No-one Has Ever Explained God's Love This Way (Part 2)

Then we’ll just consider the next parable for a moment, the parable of the pearl.

It’s very similar, but we can see some differences. It’s very important to understand that the man who wanted to buy the pearl was a merchant. He was not a tourist.

Now Ruth and I have come from Hawaii just recently, and there’s shops there that sell pearls to tourists. A lot of those tourists don’t know one pearl from another. They’re easily fooled. But this man couldn’t be fooled. He was a merchant. He’d spent his life dealing in pearls.

And one day, he came across this incredibly beautiful pearl. And he held it in his hand and he said, “I want you. You’re the most perfect pearl that I’ve ever set eyes on.” He inquired the price, and again, to raise the money, he’d have to sell everything he owned.

So we picture him going back to his wife, “Honey, we’re going to sell everything we have.” “Whatever for?” “I want to buy a pearl, one pearl.” “You mean you’re going to sell our home, our furniture, our clothes, our cattle, our farm, just for one pearl?” “Oh,” he said, “you haven’t seen the pearl. Wait till you see the pearl.”

Well, that’s just a little sort of background. Now, then if you think about the pearl, and I mean there’s more than one way to understand this, but for me, I see the pearl as just one redeemed soul.

And I understand that one soul is so valuable in the sight of God that if there’d only been one person who ever would have been saved in all of history, and you were that person, Jesus would have died for you. We have no way of comprehending the value that God sets upon a human soul. For Him, it’s a pearl of great price.

Now, let’s consider the price that Jesus paid. The New Testament tells us very clearly in various places, He had to shed His own precious blood. That was the only price that could buy back the treasure and the pearl.

But when it comes to the pearl, I think it’s important to make it very, very personal. I would like each one of you, just for a few brief moments, to think of yourself as that pearl. Picture that merchant who’s paid everything he had for one pearl. Now he owns the pearl, and he holds it in the palm of his hand, and he looks down at it, and he says, “You’re beautiful. You’re the most beautiful pearl I’ve ever seen in all my merchant days. You cost me everything, but I was glad to pay it. You’re mine. I don’t regret the price I paid for you.”

Now, if you want to go out of here tonight feeling important, valuable, cared for, significant, just picture yourself for a moment in the palm of the Lord’s hand. Picture Him looking down on you and saying to you, “You’re mine. You cost me everything I had, but I don’t regret the price I paid. You were worth it. In My eyes, you’re beautiful.”

Could you just picture yourself that pearl for a moment? Can you make it very intimate and very personal? Don’t think of anybody at the moment, not the preacher, nor the people, but just think of Jesus. See yourself as the soul for whom He died. Consider the price that He paid, every drop of His precious blood, and remember that the life is in the blood. In the blood of Jesus is the very life of God the Creator. There is more power in one drop of the blood of Jesus than in all the kingdom of Satan. There’s the very life of God Himself in that precious blood.

It cleanses from all sin. It sanctifies. It makes us pure and whole. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but solely by the virtue of His blood, we become accepted in the Beloved. We’re the object of God’s peculiar affection. We’re His special treasure.

Just for a moment, I’m going to stop speaking. Just let the Holy Spirit make this real to you. And then, in a few moments, I’m going to ask the worship leader to come up, and we’re going to give God thanks. But just for a moment, just let God show you, by the Holy Spirit, how much He loves you.