Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1424
“Again, the kingdom of Hea ven is like unto a merchant, seeking good pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Matthew 13:45, 46.
A MERCHANT endeavors to trade so as to make a profit. Whether he deals in pearls or in grain, he does not hope to obtain riches by labor. He leaves that to those who eat their bread in the sweat of their face. He tries to get his by the sweat of his brain. He is dependent not so much upon labor as upon knowledge, upon skill, upon the advantage which superior acquaintance with the article which he deals in gives him. Now, this merchant is, at the very commencement, in some measure, a picture of the seeker after Christ. Christ and His salvation are not to be earned—they are not to be procured as the result of labor. Christ is to be had by knowledge. What says the Scripture? “By his knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many,” that is, through their knowing Christ they become justified.
This is, indeed, another way of putting the system of salvation which is stated thus, “How shall I hear without a preacher?” The work begins with hearing the preacher. It then goes on to believing what you hear and through believing you are saved. This is virtually knowledge—the knowledge communicated by God’s messenger or by God’s Word—the knowledge heard, the knowledge believed. So men come to the knowledge of Him whom to know is life eternal, for when a man knows Christ and understands Him so that he gives his heart to Him, then is he saved!
Inasmuch, then, as the merchant seeks his advantage by superior knowledge, he becomes a type of the man who gets saved through obtaining the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I shall not, however, enlarge upon this analogy, but proceed at once to speak of the merchant in this parable, for here we have a fit emblem of many who lay hold on Christ and find Him to be their All in All. Let us watch this merchant while he is doing four things. First, seeking, then finding. Then selling and, fourthly, buying again.
I. First, then, we shall WATCH HIM WHILE HE IS SEEKING. “The kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant seeking good pearls.” It is different from the man we read of just now who, by accident, discovered a treasure while he was in the field. He was looking for something else and came upon the treasure. That is the man whom God, in infinite Sovereignty, saves, though He was heretofore indifferent and careless. This is a person of a nobler sort. He is of a higher grade of mind. He is of an altogether different mental constitution. He is seeking good pearls—something good, not exactly seeking the one Pearl of Great Price, for at first he does not know about it. But, still, he is seeking pearls and he comes upon one pearl in consequence of his seeking.
Now, notice about him, as a seeker, that he has his mind awakened and engaged. He is thinking about something— thinking about pearls. His heart is occupied with his business. His energies are thrown into it. All his thoughts are in the direction of precious stones. Oh that we could wake men up to exercise the faculty of thinking and then to direct, to regulate and to control their thoughts! But thinking is an occupation that a great many persons altogether dislike! They are frivolous. We cannot get them to think about anything. Why is it that people are so passionately fond of reading novels and so seldom read the true histories which are quite as interesting and far more capable of affording pleasure and pastime? It is because the minds of men are frivolous.
An idle tale—a silly story of a love-sick maiden—will engross them by the hour together! But anything that is solid and worth the knowing seems to have small charm for their shallow brains. Many minds never get on the wing at all. Many men work so hard with their hands and suffers such fatigue from bodily labor that they are scarcely able to think much, while there are others who dissipate their time and consume their lives in idleness till they are utterly disqualified for any vigorous thought. They are lazy and sluggish. They have dry rot in their very souls! Their brains do not work. They seem to live in one everlasting lethargy and daydream. Oh that men were wise, that they were thoughtful! Happy was the preacher who knew that he was addressing himself to a thoroughly intelligent, thoughtful congregation! We
would expect, then, that the handfuls of good seed would drop into the furrows readily and bring forth an abundant harvest!
This merchant’s mind was awakened. He had something before him. Equally evident is it that he had a fixed definite objective. He had given himself to pearl hunting and pearl hunting was to be the one objective of his life. If you had met him and said, “What are you seeking?” He would have answered in a moment, “I am seeking good pearls. Have you any to sell me?” He would have been sure to have the answer ready to hand. But ask many a man whom you meet with, “Sir, what are you living for?” he would, perhaps, tell you what his trade or what his profession might be! And if you pressed him with the question, “What is your main objective in life?” he would not like to say that he was living only to enjoy himself—seeking his own pleasure. He would hardly like to say that he was living to grasp and grab and get a fortune. He would hardly know how to answer you!