The Pearl Or the Furnace — E.A. Johnston

When I was a little boy, I had a treasure magazine that you could place mail orders from, and this magazine was geared towards kids because it had things in it like shrunken heads and rubber snakes, and it advertised all these neat things that a boy of 11 would be interested in.

I remember I used to save up my money to buy these treasures out of this adventure magazine. I would do anything to make money. I would rake leaves, shovel snow, run errands, anything to save enough money to order something out of that mail order catalog geared towards kids.

And I'll never forget getting a package I ordered from this treasure magazine. It was a little white box with a soft cushion on the inside, and sitting on that cushion was a real pearl from the South Seas.

It was a pearl oyster from the Indian Ocean. It was perfectly round, and it cost me a pretty penny back then in the 1960s when I bought it. I remember carefully picking up that pearl, rolling it in the palm of my hand, and looking at it with amazement, realizing that this natural pearl had taken a couple years to be produced, and it had to be found by a real pearl diver.

This was all exciting to an 11-year-old boy who felt he'd just purchased something of extraordinary value. And in the Gospel of Matthew, it speaks of a pearl. In Matthew chapter 13, you can turn in your Bibles there now, we will be in verses 45 through 50.

The Pearl and the Furnace in Matthew 13

And in this chapter, friends, there is mention of a pearl of inestimable value, a pearl of great price. And in this passage, there is also mention of a furnace of fire, which speaks of hell's torments.

The title of my message today is The Pearl or the Furnace, as each of these speak of both heaven and hell. When I was a boy of 16, I worked in a grocery store as a sack boy. One of my duties was to take the cardboard boxes that the produce came in and flatten them with a box cutter, and then stack up those boxes, carry them to a furnace in the back of the store, and throw them in there.

The furnace was an old cast iron model with a heavy door. I'll always remember the sensation I got when I opened that cast iron door and saw those white hot flames. The heat was so powerfully intense that it would singe my face.

The heat of that furnace was a fearful thing. I dreaded going to that back room and open the door of that horrible furnace of flames. Now let us read this passage from Matthew's Gospel, and may the Spirit of God attend the reading of His Holy Word.

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 out and sold all that he had and bought it. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

So shall it be at the end of the world. The angel shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. So our passage today speaks of both a pearl and a furnace, two very different things, one beautiful and one ugly, one an object of desire, the other an object of dread.

One speaks of stillness and peace, as a beautiful pearl is set in a lovely ring. The other speaks of unrest, as a furnace is an active swirling mass of darting flames. So we have set side by side a thing worth possessing and a thing worth avoiding.

Christ as the Pearl of Great Price

I first wish to speak of this pearl, this fantastic pearl of great price, why this is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, friends. To possess Him is to have a saving interest in Him, and that means to enjoy Him forever in Heaven.

He's worth searching for, worth agonizing for, worth our parting with all to have Him, to obtain Heaven by Him. The loveliness of Jesus is a worthy subject in itself. Oh, friends, how altogether lovely is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

He's more desirable above ten thousand. He's the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star, this pearl of great price. He's worth obtaining, friends. He is worth our leaving all to follow Him. He is worth our utter surrender to Him and our complete submission to His Lordship.

He is a king of a kingdom, and our passage makes reference to this. The kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. Allow me to share a story with you. There was an Englishman who traveled frequently to India for business purposes.

His main business took place in the city of Calcutta. It was there, while shopping in an Indian bazaar, that he purchased a necklace for his little girl. He would often bring his eight-year-old daughter trinkets back from his travels.

On this recent trip to India, he bought his daughter a pretty little jade necklace at an inexpensive market bazaar. After she wore it a few days, the metal clasp broke, and this Englishman took it to a London jeweler to be repaired.

A few days later, the man returned to the jeweler to pick up the necklace for his little girl. The jeweler emerged from a back room with the necklace with an excited look on his face, and the jeweler asked him, May I ask you, sir, how much you paid for this jade necklace?

The man replied, I believe I paid twenty pounds for it, nothing more. The jeweler smiled and said, Look into this magnifying glass. See the letters carved on each piece of jade? It's French lettering.

When you lay these seventy-eight pieces of jade side by side, they form a love letter written from Napoleon to Juliet. This jade necklace is priceless and worth a fortune. So, too, friends, is our subject today, the Pearl of Great Price.

The Worth and Humiliation of Christ

He was a baby born in an inn. His followers were the poor and common people of the land. The wealthy did not flock to him, nor did the movers and shakers of society in that day. Rather, his followers were comprised of outcasts of society, tax collectors, prostitutes and plain fishermen.

Jesus went about doing good and healing the sick, giving sight to the blind and raising the dead back to life. But he was considered a rebel rouser, a troublemaker and an enemy of the state. He was taken with cruel hands by wicked men, beaten and mocked and then nailed to a tree between two common criminals.

He was a spectacle of scorn to those who passed by. His death was an offense, a scandal. But as his blood ran down that ignoble wooden cross, the sky began to darken. And as he breathed his last, the earth shook.

In fact, all hell was shaken on that day, friends, for the Prince of Glory died for sinful man. Isaiah tells us that he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, despised. The text in Isaiah 53 states,.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him.

And with his stripes we are healed. Amidst the horror of Calvary, amidst the suffering of the cross, beauty emerges as victory over sin in the person of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is, friends, the pearl of great price.

Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. The preciousness of Christ is appealing. He's worth our very all because he gave his all for us. You can't keep anything back from Christ, friends. You must forsake all.

You must give him yourself without reservation. Submit entirely to him. Listen, friends, if you want a saving interest in him, you must be willing to part with all for him. He is the pearl of great price where the merchant man went and sold all that he had and bought it.

So we see here the loveliness of Christ and his desirableness. Now I want us to turn our attention to this other aspect of our passage, which is the antithesis of something desirable. And that's a smoking, burning furnace that's made for one purpose and one purpose only to destroy our passage.

The Furnace and the Final Separation

And Matthew speaks of a dragnet that gathers up the good as well as the bad. Let us read this once more. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

So shall it be at the end of the world. The angel shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. This explains, friends, why so many in our churches today are merely unconverted church members.

They are the wicked, which will be severed from the just at the end of the world. The angels have a mission to perform and it is to come forth and separate the saved from the unsaved. The saved go to be with the pearl of great price and the unsaved are cast into a furnace.

Look at verse 50, which declares and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. I will never forget attending my grandfather's funeral. It was in the 1960s and he was an Italian and he had an Italian wake.

You would have to attend one to know of which I speak. When I walked into that funeral home, all I could hear was loud, piercing wailing. It sounded like a sea of misery. All his relatives were wailing at the top of their voices.

Moaning and wailing and crying was all you could hear. It terrified me. And that's what hell is going to be like, friends. Wailing speaks of great loss and grief and gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret.

Hell is a noisy place, friends. It's full of the agony and the cries of the damned. Let me tell you something. If you went to every hospital in your town tonight and took every patient there off his pain medication, their screams would keep your town awake tonight.

And that's what hell is like, friend. It's a place of punishment and unrest. My Bible speaks of this contrast between heaven and hell in the book of Isaiah. I create the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace to him that is far off and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal him.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. So we have this distinction of the pearl and the furnace. Who possesses the pearl gains heaven and peace, and who does not is cast into hell and its torments.

Saving Union with Christ

Now here's where the rubber meets the road, friends. Let me ask you a question. Do you possess Christ or are you joined to him? There is no salvation apart from being absolutely united to the pearl of great price.

He must be the vine, so you must be the branch. I fear there are a great many church members today who believe themselves to be on the way to heaven because they believe in the death of Christ, but they have never savingly believed on the Christ who died.

My Bible says to strive to enter into the straight gate. Listen, friend, you cannot have Christ in this world, too. One of them has to go. You cannot expect to walk with God and still play footsie with the world.

You must sell out completely to Christ Jesus as the pearl of great price. So we have a pearl and a furnace. One speaks of heaven, the other hell. One is a place of bliss and peace, the other a place of misery and torment.

Is your cry, Lord, thou art worthy of all acceptation, chief of ten thousand. Happy is the man that findeth thee. All the things that are to be desired are not to be compared with thee. Or is your cry, we will not have this man reign over us.

Listen, friend, you cannot go on your own way and still go to heaven. The Bible says all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And that's what sin is, friend. It's going our way when we know it isn't God's way.

But some of you still want to go your own way. You want to sit and rule on the throne of your life and tip your hat to God when you need him. Have you accepted Christ casually, friend? Have you ever seen a revealed Christ as the pearl of great price, worthy of everything you have?

You must seek him out and surrender to him. And unless you repent, you will likewise perish and end up in a furnace of fire, which is hell itself. The angels will bind you and cast you into that burning furnace of smoke.

The smoke will fill your nostrils and the wailing of the damned will fill your ears. You will be one of them. In a right closing with Christ, our heart cry should be, Lord Jesus, you can have anything and everything in me.

Have all, all I have and all I am. But let me have thee. You are worthy of my all. You indeed are the pearl of great price. And I forsake all to follow you. And this is what the pearl of great price has to say to your friend.

Taking Up the Cross and Counting the Cost

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Have you done it?

Have you counted the cost of following a crucified savior? He gave his all for you, friend. How can you hold anything back from him? So we see this pearl and this furnace as they stand in contrast with one another.

Which would you rather have? Go to Christ, friend, and turn from your sins and turn to God. Keep seeking the pearl of great price until you find him. Don't let anything or anyone stand in your way of finding Christ and following him.

The Rich Young Ruler and the Cost of Discipleship

We see in our Bibles the story of the rich young ruler who came to Christ. He had plenty of money to buy goodly pearls, but he would not part with the one thing that stood between him and the pearl of great price, Jesus.

And that was his wealth. So he turned away from Jesus and went his own way. Have you done that, friend? Have you ever come close to giving your all to Jesus, but you hesitated, perhaps turned, and went your own way?

The rich young ruler wasn't willing to make the sacrifice of giving his all to follow Christ. The price was too high for the pearl of great price. Have you counted the cost? Have you considered him? Are you willing to pay the price?

Do you even know what the price is? It's not money. It's you. Jesus wants you. He wants all of you. He wants your whole heart, not a divided heart. Listen, friend. Jesus must have all of you, hook, line, and sinker.

If he doesn't, you are sunk, sunk in the mire of sin and eventually sunk in the miseries of hell. There is a day fast approaching where a dragnet will be laid and angels will come forth and separate the good from the bad, the just from the unjust, the saved from the unsaved.

Those who possess the pearl of great price will have their sins pardoned and peace with God for all eternity. Those who are unjust still will be bound hand and foot and cast into a furnace of flames and unending misery where they'll be wailing and mashing the teeth.

Where a tree falls, it shall lie. It'll be too late then, friend. Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey. That's what the old hymn says. What will it be for you, friend?

A pearl or a furnace?