Let us turn to Matthew 16.
For what will a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then shall He render unto every man according to his deeds.
Verily I say unto you, There are some of them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.
Let us have another word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we thank You so much. It is by Your grace and mercy that we may come to You once again. Now we are sitting at Your feet, and we want to hear Your word. So, Lord, we pray that You would reveal Your word to us, that we may see You.
Lord, this is our desire: while we are before You, speak to our hearts. We thank You so much for such a wonderful time. In the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
As you know, the theme of this conference is spiritual value. Our brother has read one of the very important verses about spiritual value in the Bible, from Matthew 16. We have just read that verse, but in addition, I read the following two verses, Matthew 16:27-28.
Matthew 16 is a very important chapter in the whole Bible. While our Lord was on earth, His teaching reached a peak in this chapter. You remember how our Lord took some of His disciples to the area of Caesarea Philippi, at the foot of Mount Hermon, near the upper stream of the Jordan River.
When you come to the lower stream of the Jordan River, you see muddy water. It is not very clear. But when you come to the upper stream, everything becomes so clear. This was the moment when our Lord tried to show something very important that had been deeply hidden in His heart for many months.
His disciples had been with Him for some time. How wonderful it was to be with the Lord, to witness so many things, and to see all those great events as they followed Him. The Lord had already taken care of them in such a wonderful way. But He was looking for a moment when He could truly share His heart with His disciples.
In that area, at the upper stream of the Jordan River, our Lord revealed His heart to His disciples through four great revelations:
If you read through the whole Bible, you cannot escape these four major subjects: Christ, the church, the cross, and the kingdom.
There is a wonderful verse that connects the cross and the kingdom: Matthew 16:26.
For what will a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Before Matthew 16:26, our Lord first revealed to His disciples that He was going to the cross. Then He reminded them that, if they wished to follow Him, they had to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him.
For whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake shall find it.
Then the Lord continued:
For what will a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
You may gain the whole world, yet lose yourself. You may save yourself, yet lose yourself. This is a paradox. To gain the whole world means to save your soul in the natural sense, but the result is to lose yourself.
In addition to the matter of the cross, our Lord said something more. He asked, “What will a man be profited?” Here our Lord spoke about spiritual value.
Brothers and sisters, when our Lord poured out His heart to His disciples, He shared with them something about Christ, the church, the cross, and the kingdom. Here we discover an important phrase connecting the cross and the kingdom.
My burden in sharing on spiritual value is to look at it from the angle of the kingdom. Or, to put it another way, how do we define spiritual value according to the revelation of our Lord?
Spiritual value is kingdom value.
For that purpose, I would like to share in two sessions: What is spiritual value? How can we understand spiritual value as kingdom value? To do so, let us turn to two important parables given by our Lord while He was on earth.
Let us turn to Matthew 13.
The kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls:
And having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
These are the two parables we would like to consider this afternoon and tomorrow evening. We want to discover from the word of our Lord: What is spiritual value?
Today we will especially focus on the first parable, the parable of the hidden treasure.
We are told that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it, he went and sold all that he had and bought that field.
In the time of our Lord, society was very unstable. People did not feel secure. There were frequent changes of dynasty, revolutions, and many disturbances. Therefore, wealthy people tried to secure their treasures wisely.
According to some reports, people often divided their wealth into three parts. One part was used in business for their support. Another part was turned into jewels, gold, and other portable valuables, so that if they had to flee they could carry them with them. The third part was buried in the ground.
Therefore, in the days of our Lord Jesus, hidden treasure was not unusual. People would discover old coins, gold, and silver in neglected land because the original owners had forgotten them, died, or were unable to return for them.
A farmer might be digging in a field and discover such treasure. That is the background of this parable. Hiding valuables in the ground was a common way to preserve property.
The rabbis had an interesting saying: “There is only one safe repository for money: the earth.”
This parable illustrates the value of heavenly treasure and how the finder sells everything in order to obtain it. According to his estimation, the treasure is so precious that, even if he had everything else, he would willingly sell it all to gain that treasure.
The main lesson of this parable concerns the value of heavenly treasure. Yet we must look more carefully at the details. Although it is a short parable, it is very meaningful.
This is one of the seven parables, or as some suggest, eight parables, recorded in Matthew 13. Let me give you a brief review of the setting.
While our Lord was on earth, He spent almost eighteen months in the area of Galilee, making Capernaum the center of His work. During the first part of that period, He spent several months ministering to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
He preached the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, healed people, and cast out demons. He went from city to city and synagogue to synagogue. According to historians, there were approximately 250 towns and cities in that area. Our Lord labored very hard in those places.
Yet the result was great opposition. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
These people gathered on the Sabbath to worship God. They had their Scriptures and knew the word of God. If anyone should have known something about the revelation of God, it should have been these people. They seemed to be the most promising people to whom the Lord could reveal Himself.
But unfortunately, though our Lord taught them and performed many miracles, they rejected Him. Finally, they even accused Him and plotted to kill Him.
At the end of that period, our Lord withdrew to the seaside, the mountain region, and the wilderness. Instead of speaking mainly to those who should have understood the will of God, He went to the multitudes. At the same time, He called His twelve apostles from among the disciples.
Our Lord was working according to the plan prepared from the foundation of the world, according to the blueprint given by His Father. On the one hand, He went to the multitudes; on the other hand, He continued working with His own disciples. He taught them many things, including the Sermon on the Mount.
But eventually our Lord knew that it was almost impossible for Israel as a nation to receive His teaching. Therefore, He changed His method of revelation. Before that time, He had spoken explicitly and clearly. But from that point He began to speak in parables.
One day, when our Lord came to the seaside, many people had gathered. He entered a boat, probably Peter’s boat, and spoke to the audience standing on the beach.
The Sea of Galilee has many bays. Even today, there is a place called Parable Bay, which resembles an open-air theater. The natural setting allows a person to speak without a microphone to thousands of people. Acoustic experts have observed the place and confirmed that its natural formation carries sound remarkably well.
Our Lord, the Master of the universe, knew what He was doing. He sat in the boat and spoke to the multitudes, teaching seven or eight parables.
These parables may be divided into four and three. The first four were spoken to the multitudes outdoors. The final three were spoken privately to the disciples in a house.
The multitudes were mixed. Pharisees and enemies of the gospel were scattered among them. In this antagonistic environment, our Lord spoke in parables.
For example, as He spoke, people may have been sowing in the fields nearby. Our Lord used that setting to give the parable of the sower. He also spoke of the evil one who snatches away the word of the kingdom from those who do not understand it.
Throughout the first four parables, there is an unfavorable environment in view. On the one hand, the Lord is doing something; on the other hand, the enemy is doing something in opposition.
In the first parable, the sower sows while the evil one snatches away the seed. In the second parable, one sows wheat while another sows tares. In the third parable, mustard seed grows abnormally into a great tree. In the fourth parable, leaven is hidden in three measures of meal until all is leavened.
These first four parables form one unit. If we keep this setting in mind, we can understand them correctly. Unfortunately, people often forget the background, isolate one detail, and interpret it apart from the whole. That is why there is so much confusion concerning these parables.
Our Lord did not speak parables to confuse His disciples. He spoke them to clarify truth. But if we forget the setting, we become confused.
Our Lord had been rejected by His own, yet He continued to work. He was the Sower who went forth sowing in tears. Why in tears? Because there were so many enemies. When He sowed, the evil one came to snatch away the seed.
Yet even in such an unfavorable environment, He continued to sow. The result would not be one hundred percent, for only one of the four soils was good ground. But that good ground would bear much fruit.
The final three parables were spoken in a house to the disciples, to those who were men of faith. The seven parables also include five events on land and two connected with the sea. Four events occur in fields, one in the kitchen, and two concern the sea: the pearl and the dragnet.
Therefore, these parables form one unit and speak of one great subject. With that setting and background, we are able to understand the parable of the hidden treasure.
Before going further, I would like to mention a danger in interpreting parables: the danger of popularity. Sometimes we are influenced by the general consensus of expositors. We read many books, discover that many scholars say almost the same thing, and simply follow the crowd.
A popular interpretation says that the treasure is Christ, the field is the gospel, and the finder is a sinner. The same interpretation is often applied to the pearl of great price.
But if that is true, we must ask some simple questions. Is Christ hidden in the gospel? Is not the gospel, from beginning to end, a display of His glory? When a sinner has found Christ, is he to hide Him? Must the one who receives the gospel give up everything in order to obtain it? Can a man be said to buy the gospel, when it is freely offered and given without merit?
By asking these questions, we realize that the popular interpretation cannot be valid. If we simply follow it, we will get nowhere. We must return to the word of God.
Among these parables, our Lord explained two of them. His explanations establish fundamental principles for interpreting all the parables.
For example, our Lord tells us that the field is the world. He tells us that the One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. These things are clear.
However, there are details that our Lord did not explain. He did not explain the hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold. He did not explain every detail about the birds. Therefore, we should not go beyond what He has revealed.
There are major points in the parables, and our Lord has given us their interpretation. Since these parables form one unit, we must believe that our Lord is consistent in His teaching.
First, we must remember the harmony of the teaching of Jesus throughout these parables. We should not interpret one parable in a way that contradicts another. Christ is consistent in His teaching.
Second, we must recognize the consistency of our Lord’s figures of speech. He does not use one figure of speech in two entirely different senses. A figure that He explains in one parable should be understood consistently throughout the related parables.
For example, the sower represents the same Person throughout. Since our Lord has explained certain figures, we may apply those explanations uniformly to the other parables.
I prefer to follow this rule rather than follow even the best writings of Bible scholars. This rule has been given to every one of us. If we are humble and desire to know the will of God, the Lord’s meaning can become clear.
Before proceeding, we must clarify several matters. First, the field is the world.
And the field is the world.
This is very clear. In the first parable, the sower sows in the field. In the second, a man sows good seed in his field. In the third, a man takes a mustard seed and sows it in his field. Therefore, according to the word of our Lord, the field is the world.
There is no other choice. We must obey the word of the Lord. The treasure is hidden in the field—that is, in the world.
Our Lord uses this to tell us something about the value of heavenly treasure. We have heard the saying, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Let me paraphrase it: Value is in the mind of the observer.
It depends on who is observing. Are we observing the treasure, or is our Lord observing it?
In Old Testament times, the rabbis would sell many things in order to gain wisdom and study the law. There is an interesting story of an old rabbi traveling from Tiberias to another town, leaning on the shoulder of a younger rabbi.
When they came to a field, the old rabbi said, “This used to belong to me, but I sold it that I might study the law.” When they came to an olive field, he said again, “This used to belong to me, but I sold it to study the law.”
The young rabbi began to weep. When asked why, he said, “I weep because you have nothing left for your old age.”
The old rabbi answered, “My son, is it a small thing in your eyes that I sold something created in six days, that I might gain that which was given in forty days and forty nights?”
Moses received the law in forty days and forty nights. The fields and olive groves had been created in six days. The rabbi understood that the value of something lies in the mind of the observer.
The second key is the identity of the man.
He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man.
This is clear. When our Lord speaks of the man in these parables, He refers to the Son of Man—to Himself.
Therefore, the Son of Man has a field. One day He finds a treasure in that field, and He sells everything in order to secure that treasure. Yet we need to understand even more clearly.
The third key is also given by our Lord.
The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity.
The Son of Man has a kingdom. He is the King of that kingdom.
If you read Daniel 7, you discover four beasts rising from the sea. They represent the great empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. These kingdoms were administered by human beings, yet because humanity is fallen, in the eyes of God they appeared as beasts.
Outwardly, these empires could produce splendid civilizations. They could create gold, silver, brass, beauty, and glory. But if you penetrate beneath the surface, you find fallen, beastly life at work.
That is the contrast between Nebuchadnezzar’s vision and Daniel’s vision. Nebuchadnezzar saw gold, silver, and brass—splendor. Daniel, as a captive, saw beasts. Israel had been passed from the mouth of the lion to the mouth of the bear, and from one empire to another. It was a tragedy.
But thank God, there is another kingdom: the kingdom of the Son of Man.
The expression “Son of Man” simply means Man in the fullest sense—One who is completely according to the will of God. Our Lord is the true Son of Man. He is the King. He is the Messiah. He is the One who will establish His kingdom on earth.
Israel had waited for this moment because they had experienced so much persecution and oppression. They longed to become the head rather than the tail. But they misunderstood the nature of the kingdom.
They thought mainly of an earthly and political kingdom. Our Lord emphasized its spiritual and heavenly nature.
In Matthew 13, our Lord defines the scope of the kingdom of heaven. There are two spheres: the kingdom of the Son of Man and the kingdom of the Father.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
This is a wonderful and unique kingdom because all its people share the life of the King. In this kingdom there are not merely people; there are princes, because they share the life of the King.
There is an earthly sphere and a heavenly sphere. In the earthly sphere, believers will reign with Christ in the coming millennium. In the heavenly sphere, the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Our Lord is the Sun of righteousness. Therefore, in that day we will not only reign with Christ; we will also shine with Christ in the heavenly realm.
The earthly Messianic kingdom is the sphere of our work. But in the heavenly sphere is the kingdom of our Father. This is why our Lord spoke in such a way: He knew that His hearers had a background in the Old Testament, but He was revealing the spiritual and universal character of His kingdom.
If we accept the popular interpretation, we make ourselves the sinners who sell everything to obtain the gospel. But that cannot be the meaning.
The point is not that we evaluate the treasure. Of course, Christ is heavenly treasure, and Christ is the pearl of great price. That is always true. But in this parable, the Lord is telling us what He evaluates.
He discovered a treasure. He considered it so precious that He sold everything in order to obtain it. It is not that you pay the price; it is that He paid the price.
That is the secret of the whole matter. When we consider the kingdom, we may have the wrong idea that salvation is free, but entrance into the kingdom depends on our works. This creates misunderstanding.
From the beginning, our Lord tells us that heavenly value is not judged by our standard. It is judged by His estimation. He considered something so precious that He gave up His own life.
If something cost the life of our Lord, then it must be very precious. If it cost Him everything, it is worth more than all that we possess.
We should see what our Lord sees and value what the Lord values. What does He value? What is His estimate? That is very important.
Everything begins with the fact that He paid the cost—not that we paid the cost. Do not say that we have sacrificed something. From the beginning, if you enter into the kingdom of heaven, you discover that the tuition has been paid by Christ.
You may learn all the lessons, but Christ has paid the tuition. In the best schools, one must pay high tuition to learn basic courses. But in spiritual matters—whether 101, 102, 201, or 401—it costs us nothing. It cost our Lord everything.
That is all grace. The kingdom is a kingdom of grace. It does not begin with our evaluation; it begins with His evaluation.
Today, compared with people like Bill Gates, we may have relatively little wealth. At one time, his personal net worth was said to be more than forty billion dollars. He certainly knew how to make money.
Consider an average American of reasonable and modest wealth. Suppose a person has a net worth of one hundred thousand dollars. That is a substantial amount. But compared with a fortune four hundred thousand times larger, that one hundred thousand dollars would be like twenty-five cents.
Suppose you buy a nice home in a wealthy city such as Palo Alto, California. You may think you have spent a great deal. Yet by comparison, the cost may seem insignificant to someone of immense wealth.
Or suppose you buy an airline ticket from New York to the Far East for twelve hundred dollars. To a very wealthy person, the cost may seem almost nothing. The point is that the value of money changes according to the wealth of the observer.
If someone earns approximately one hundred and fifty dollars per second, and sees a five-hundred-dollar bill on the ground, it may not be worth the time to bend down and pick it up. He may make more simply by continuing on his way to work.
But you and I, if we saw a five-hundred-dollar bill, would know what to do. Even if we had to bend down, we would pick it up.
These are two different gestures. One bends down because the money is valuable to him. The other does not bend down because he considers it insignificant compared with what he will gain by going forward.
This helps us understand why some brothers and sisters look at things differently from the Lord. People in the world bend down for their five-hundred-dollar bills. But if we are as rich as our Lord, if we are sons of the kingdom of heaven, there are things we need not pursue.
One brother once said, “I do not even have time to be sick.” In a sense, we should be occupied enough with what is truly valuable that we have no time to waste lying in bed over matters of little worth.
Let us remember: this treasure is the King’s treasure, not our treasure. It is something our Lord discovered, something for which He was willing to pay the whole cost, because according to His estimate, it was something in the heart of His Father.
This is the secret of the universe. Why does the universe remain a mystery and a riddle? Because no one can hear the heartbeat of the heavenly Father.
Only our Lord, who was in the bosom of the Father, heard the heartbeat of His Father. He knew the desire of His Father. He knew there was a secret in the Father’s heart.
That secret had something to do with our planet. One day, our Lord came down to this planet. Something was revealed to Him, and He discovered the King’s treasure—the wonderful treasure for which He sold everything, even at the cost of His life on the cross.
There must be something in God’s heart that is of utmost importance. That was the purpose for which Christ came down to earth.
On the one hand, He came to rescue and save us. He is our Savior. On the other hand, He came to perform the will of God, accomplish the will of God, and satisfy the heart of God.
From the foundation of the world, there was a secret in the heart of the Father. The Father waited until His Son came to this planet, and then that secret would be revealed.
What is that hidden treasure? What is it that our Lord saw as so precious that He died for us on the cross?
It is true that He looked upon us as sinners. He saw our poor condition, and out of compassion He was willing to die for us. He is our Savior. For that sake, He died on the cross.
But this parable tells us there is another, nobler reason. Our Lord knew the secret of God’s heart. In order that the mystery might be revealed and fulfilled on this planet, He was willing to let Himself go.
This treasure represents something wonderful. For that reason, our Lord was willing to suffer and go all the way.
We now have three key points:
The treasure is therefore a kingly matter. It represents the glory of the kingdom.
The treasure had been hidden. When our Lord was on earth, He found it, hid it again, and in joy went and sold all that He had and bought the field.
To understand what is hidden, we do not need to travel through the entire Bible immediately. We should first dwell in Matthew 13 and remain with the words of our Lord.
And the disciples came, and said unto Him, Why speakest Thou unto them in parables?
And He answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
This is why our Lord spoke in parables. The parables reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to those who have been given ears to hear.
What are we to understand from these parables? We are to understand the mysteries of the kingdom. These seven or eight parables all speak of the mysteries of the kingdom.
A mystery is something hidden.
Everything now connects together. The treasure is hidden. The pearl is hidden in the depths of the sea. It is found only by one who seeks and dives deeply.
These matters concern the work of our Lord. We need the correct understanding.
The Lord said:
Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
The kingdom of heaven differs somewhat from the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the broader term, stretching from eternity to eternity and encompassing the whole universe. The kingdom of heaven is a particular section within that greater kingdom.
When you come to New York, you are in the United States. But when you come to the United States, you are not necessarily in New York. New York is within the United States, but it is smaller. In the same way, the kingdom of heaven overlaps with the kingdom of God, but it refers to a particular sphere and period.
The kingdom of heaven begins with the first coming of our Lord, when He went out to sow the word of the kingdom. It continues toward the end of the age and the Lord’s second coming.
Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is the section of the kingdom of God extending roughly from the Lord’s first coming to His second coming, to the end of this age.
The kingdom of heaven contains mysteries. We do not have time to consider all of them, but the Lord said that it was granted to His disciples to know them.
I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes.
The Pharisees and scribes were the wise and prudent. The disciples were the babes. The Father hid these things from the wise and prudent, yet revealed them to babes. The Son did the same.
Therefore speak I unto them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.
For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not.
The disciples saw Christ and heard Christ. They saw the Son of Man, the Messiah, standing before them. They heard Him explaining the mysteries of the kingdom.
If you ask what is the greatest mystery of the kingdom of heaven, it is the King Himself. The Son of Man is the King of the kingdom of heaven. If you see the King, you see the kingdom.
All these things spake Jesus in parables unto the multitudes; and without a parable spake He nothing unto them:
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.
Here is the secret of the universe, hidden from the foundation of the world. This is the treasure. Even Old Testament prophets and righteous people did not fully understand it.
Everything became new when Christ came. When the disciples stood face to face with Him, they saw the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. His coming revealed the secret of the whole universe.
Because of that hidden treasure, our Lord was willing to sell everything in order to buy the field.
What does this mean? It means that He was willing to pay the price. Of course, He would secure the treasure, but do not forget that the Bible says He bought the field.
The field is the world.
There is something very significant about this small planet. Somehow, the will of God is connected with this planet. For that reason, our Lord was willing to buy the field.
This is why our Lord taught us to pray:
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
What is the kingdom of heaven? It is the kingdom on earth where the will of God is done. The kingdom of heaven is not merely heaven in heaven. The kingdom of heaven is heaven on earth.
When the will of God is done on earth, there is the kingdom of heaven.
Sometimes, when you learn a little about the universe, you may feel discouraged. Compared with great stars and galaxies, our planet is small and seemingly insignificant. Once people thought the earth was the center of the universe, but when you look at the universe, our planet seems almost nowhere.
But do not be discouraged. Our planet is, in a sense, God’s spaceship through which He will fulfill His will.
Through this small planet, the will of God will be done. For that purpose, Christ died on the cross. He bought the field.
This is connected with the will of God.
We will continue tomorrow, but before we conclude, let me mention an interesting story.
I remember the first moon landing. It was a great event in the history of mankind. The next morning, I saw a full-page advertisement, perhaps in The New York Times. The previous night, we had watched the spacecraft land on the moon.
The advertisement used the phrase, “It is ugly, yet it gets you there.” It showed a Volkswagen. The point was that the spacecraft might be ugly, but it could take you to the moon. The Volkswagen might also be considered ugly, but it could take you where you needed to go.
Our small planet may appear tiny and almost ugly. Other stars are greater than the sun and shine with their own light. But the earth cannot give light of itself. Its light is by reflection.
Yet thank the Lord, this small planet will get you there. Why? Because the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Let us pray the prayer our Lord taught us:
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
We will continue tomorrow evening. Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we commit this word to You. If You think it is fitting, use this word to touch our hearts. Speak to us in a very deep way.
Lord, do not let us go if we are still not touched by You. Transform our values. Transform our estimation.
Lord, we must tell You how we waste our time and how we are involved with useless things, with things of no value. But we thank You: You know what You are doing.
When You were on earth, You took every minute and every second to fulfill the will of Your Father. For the sake of satisfying His heart, You died for us on the cross. You bought the field, and You secured the treasure.
We thank You, Lord. In the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.