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Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

The Pearl of Great Price

A businessman was in the market for rare gems.

His contacts in the Orient led him at last to the most fabulous jewel known to man.

In order to make the purchase, he would have to sell his home and business.

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about the discovery of a lifetime.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

Say, have you ever heard of that famous pearl worth millions of dollars?

Jesus told about it in Matthew 13, 45 and 46.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found 1 pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Now as Jesus described it, it's like a businessman who went out looking for 1 of the most priceless gems on all the earth.

And at last he found the very finest and best.

And being told the price, he did a little figuring and found that it would take everything he had to make the purchase.

His desire for that pearl was so supreme, so compelling, that he gladly sold all in order to secure it.

He didn't complain because he couldn't afford it.

He didn't suggest waiting till he was in better shape to do it.

No, he gladly, eagerly, sowed everything in order to purchase the pearl of great price.

Now this is only a parable, friends, but this is what gaining heaven is like.

The pearl represents Jesus, it represents eternal life, it stands for heaven.

And just as it took all for this man to obtain the pearl, so it will require everything, an entire surrender and full obedience in order to be saved.

Now I may shock some of you today as I lay these things on the line.

We're not going to talk in vague generalities.

Some people have thought that believing was quite enough.

All you have to do is just believe in the Lord and be saved.

Friends, I don't deny that we must believe.

Someone put it in the form of an acrostic.

Faith stands for forsaking all, I take him, letting each letter of the word faith stand for a word.

Now that's true faith, friends, and it works.

It's not a mere mental assent to something either.

Too few people have placed a proper value on heaven.

You know, if folks really knew what heaven was like, there would be no hesitation at all in preparing for it.

If a man allows anything or anyone to hold him back from full obedience, he makes the saddest mistake in all the world.

Anybody who fails to go all the way in getting ready to meet Jesus is going to fail miserably and lose everything.

There are no second prizes in this race we're running, friends.

We either gain everything or we lose everything.

Somebody might be thinking now, do you mean we can't be saved if we don't give up everything?

It's what Jesus said, and it does really matter.

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

Now if there are a hundred things to give up, and I yield ninety-nine of them but still hold on to 1, do you think I could still be lost and left out of the Kingdom of Heaven, friends, without question I could.

Please notice Luke 9.25, something else Jesus said, 2 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

Of course, nothing matters so much then as being ready to meet Jesus and being obedient to Him.

Now, I know that some people have a harder time than others.

Some have loved ones even who try to hold them back.

Some people have been brought up in terrible environments.

Others have family members that may be opposing them in the matter of being a Christian.

In fact, Jesus implied that very thing in Luke 14, verses 26 and 27.

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." Now this simply means that anyone who loves his father, mother, or family more than Christ is not worthy of him.

And Jesus put it in those very words in another text.

We must love God more than our family, more than our job or business, or we cannot be a true follower of Christ.

Now if people would carefully study this through, they would never hold back.

All must give an answer for themselves on the Day of Judgment.

Any so-called sacrifice or supposed sacrifice that we make will prove to be no sacrifice at all in the long run.

In Luke 18, 29 and 30 we read, Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come a life everlasting." So there it is.

Some people flatter themselves that they make great sacrifices for the gospel, But I wonder how many in this blessed land of America really do make any measurable sacrifices for the truth's sake.

I'd like to tell you about Sadiq, who lived in Pakistan.

1 day this man came to my home in Lahore, Pakistan.

It was on Christmas Day, and he wanted to be secretly baptized on that very day that he knocked on my door so furiously.

You see this man had lived up in the Khyber Pass area where there is no law except tribal law.

He had attended some gospel meetings there and decided to turn away from Islam and become a Christian.

He came home 1 day and announced to his wife that he was going to be a Christian.

Well when he returned the next day from his good government job, he found his home empty.

His wife and children were gone, and every piece of furniture was also gone.

His father-in-law had come and taken them all away, and he was never to see his family again.

Then the following week he lost his job with the government because his relatives intervened against him.

A few days later he was waylaid and beaten almost to death.

In fact, he was left for dead in the gutter.

When he recovered consciousness, he had to run for his very life to escape.

As a refugee, He came down to that large teeming city of Lahore, Pakistan, and tried to hide himself there.

And then he came to my door, asking to be baptized that very day.

And friends, as he came up out of the water that day, I could see the scars on his face that he'll carry for the rest of his life as a testimony to his faith, his willingness to even die for his religion.

While Sadiq is still hiding out as a refugee, if any of his family found him, they'd kill him.

But he still counted a great joy to follow Christ.

He gave up his home, his job, his family, and almost his life, and yet he is 1 of the happiest Christians you could ever find.

You know, 1 of the saddest stories in the Bible is found in Matthew 19, 16-22.

It's about that rich young ruler who came asking the secret of eternal life.

You remember, he came running and kneeling down.

If you'll read the story, he ran and knelt down before Jesus with his question, which certainly was the right question.

He was eager and apparently ready to humble himself and receive the truth that Christ would give him.

And Jesus said, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

And Jesus began to quote the 2 tables of the law, and the young man said, All these things I have done, what lack I yet?

Now Jesus did not contradict him, but he showed by a test that he had not really kept them in spirit.

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The Pearl of Great Price

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