from the mundane world…

…and come as a weary traveler to rest in his arms: safe and secure.

May you be compelled to forsake all things that by any means youmay possess Christ.

Let us read today’s text, and pray.

[Read Philippians 3:4-11]

Paul, writing to the “saints in Philippi” from a prison cell, begins this chapter by commanding:

[Read v2 “Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.”]

(Verses 2-4 will be considered mostly that we may see the context of our main text.

There’s much to say about them, that are for a different sermon.)

Paul is warning about a grave threat to the Church: those who reject the Gospel of grace.

The Greek word translated mutilate the flesh sounds very similar to the word for circumcision.

The Jews—who are physically circumcised—oppose the Gospel by teaching a righteousness based on works.Paul is warning about them.

Forcefully opposing such a twisted teaching, Paul explains in verse 3:

[Read V3: For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—]

The true circumcision are those who "worship by the Spirit of God"and "glory in Christ Jesus" and "put no confidence in the flesh"

No longer by temples, rituals, or ceremonies do God’s people worship.

Now – we worship by the Spirit of God.

God’s people boast in Christ Jesus, not themselves, nottheir ceremonies, not their physical circumcision or bloodline.

The true circumcision party puts no confidence in the flesh.

Here the Apostle expounds, seeking to bring heavenly clarity to the issue which so plagues mankind.

You see – the chief error of manmade religion is to see ourselves as a critical part of our salvation.

Paul exposes the debased thinking of such ideas.

He vigorously refutes it in the following verses.

[Read V4-6 - "though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless."]

Can any man make himself acceptable before the Lord? Are zealous intentionsenough to withhold the wrath of the Lord?

If anyone in all humanity had such a chance—it was the Apostle Paul.

"If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, Paul has more:"

7 items here listed were esteemed by Paul and his colleges most essentialand necessary in God’s eyes:

1) He was circumcised

This man was no stranger to God’s people.

He could trace his lineage from Abraham, he was of the people of Israel.

Also of the tribe of Benjamin, from which king Saul came!

A faithfultribe who remained in submission to the David’s kingly lineage.

He was the epitome of a Hebrew.

If a dictionary defined the ideal Hebrew, Paul's life would be the chief example.

Not only was Paul born into God’s people, he was purein his perfect devotion!

He was a Pharisee!

Consider for a moment who these men WERE.

The party of Pharisees were the conservative fundamentalists. They took SERIOUSLYthe Law.

They separated themselves from other JEWS who didn't take God's Word seriously enough.

Well acquainted were they with the Law, keeping its precepts to a T.

In other words - Paul was a Bible-believing Jew.

And he was zealous for God – persecutingthe church, thinking them blasphemous violators of God's Law.

While he did such things in ignorance of the truth, NO ONE COULD DENY this man's devotion.

And Paul caps it off with this statement: with regard to the Law, he was found blameless.

Paul was no adulterer, he was no idolater. His life and conduct were externally blameless.

If there was a man on this earth who would find favor with God by his status…

..if there was one who would be accepted because of his intentions and his diligence and his devotion…it would be Paul.

Surely this Bible-believing Jew was right with God! [Pause]

But Paul says – it counted for absolutely nothing.

[Read V7 - "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ."]

So I ask you – Bible-believing conservative American Christian…how are YOUany different than Paul…………….??

He was the picture of devotion and zeal, yet HE said: this was loss to him.

This word “loss” is also used in Acts of a shipwreck.

All this conservativeness and zeal and strict righteous living – these things were rotting at the bottom of the ocean.

But Paul, not settled with such tame description of his attitude, bursts forth in verse 8

[Read V8 - Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ,]

He considers “ALL THINGS” loss. Everything. EVERYTHING……………..[pause]

So many people claim to knowand love Christ. It is popular in our world to do so.

We thinkourselves Christians because we’ve been told that we’re Christians.

The Christian is not the man who looks over, seeing someone else who attends church twice a month and says…

“I am a good Christian, I attend at least 3 times a month.”

Churches tells hundreds of so-called “converts” they need not fear the wrath of God…

…because they walked up onto the stage once during an Easter service.

The Christian is not the one who looks at his coworkers and says “at least I am not taken with drunkenness”

The Pharisee Paul was RAISED in a God-fearing religion.

Taught by the best of the best, more knowledable in the Scriptures than others around him.

If HE thought himself acceptable to God – then be warned church – how do you KNOW you are a Christian? [Pause]

I will tell you, our churches have been far to quick to slapthe label Christian onto people who are running straight into hell’s fire.

The standard for a Christian has become one who says but a prayer.

Such a person can have NO CONCERN for holiness, but it matters not, for nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!

So then – who IS a Christian? What does this text tell us?

I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Oh Church – let this shake you to your core, let it reveal your heart and convict you – THIS IS the Word of the Lord:

More worth has Jesus, says Paul, than all the world’s best…

Christ is worth ten thousand treasures…

A Christian is one who values Jesus above every. Single. Thing. in the world—including themselves.

It is this attitude which gives the world reason to pity usif Christ was not raised from the dead.

The reason Christianity is in disarray? It has forgotten the valueof Jesus.

When Christians come together on Sundays to enjoy some music and a good sermon. Christ is not valued.

When sin in the life of the saints carries no weight in our churches, and no church discipline is brough to bear – Christ is not valued.

When impressing worldly people with circuses and funny videos is even a consideration in the church – Christ is not valued.

…when the bloody and wrathful substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus is blatantly disregarded, and replaced by a “loving God who accepts you for you”…Christ is not valued.

When the “ministry of the church” chiefly becomes gathering more and more people in seats instead of the Gospel that calls you to DIE to yourself and REPENT of sin…Christ is not valued.

When sermons become: Living Your Best Life NOW, How to rid youself of suffering….Christ isn’t even UNDERSTOOD let alone valued.

When the fear of being too divisive and notrelevant to a new generation causes churches to be silent on the wickednessof abortion and homosexuality, Christ is not valued.

When sports or the big game is more important to God’s Peoplethan the Word of the Lord and the Lord’s Table, Christ. Is. Not. Valued.

Church – Slay your desires for such things.

We must give UP the things of the world, not PANDER to them….

…not make it EASIER for people to deceive themselves into thinking they’re right with God!

If our churches continue to lure people in with worldly things, then American churches will continue to foster ever more love for the world.

We must simply present Jesus.

We cannot soften, or dilute Him. And Lord forbid we ever replaceHim with our own inventions. [Pause]

How have we gotten here? We struggleto value Jesus.

We struggle to value Jesus for two reasons: we don’t know Him, and our hearts love this world.

1) We have forgotten who our Savior is.

Jesus made all things—whether thrones or dominions, rulers, or authorities.

And He is the the purpose for which the ALL THINGS exist.

He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of His nature, the image of the invisible God….

And he upholds the universe by the Word of His Power.

He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the I AM. The one who led His people out of slavery in Egypt.

The object of prophecies and types.

Being in the form of God, He did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped….

…he humbled himself, taking on flesh, taking the form of a servant, and dwelling among us.

He humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross

He made purification for sins and is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High.

He is the ONE mediator between God and man, the fulfillmentof all the offices of Israel:

the once-for-all prophet, the High Priest who will never die, the Kingof Kings and Lord of Lords.

God has highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name…

… at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord.

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

And Like doubting Thomas, when He is revealed to us, may we fall to our knees in worship and we cry out,

“My LORD and my GOD.”

Oh, he is so infinite, so bottomless, so incomparable…

Yet our hearts are diminished, narrow, pinched, crowded out by other pleasuresand concerns.

We struggle to value Jesus because we don’t know him, but also because we delight in the world.

Paul, in prison, writes: “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.”

The word translated Rubbish is a cleaned-up version of this word.

The word means abhorrent filth—literally—human excrement.....Refuse....The dirtiest and foulest of things.

By this - he reaches beyond his prison wall, and pointsat everything that crowds our overstuffed hearts, and says, “What crap. Garbage. All of it. Lose it, that you may gain Christ.”

Brothers and sisters – our hearts have been corrupted….They’ve been infiltrated by wicked schemes of Satan…

…and – we cannot afford to deceive ourselves into thinking they’re not!

Our affections so love this run-down garbage heap of our sojourning. Our hearts are drawn to it, like a moth to the flame.

A church like ours states quickly: “worldliness is despicable to us – I reject such things”

Yet who of us can say their eyes are fixed firmly on Christ? Who of us turns not their head if only to glance at vanity fair.

Friendship with the world is enmity with God… But consider – what if friendship with the world doesn’t only mean rejecting the political left?

We are easily fooled into thinking we lack any corruption by the world, because we oppose it in A few categories.

Good – oppose such evils.

But remember this Christian: “The world” isn’t only that which is overtlyevil, it’s that which draws your attention off the Savior. [x2]

May the enemy tremble once werealize we’ve for too long been lulled into an acceptable compromise for our heart’s affections.

You see - Sin not only condemns us, it darkens us. Trains us to gawk at lackluster toys.

It condenses our heart's capacity for joy in heavenly things.

We have become far far too distracted by silly toys of Satan.

The overt and profane we gawk in horror at, but the subtle and subversivethings, we let fly under our radar.

We MUST identify what draws our affections most.

Success? Money? Sex? Comfort? Safety? Sin itself? Friendships? Reputation? Perhaps even family?

Not all of these are inherently wicked, but listen: these are worth LOSING so that you may knowChrist Jesus your Lord!

This is our sin: we prize things above their value. But we can neverovervalue Christ.

Many of these things are given by God to draw your gaze TO Him.

Let not yourself pursue the GIFT….rather pursue the GIVER of these gifts.

Such things ought cause your eyes to be lifted upwards in praiseand adoration.

But If removing comfort makes us more value our Lord, then Lord—take it away.

If PRISON would furnish our hearts with a knowledge of the surpassing value of Christ – then may the Lord Himself come and cart us away!

Maybe he SHOULD take our country, our freedoms, our safety…

…that we learn what is of true surpassing and eclipsingvalue.

Lord - smash our hearts! Crush them! Grind off the parts infatuated with the world!

[Pause]

If you lost all you hold most dear in this life - you could persevere in the Lord, because thesethings are but LOSS compared to knowing Christ.

We lovedirt, when a buffet of joystands before us.

And here is the error in our western understanding of Christianity: You can't have JESUS unless you give up EVERYTHING!

The throne of your heart will not be shared.

Everyone says following Jesus is so easy…But it is so, so costly.

It requiresyour life. Is the cost worth it?

The rich man who followed ALL God’s commandments was unwillingto give up his riches to follow Christ. Are you?

[Pause]

Many of you are perhaps thinking "I KNOW I need to feel this way, but I just don’t…and I don’t know how to.”

Yes - It's IMPOSSIBLE. The heart filled with temporal things will never desire Him.

This is why it’s moredifficult for the rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to enter through the eye of needle…

Because we’re all so delighted by our worldly trinkets.

Jesus “looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” [Matthew 19:26]

BEG the Lord to crippleyour heart!

Cry out for the Spirit of the Living God to removeyour love for the world.

Spend this very evening on your KNEES in PRAYER and REPENTANCE.

Ask for God to cleanse you. To expel your love of rubbish.

And do this Every. Single. Day. until God has banishedof every scent of worldly desire from your heart.

[Pause]

Let’s continue on to verses 9-10

[Read V9-10 - and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith]

This is the key of Christianity.

That elusive key which unlocks the door of righteousness; salvation, and eternal life.

Man strives after a righteousness of their own that comes from the Law

“Perhaps”, says the fool, “we can whip up sufficientrighteousness to be acceptable to our deity.”

Either the fool knows not the meaning of righteousness, or else has a wimpy god.

The God who speaks, who isn’t made of wood or stone or man’s imagination is a HOLY God.

Holy Holy Holy is the One who Was and who Is and who ISto come.

It was this Holy God who haunted Martin Luther's every thought 500 years ago.

The monk who devoted his LIFE to purity and holiness was utterly terrified of the God who was three times holy.

Spending hours a day confessing the darkness of his heart, Luther knewwhat so many in our day are too hardened to even realize:

He could NEVER be accepted by such a God.

His iniquities too severe to stand in His awful presence.

“Woe am I – a man of unclean lips”

More likely are you to overestimate your righteousness (as Paul did) than your wickedness.

The wicked will not stand on the day of judgment.

You are desperately sinful.

The reason you’re not already in hell is only because of His pleasure and patience.

The wrath of God comes for you. And what can you do to avoid such calamity?

Can a man go back in his mother’s womb and relive his life in perfect obedience?

No one is righteous, No one does good, no one seeks for God, not even one. (Romans 3)

To think your attendance at church, or your knowledge of Bible verses, or your baptism helps you is to dive into the fire.

Perhaps you deceive yourself: “A merciful God will accept me. He knows my heart,”

Consider the Apostles earlier words:

If anyonehas grounds for confidence in themselves, it's Paul.

But all your “good intentions” and “ordinances” and “righteous deeds” are literally crap: rubbish. They’ll land you in Hell.

All your yearning and working, all best intentions only condemn you…give it up.

LOSE your life, your efforts, your strivings…

Only then, you will find the very thing you’ve sought after: righteousness.

Though you cannot climb back in your mother’s womb, You do need to be born again…

And this is true Christianity:

The one who gives himself up gains Christ.

This man who repents from all his heart’s idols is given “a righteousness from God that is based on faith.”

It is not righteousness earned by you, but righteousness RECEIVEDby faith.

But true faith is costly. It is not cheap!

Consider the words of the hymn:

When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.

It ends - Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all

The one who gives up himself will find Christ—and oh how much sweeterhe is, how blessed is His salvation, how light is His burden.

Sola Fide, Faith alone. Have a righteousness which (as Paul writes) “comes through faith in Christ”

This faith is the instrument used to receive this foreign righteousness…the righteousness of God.

What a glorious reality:

that you—a worm from the dirt—would be granted the righteous perfectionof the Almighty.

How could you ever deserve such a gift? How could God justly give you His own righteousness?

Sola Gratia—Grace alone.

You deserve nothing – but the good grace of God has given you all you need.

2 Corinthians 5:21 says "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

The Holy Savior was unacquainted with sin—the only man to overcome it.

Yet God “made him to be sin who knew no sin,” The Father countedJesus as wicked, and PUNISHED him as a wicked man!

Foretelling this, Isaiah 53 says that “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Jesus wasn't seen as sinful because of HIM,but because of YOU.

Your selfishness, your rage, your deceitful and lying tongue, your porn addiction and sexual immorality, your theft, your murderous hatred, your ingratitude, your idolatry...

Such are the very nails pierced through our Lord—hanging Him to the cross.

He was pierced for YOUR transgressions, and CRUSHED for YOURiniquity;

The arrow of God’s wrath struck Christ, when WE were the original target …

And this ONLY because of His grace!

(May the Spirit let this stir our stiffhearts, and teach us to know the surpassing value of knowing Christ)

Physical PAIN endured by the sinless Savior, BLOOD spilt, death…

…because of you. And you. And me.

Painful and STIRRING death; gruesome and grotesque...

Yet, we must see - it was the will of the Lord to crush Him. He was handed over according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

The Father desired that Jesus die like this, die bearing yoursins.

God WANTED that. The injustice of His death.

What need has the Almighty to stoop down and rescue treasonous dirt? NONE. He should have left us to burn.

For naught but His good pleasurehave we salvation.

Presume not on his mercies and kindness. Delay not your repentance. Harden not your hearts.

He made him to be sin who knew no sin...so that all those "in him" might become the righteousness of God.

Those “in him,” unified with Him by faith, have His righteousness.

Reckoned to their account – the perfections and obedience of Christ Himself.

As a man—once married—takes on the debts of his bride, paying them off in full, and giving her his excess of wealth…

…so too does the bridegroom of heaven take on the debts of Hisbride…

…having payed them in full on the cross, that she may be debtless, free, clothed in white garments and counted as perfectly righteous.

Forsake the world, count all your richest gains as loss for Christ.

Because Solus Christus: Christ alone

There is no other mediator, no other way to be accepted by the Father:

Only by Jesus may men be acceptable to the Father.

NO priestdeclares you righteousness. No man absolves you of sin.

No prophetpresents an alternate route to God’s Kingdom, through laws and ordinances and worthiness.

No popehas such power.

No angelfrom heaven can proffer perfect righteousness to sinful man.

Jesus answered "I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me."

Jesus ALONE, try it without Him and you are condemned…

…to supplement his work with your own is to say that Christ died for no purpose.

You think yourself good enough for God?

THEN you’re placing your CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH…you FOOL.

“be found in him…having a righteousness which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith”

[Pause]

This Gospel is the message that heretics and cultists reject, that the world sees as “cosmic child abuse”, that our hearts are dulled to:

a punishment for sin you didn’t bear, and a perfect righteousness not your own.

But Christian, realize this:

The benefits in Christ are not what is most precious in the Christian life.

Justification, sanctification, glorification…all these are but MEANS to the ultimateend.

Knowing Christ is our aim, our purpose, our eternity. This is what our churches have forgotten?

So many think that getting people in to heaven and out of hell is the chief purpose…

…by any means possible, manipulate and convince people to just pray this prayer so they don’t go to hell.

But do you know what eternal life is?

John 17:3 – “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

Eternal life is this: to KNOW Him. To BEHOLD Him. To love Him.

A man who takes his sip of Jesus on Sunday but lives his life unaltereddoes not have eternal life.

To love someone is to give yourself up for them.

A man who goes to a small group but is unwilling to count his richest gains as loss is no Christian.

“Who have I in heaven but YOU O Lord”cries David.

You’re the object of mercy, but our salvation? That is all about Christ’s excellencies.

You were saved to worship Him. You were saved to bring gloryto him.

If your heart doesn’t YEARN to worship and adore and delight in Him for eternity, you don’t have eternal life!

That’s what eternal life IS!

You were saved to be a trophy in the trophy case of heaven…speaking of the mercies and glories of our Lord.

Soli Deo Gloria: Glory to God Alone—the end for which we were created.

[Pause]

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells two parables that I wish to leave with you this morning.

Matthew 13:44-47 - “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 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 that he had and bought it.”

Christ is that pearl of infinite value. He is the treasure worth selling EVERYTHING to grasp.

Christianity doesn’t know the value of that pearl. It doesn’t see the worth in selling everything to gain it.

Many in our day say they highly esteem Christ, but will seldom lift a finger to obtain him.

Thomas Watson wrote this: “If Christ would drop as a ripe fig into their mouth, they could be content to have him, but they will not put themselves to too much trouble to get him…If we are prizers of Christ, then we will part with our dearest pleasures for him…What scornand contempt they put on the Lord Jesus who prefer a damning pleasure before a saving Christ.”

Christianity has forgotten its Savior, and once again is in need of Reformation.

We must recapture the centrality of Scripture, so that we are prodded to an unceasing reverence and love for Christ.

Has the Lion of the Tribe of Judah become so uninteresting?

Saints - Be captivated by his beauty.

Has sin so hardened you that your heart is blinded to such glories?

Church – Lose everything for him. Give up your life to obtain Him.

Has His bride lost interest Him? Are we like Israel? Do we play the harlot—running after other loves?

Christian - Let yourself be purged of these worthless idols.

May the Spirit of God work and lift up our eyes to behold the excellencies of Christ.

Oh - that we would be able to sing this song with genuineness:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of his glory and grace.