Book of Jeremiah
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A.W. Pink's work, A Parable of the Pearl is quite an extensive work. I've taken a small portion of it to present today's devotion. Pink describes what he sees as the great value God saw in us, even while we were lost sinners. This message gives us a very different perspective as Pink explores why he believes this gem was chosen by Jesus Christ to teach us the parable, "The pearl of great price."
August 26, 2016
Experts in Switzerland confirmed that the 33.14ct natural gem is the largest round pearl ever to be offered at auction and would have taken around 100 years to develop in the oysters shell.
THE PARABLE OF THE PEARL.
By A.W. Pink
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly 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).
...the Merchant man bought the "pearl." There is no need to enlarge on that, except perhaps to quote 1 Peter 1:18, 19. " . . .not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." It was at the Cross that He bought the pearl, and the price that He paid was His own precious blood.
Let us now consider the "pearl" itself, and admire the accuracy, beauty, and fullness of this figure that Christ selected for portraying His Church. First, notice its unity. "A Merchant man was seeking goodly pearls, and when he had found one pearl of great price."
Let us observe, however, that this Merchant man had several pearls. He was seeking goodly pearls, and, of course, if He sought them He found each one. Yes, Christ has several pearls. There are quite a number of distinct companies among His redeemed. The Old Testament saints is one, and so on. But attention is here focused on "one pearl" in particular: the unity of Gods saints of this present dispensation is what is referred to. "In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, for we are all one" (Gal. 3:28).
Now, it is a significant fact that a pearl is the only gem whose unity cannot be broken without destroying it. I may take a diamond and cut it into two, then I have two diamonds. I may take a lump of gold and divide it into two, and I have two lumps of gold. But if I take a pearl and cut it into two, I have nothing: I have destroyed it! A pearl significantly stands for the unity of the saints of this present dispensation.
In the second place, a pearl is the product of a living creature, and it is the only gem that is. Not only so, but it is the result of suffering. Away down in the oceans depths there lives a little animal encased in a shell; we call it an oyster. One day a foreign substance, a grain of sand, intrudes, and pierces its side.
Now, God has endowed that animal with the faculty of self-preservation, like He has all others of His creatures, and it throws out, exudes, a slimy substance called nacre and covers the wound, repeating the process again and again. One layer after another of that nacre or mother-of-pearl is cast out by that little animal on the wound in its side, until ultimately there is built up what eventuates in a pearl. So that a pearl is the product of suffering.
How wonderful the figure! How accurate the emblem!
The Church, the saints of this dispensation, are the fruitage of the travail of Christs soul. The pearl, we may say, is the answer to the injury that was inflicted upon the animal. In other words, it is the offending particle that ultimately becomes the object of beauty: that which injured the oyster becomes the precious gem. The very thing that injured the animal, the little grain of sand that intruded, is ultimately clothed with a beauty that is not its own and covered with the comeliness of the one that it injured.
How manifestly is the Author of the Bible and the Savior of our souls the Regulator of everything in nature. Yes, He saw to it, when He created the oyster, that it should furnish an appropriate type and figure of His Church.
In the third place, the pearl is an object that is formed slowly and gradually. It does not come into existence in a single day. There is a tedious process of waiting while the pearl is being slowly but surely formed. And so it has been with the Church.
For nineteen centuries now that, of which the pearl is the figure and type, has been in process of formation by the power and grace of God.
Just as the oyster covered the wound in its side and that which pierced it with one layer after another of the beautiful nacre, constantly repeating the process, so out of each generation of men on earth God has called a few and added them to that Church which He is now building for His Son.
In the fourth place, notice the lowly origin of that which is a type of the Church. That beautiful pearl originally had its home in the depths of the sea, amid its mire and filth, for that is where oysters congregate. They are the scavengers of the ocean. Down in the oceans depths, amidst the mire, is that precious gem being formed.
What a lowly origin! Yes, and that is to remind us, and to humble us with the remembrance of it, that we, who have by sovereign grace been made members of Christ, had by nature our origin in the filth and mire and ruin of the fall. Compare Ephesians 2:11, 12.
In the fifth place, the pearl, as it is being formed down there in the oceans depths, is not seen by the eye of man. It is a secret formation; none but God witnesses its building up. In like manner, that Church which Christ is now building, that body of His which is now in process of formation, is unknown and unseen by the world.
I am not speaking of the visible churches, I am talking about that Church, which is now being built (see Ephesians 2:21; 4:16, etc.), and which as it is being formed, like the oyster, is unseen by the eye of man. Your life is hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).
The Parable of the Pearl - Sermon Index
August 26, 2016
Experts in Switzerland confirmed that the 33.14ct natural gem is the largest round pearl ever to be offered at auction and would have taken around 100 years to develop in the oysters shell.
THE PARABLE OF THE PEARL.
By A.W. Pink
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly 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).
...the Merchant man bought the "pearl." There is no need to enlarge on that, except perhaps to quote 1 Peter 1:18, 19. " . . .not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." It was at the Cross that He bought the pearl, and the price that He paid was His own precious blood.
Let us now consider the "pearl" itself, and admire the accuracy, beauty, and fullness of this figure that Christ selected for portraying His Church. First, notice its unity. "A Merchant man was seeking goodly pearls, and when he had found one pearl of great price."
Let us observe, however, that this Merchant man had several pearls. He was seeking goodly pearls, and, of course, if He sought them He found each one. Yes, Christ has several pearls. There are quite a number of distinct companies among His redeemed. The Old Testament saints is one, and so on. But attention is here focused on "one pearl" in particular: the unity of Gods saints of this present dispensation is what is referred to. "In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, for we are all one" (Gal. 3:28).
Now, it is a significant fact that a pearl is the only gem whose unity cannot be broken without destroying it. I may take a diamond and cut it into two, then I have two diamonds. I may take a lump of gold and divide it into two, and I have two lumps of gold. But if I take a pearl and cut it into two, I have nothing: I have destroyed it! A pearl significantly stands for the unity of the saints of this present dispensation.
In the second place, a pearl is the product of a living creature, and it is the only gem that is. Not only so, but it is the result of suffering. Away down in the oceans depths there lives a little animal encased in a shell; we call it an oyster. One day a foreign substance, a grain of sand, intrudes, and pierces its side.
Now, God has endowed that animal with the faculty of self-preservation, like He has all others of His creatures, and it throws out, exudes, a slimy substance called nacre and covers the wound, repeating the process again and again. One layer after another of that nacre or mother-of-pearl is cast out by that little animal on the wound in its side, until ultimately there is built up what eventuates in a pearl. So that a pearl is the product of suffering.
How wonderful the figure! How accurate the emblem!
The Church, the saints of this dispensation, are the fruitage of the travail of Christs soul. The pearl, we may say, is the answer to the injury that was inflicted upon the animal. In other words, it is the offending particle that ultimately becomes the object of beauty: that which injured the oyster becomes the precious gem. The very thing that injured the animal, the little grain of sand that intruded, is ultimately clothed with a beauty that is not its own and covered with the comeliness of the one that it injured.
How manifestly is the Author of the Bible and the Savior of our souls the Regulator of everything in nature. Yes, He saw to it, when He created the oyster, that it should furnish an appropriate type and figure of His Church.
In the third place, the pearl is an object that is formed slowly and gradually. It does not come into existence in a single day. There is a tedious process of waiting while the pearl is being slowly but surely formed. And so it has been with the Church.
For nineteen centuries now that, of which the pearl is the figure and type, has been in process of formation by the power and grace of God.
Just as the oyster covered the wound in its side and that which pierced it with one layer after another of the beautiful nacre, constantly repeating the process, so out of each generation of men on earth God has called a few and added them to that Church which He is now building for His Son.
In the fourth place, notice the lowly origin of that which is a type of the Church. That beautiful pearl originally had its home in the depths of the sea, amid its mire and filth, for that is where oysters congregate. They are the scavengers of the ocean. Down in the oceans depths, amidst the mire, is that precious gem being formed.
What a lowly origin! Yes, and that is to remind us, and to humble us with the remembrance of it, that we, who have by sovereign grace been made members of Christ, had by nature our origin in the filth and mire and ruin of the fall. Compare Ephesians 2:11, 12.
In the fifth place, the pearl, as it is being formed down there in the oceans depths, is not seen by the eye of man. It is a secret formation; none but God witnesses its building up. In like manner, that Church which Christ is now building, that body of His which is now in process of formation, is unknown and unseen by the world.
I am not speaking of the visible churches, I am talking about that Church, which is now being built (see Ephesians 2:21; 4:16, etc.), and which as it is being formed, like the oyster, is unseen by the eye of man. Your life is hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).
The Parable of the Pearl - Sermon Index
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