For those of you who do not know me, my name is Nathan Marr and this is my family across the back row. And we live in Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, Mexico. And I'd like to give you a brief update on our ministry there in Mexico. Of course, we're sent out by you all here at Heritage Baptist Church, and we praise God for you all, for your fellowship with us in the Lord, for your friendship. We praise God for you all's prayers on our behalf. And speaking of your prayers on our behalf, I have a bunch of prayer cards here and a little letter about our family written by my wife recently. And so I invite you to take one of those cards and you can make us a refrigerator ornament and remember us in prayer. Thank you for praying for us. We're also very grateful for the the church and its generosity towards us in so many ways. Thankful for the leadership team and the deacons that take care of the finances for us, manage our finances. They do so much work on our behalf and so we're very grateful for you all and for your fellowship in the Lord above everything. So we bring you greetings from the congregations that we represent in the state of Chihuahua. Your sister churches in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Churches which are holding to and teaching the same glorious gospel of grace as is taught here. Some of these churches have been directly planted by our efforts, and other churches have asked us to come alongside in some way to help them to get established. The church in Cuauhtémoc sends you greetings. That's the church where I most actively pastor in Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua. Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, of course, is about six hours south of El Paso, Texas. right in the middle of the state of Chihuahua. There's also the congregation in Bawinokachi, which is a small mountain community to which I have traveled for the last seven years. It's about two hours each way and we go up there every other week to preach the gospel and to have a time of A fellowship with the believers there and evangelize the lost in that community. Grace Life Church in Campo Ten with the pastors Danny Bandman and Kenny Wolfe are pastoring there and we were blessed of the Lord to be able to participate with them over the course of the last few years in establishing that church. There's another church in Colonia El Valle. another with pastors Cody Wiebe and Conway Friesen, and then in Benito Juarez, a community about two and a half hours south of El Paso, Texas, pastored by Osman Oluber, and we have other friends in that congregation as well. Each of these These churches, several of them have asked me to give you greetings. The church in San Juanito with Brother Eber Gonzales and our friend Juan, we write to you sometimes mentioning them in our letters and they're doing well. We praise God for that little assembly which is gathering in that community. It's three, four families gathering together to worship the Lord and then to evangelize the community. San Juanito is a city of about 10,000 people so there's opportunities to reach out to people in that town and our brother Eber Gonzalez has been very faithful in taking the word to that community. And most recently we have begun to fellowship with a church in a community called Vallesillo, which is between Chihuahua City and our town. And brother Hugo Lujan is pastoring there. We praise God for each of these new congregations and in which the word is preached every Lord's Day and which are working to make disciples in their own communities. Thank you all for praying for these different churches as well. And it has been our delight to watch these churches develop and grow and become more established in some cases and in some cases struggling to be established and It's all a war, but we praise God that Jesus Christ will have dominion, and he is victorious. The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all nations, and there will not be an obstacle which will ultimately stop the advance of God's kingdom. So thank you all for your prayers for our ministry in northern Mexico. And we know that there will be no victory without prayer. So we pray that God will continue to establish His churches. And thank you also for your generous financial support, both as a congregation and also certain individuals have given to the ministry. We're so thankful for you all and for your generosity. towards us. And may the Lord use these efforts to establish biblical churches, churches where the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, churches which develop into being communities of faith where disciples are made for the glory of our Savior. It's a great Privilege to belong to the kingdom of God. Have you ever thought about that? The privilege of belonging to the kingdom of God. We're gonna start today, our sermon time, opening our Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13 is characterized by the word parable and also by the word kingdom. This is the text in which we see the, or a lot of, the kingdom parables. And today I would like to talk with you about the great value of belonging to the kingdom of God. The great value of belonging to the kingdom of God. We could say that there's a couple of different ways that we could talk about the kingdom of heaven, and we'll get into that as soon as we read our text. Matthew chapter 13, we'll begin with verse 44 and we'll go to verse 46. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid and for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Let's pray. Gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your word. And we pray, God, that your word will sink deep into our souls, Father. And we pray, God, that you, Lord, will grow us in faith and in love for you. And Lord, we pray, God, that you will make us more useful in your hands for the advancement of your kingdom. In Christ's name we pray, amen. We could speak of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven in a couple of different ways. The kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven are really synonymous terms. But we could speak of the kingdom in a couple of different ways. We could speak of God's universal reigning over all. And in a sense, there is nothing outside of the scope of God's kingdom. There is nothing which is not accountable to God. There is no part of his creation which is autonomous and has no responsibility before our creator. At the same time, there is an aspect of the kingdom of God which is growing and advancing. And so we think of the book of Daniel and we think of that great stone which knocks over the idol, the image, which represented certain kingdoms, right? And it grows to be a great kingdom which dominates the entire world. We can speak of the kingdom of God in both of these ways. And when we talk about the kingdom parables, we're talking mostly about the ways in which the kingdom of God is a thing which is growing. We could say it's the place where people submit themselves to the lordship of Jesus Christ or the place in which people recognize Jesus Christ as king of kings and lord of lords. We could say it's that place which in which people are are saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and brought into a a lord and slave relationship with our God. Men consider all things, all kinds of things to be precious, don't they? Men consider all kinds of things to be precious. Gold, silver, diamonds, and many other stones and minerals are considered to be of great value. How many people have given their lives in the search for gold? Many, many people have done that. Men consider all kinds of things to be precious. Only a few weeks ago, a woman who attends our church told me that her father used to walk for weeks to go to the big city 135 miles away. He would walk there to bring back something precious. And we'll talk at the end of this sermon about what that precious thing is that he brought back. And you're probably thinking, well, it must be something spiritual. Well, it's not really something spiritual, but it's something that we would consider to be not worth walking 135 miles for each way. That was a long way to walk, wasn't it? Men consider all kinds of things precious and they invest significant amounts of their lives in pursuing these precious things. In our parable, or in our text, we have two kingdom parables. The first kingdom parable is of the hidden treasure. And in both of the parables, the treasure, we find a treasure which represents the kingdom of God. The hidden treasure and then the pearl of great price, both of these things represent the kingdom of God. And not all men can see or perceive the value of belonging to the kingdom of God. And so we find in verse 44, in the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. Not all men see or perceive the value of belonging to the kingdom of God. Naturally, men love their autonomy. They do not love to submit to another. That's our natural tendency. We want to be independent and not under the authority of another. So often that's our attitude, isn't it? The kingdom of heaven is like a pearl or like a treasure hidden. The nation of Israel in the post-exilic period could not see any value in belonging to God's kingdom. If you look at the book of Malachi, just the book before Matthew was the book of Malachi chapter three, the people of Israel considered serving God to be boring. They considered serving God to be fastidious. Verse 13. Your words have been harsh against me, says the Lord. Yet you say, what have we spoken against you? You have said, it is useless to serve God. What prophet is it that we have kept his ordinances and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts? And so we call the proud blessed. And that's as far as we're gonna read there. The people of Israel had been severely disciplined by God in the exile. The people of Israel now had been restored to the land, and yet still their hearts were very far from God. They would not go back into the same level of idolatry as they had been in before the exile, but even so, their hearts were very far from God, and they didn't see the value of belonging to the kingdom of God. Their hearts being far from God was demonstrated by their divorces, demonstrated by their unfaithfulness to their wives, demonstrated by the fact that they would bring their blind and their lame animals to sacrifice to God. They would give God all their leftovers. And God says to them, well, take that to your governor, see how he likes it. And are you going to inquire of me with this sort of a sacrifice or with this sort of service? Their hearts were far from God. They didn't see the value of belonging to the kingdom of God. They'd been called by God to worship Him in specific ways. And they had been called of God to give their best to the Lord. And yet on a heart level, they did not love God. In the time of the early church, the nation of Israel could still not see the value of belonging to the kingdom of God. And so we see in the book of Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13, verse 46. We'll begin with verse 45. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. And contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. The people of Israel were still in the same mindset that they had been in 400 years earlier in the book of Malachi, their hearts far from God and the Savior of the, when their Savior and the Savior of the world showed up, they crucified him. And when the gospel was preached, they rejected it. And if we go forward in the book of Acts to chapter 17, we'll find that the Gentiles weren't exempt from this sort of attitude either. Acts 17, the Apostle Paul is speaking on Mars Hill in Athens, the Areopagus. Verse 32, and when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, we will hear you again on this matter. So many considered the kingdom of God still to be a matter of mockery. They were not immune to the attitude of not wanting to submit to God's kingdom. Unbelief is the blindness that does not see the value of God's kingdom. of God's kingdom. Unbelief is that blindness which which hides that treasure from us and doesn't allow us to see the great value of belonging to the kingdom of God. As the poet said, blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain. Unbelief can neither perceive the gravity of the consequences of sin, nor see the glory of the reward that the Lord has offered to those who love Him. Unbelief cannot see the gravity of the consequences of sin, nor the glory of the reward which God has offered to those who seek Him. in the time of Jesus' life, and in our day, it would seem that a minority of the population sees the value of belonging to Christ's kingdom. May God have mercy on us, and may God show to us the value of belonging to His kingdom. May God show to each of you young people, you children, the value of belonging to Christ's kingdom, and give you a love of walking with Him and serving Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and as King of your life. If you have faith, the faith to see the value of God's kingdom, if you have that faith, praise God, give glory to God who opens the eyes of the blind and who has mercy on the hard-hearted sinner. Praise God for His mercy and for His compassion. So the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found, right? We'll return to our text here, return our thinking at least to our text in the book of Matthew chapter 13. A man finds this treasure in verse 44. Perhaps this man was plowing in the field, doing work for the owner of the field. Perhaps he was just wandering through the field. That's irrelevant. One way or the other, he finds this treasure hidden in the field. He stumbles across something which he had never or could never have hoped to have found, something of tremendous value, something which would change his life, a treasure beyond compare. And he finds it by apparent happenstance. He wasn't looking intentionally for this treasure. He stumbles across this treasure. And the man has enough honesty not to steal the treasure, but goes and sells all that he has in order to buy that field and therefore possess this incomparable wealth. He responds with joy, realizing that he has made the best possible acquisition for which there will be no buyer's remorse. And so in verse 44, it says, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. He responds with joy. He's not sorry to part ways with everything that stands between him and possessing that treasure. He is joyful to part ways with all that stands between him and that treasure, and he goes for it. Just as an illustration, this man is the polar opposite of the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler came face to face with this treasure, and he said, everything I have is better than that. And he went away joyful? No, he went away sad, didn't he? He went away sad. The rich young ruler was unwilling to part with those things that the Lord Jesus Christ told him were standing between him and possessing that treasure. That rich young ruler had an opportunity beyond compare. Jesus said, go so all you have come follow me, spend time with me and I'll teach you. Jesus Christ offered to disciple him. Jesus Christ offered to teach him. Jesus Christ offered to show him the things which were of a value which this whole world could not compensate. And he said, no, didn't he? So he is a negative illustration of something similar here. The Apostle Paul is the opposite of that. He was the opposite of that. The Apostle Paul had a lot of things that stood between him and receiving the treasure. And he said that he considered all those things to just be rubbish for the sake of receiving the treasure. And so in the book of Philippians chapter three, book of Philippians chapter three, We'll read verses 7 and 8. It says this, But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, as trash, as something of no value that I may gain Christ. and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. The apostle Paul was willing to part ways with all of these things which stood in his way, which stood between him and possessing that treasure. All other factors that a man, woman, or child could possess or trust in are trash compared with Christ and his glorious kingdom. So the man in our parable was willing to part ways with maybe some really good things in order to possess the kingdom. We must be willing, and he was willing, to part ways with his own goodness, like the Apostle Paul, to part ways with his own self-trust, to part ways with the goodness of all of his good deeds. to put away his trust in all of those things that he may be found in Christ. Spurgeon says no man can be saved by the righteousness of Christ while he puts any trust in his own. Sell it off, every last rag of it. And of course Spurgeon was thinking of Isaiah 64 which says that our righteousness is as filthy rags before God. He must also be willing to part ways with his vileness. When we consider the life without Christ, before a man comes to faith in Christ or finds the treasure of God's kingdom, what most characterizes his life is slavery to sin. And this man cannot keep his pet sins. and still be a possessor of Christ's kingdom. This man cannot continue in the way he is going and still possess the treasure. Our sins are another form of trash with which we must part. For Christ's sake, we must put to death the deeds of the flesh. And in Romans 8, it says this, For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if you live by the Spirit, You put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Our second man, returning to Matthew chapter 13, our second man is a merchant seeking pearls. He's different from our first man. Our first man just stumbles across a treasure in a field. Our second man is looking for something. Our second man is diligently searching. This is his job, this is his life, to search for pearls. He knows a good pearl when he sees it. He knows a pearl that's not so good when he sees it. He's an expert in his field. So in contrast with the first man, this man knows what he's looking for. From all appearances, he has traveled far and wide in search of valuable pearls. He represents a man who is more epistemologically aware. He's thinking about ideas. He's thinking about philosophies. He's thinking about theories. These things are constantly playing in his mind. And in his lifetime, he has probably possessed many pearls of worldly wisdom. He's probably possessed many pearls of vain philosophy. He's probably possessed many ideas which or contrary to the scriptures, but he was looking for something and he hadn't found it yet. One day he finds this pearl, the pearl that he has always dreamed of, the pearl of great price. He beholds the perfections of God's kingdom. and gladly parts ways with his previously treasured ideas in order to possess Christ and be a possessor of his kingdom. He marvels at the beauty of this pearl. And this pearl is truly beautiful to the one who has the wisdom from God to see the beauty of the pearl that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is beautiful. The agreement of all of its parts is wonderful. The law which justly condemns the guilty. The perfect payment of the debt by our substitute Jesus Christ. Grace that justifies without compromising the righteousness of God in any way. These beautiful aspects of the pearl capture his heart. And God in his mercy and in his compassion breathes life into this dead soul. and gives him the understanding to correctly evaluate the value of this pearl. The praise that he previously received from men for being an expert in the field of pearls is nothing compared to the value. And it's insufficient to dissuade him from sacrificing all of those pearls which he had previously possessed. so that he might possess this beautiful pearl of great price. And he considers it an absolute steal to sell all that he has and to acquire this pearl. Have you found your treasure in Christ's kingdom? Is Christ's kingdom your treasure, my friend? Has God shown you the glory a belonging to his kingdom. Has God shown to you the great value of being his doulos, his slave? Has God shown you that great value, the great value of the kingdom of God? Will you and I treasure Christ and his kingdom? This is an important question. Will we treasure Christ and his kingdom? Will we, in the words of chapter six, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness? Will we cultivate love towards God in our hearts and obedience to His lordship in our lives? If you have seen the treasure of Christ's kingdom, if you have seen that treasure, rejoice. God has had mercy on your soul. And if you still see the kingdom of God as something boring or something tedious or something distasteful? May God have mercy on your soul to give you a taste for his kingdom and love for him and the ability to see the great value of this pearl. Have you abandoned trust in your own righteousness and loyalty to your sin? in order to be a possessor of this great pearl. And have you considered yourself blessed? Have you considered all those other things to be of no value in comparison with the great value of belonging to the kingdom of God? Years ago, That man in the mountains of Chihuahua walked 135 miles each way through the steep mountains of, he lived in the Copper Canyon area of Chihuahua. And he walked through those steep mountains and out into the comparative plains and deserts down to Chihuahua City to buy salt. Salt was what he needed. Today, we would go to a store and buy salt for pennies. To him, it was something of great value. And we see that today as something common and normal. May God help us to see the value of the things of this world, even its most valuable treasures, as being just dust compared to the glory of Christ's kingdom. And one day may there be as many people enjoying the blessing of Christ's kingdom as there are today enjoying the easy access to his salt. Don Ramon also found the gospel and was one of the first people of his ethnicity to welcome the preachers of the good news into his community, probably about in the 1950s. May his kingdom come. And may the coming of his kingdom impact each of our hearts and lives. And may his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let's pray together. Gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy. We thank you, Lord, that from the rising of the sun to its setting, your name is to be praised. And we thank you, Lord, for the work that you are doing in hearts, minds, and lives of people around this world, integrating them into your kingdom and growing your kingdom through the work of your word, the preaching of your gospel, and the working of your Holy Spirit. We thank you, God, for including us in that, Father. And I pray, God, that you will help each of us, Father, to be able to see a little bit more the great value of belonging to you. We thank you, God. In Christ Jesus' name, amen.