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Church
Doctrines
Babylon had many goodly
pearls, but she quit dealing with them. She busied herself
dealing with something else. Luther had a good pearl;
justification by faith; that’s a pearl of a truth. That
is the only one that Luther could get hold of as far as we
know, but he kept it! It enabled him to him stand right in
“a nest of devils”, if you please, and stand for
God’s Word. The Presbyterians used to have a pearl---
equality of ministerial brethren. That’s Bible. Many
Church congregations need to get back and learn something
of what the Presbyterians used to know. Baptists teach
baptism by immersion, the Quakers, Holy Ghost leadership;
the Methodists, brother, they had a number of them,
repentance, justification, sanctification/consecration,
the baptism of the Holy Ghost and holiness. Sad to say,
they don’t teach them any more ---not like they used
too. They’ve taken the altars out; they don’t believe
a man can live holy any more.
The Bride of Christ
believes and practices all the cardinal teachings of the
Word from one end to the other. These other “brides”
(professing to be the Bride of Christ) that are going
around and cashing in on some of the old saint’s
goodness, I don’t know who they are. They’re not the
Bride of Christ. We can take a truth that is as rich as
can be, and give it the wrong setting and spoil the whole
thing. What am I talking about? You could take a pearl
that was worth fifty thousand dollars and put it in a
“ten cent” ring and spoil the whole thing. Even so,
these organizations took truths that old Rome had, and
would dazzle you with; and deck her garments with---would
never dazzle the eyes of a true child of God. Why?
They’ve got the wrong setting. May God help us to see
that Babylon is fallen…is fallen! Why? She quit using
gold, silver and precious stones. She’s dealing in wood,
hay and stubble today!
Good religion is not
cheap and cheap religion is not good. You get what you pay
for. That is what Jesus is trying to teach us here in this
lesson about a goodly man seeking pearls, who, when he
finds the one pearl of great price---what does he do? He
sells everything he has. I had to have two sells and I
guess everybody else has to have one, I suppose. Who, when
he had found the one pearl of great price went and sold
all that he had and bought it. The first thing we learn is
that there is one pearl. The best thing is: it can be
bought. What does the Bible say the pearl is? The pearl of
great price is the church of the living God, or the divine
door. Now, let’s prove it by the Word. Acts 20: 28,
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the
flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath
purchased with His own blood.” Brother, that is the
greatest price that is ever mentioned through the Word of
God. Christ was given because of the Father’s love. God
so loved the world that He gave His son, but Christ gave
Himself for the Church. Paul said so, in the 5th chapter
of Ephesians. The pearl of great price is the church of
the living God or the divine revelation of that door that
no man can open and no man can shut.
In our last parable, we
had the book of life, coming up against men’s books.
Today, we have “man operated” doors, “raising up
against” God operated doors. The pearl of great price
was purchased by the greatest price that ever could be
paid; the blood of Jesus Christ. Human organizations cost
something. We realize that. It has even cost the blood of
some men. The Word of God says, when he had found this
pearl, he sells all that he had and buys it. Somebody
said, do you think that is the pearl? I know it is.
Revelation 21:21, There were twelve gates to the city,
because, the twelve tribes of Israel, three in each
direction. What for? Making it easy to get in the city;
they could come from the north, south, east and west; it
made no difference, to get in, but every gate was one
pearl. Each gate was one pearl.
We go right on, over to
the letter; we find the very pearl written right in the
letter---when God deals with a door He opens and shuts
that no man can open or shut. Now, when he finds this, he
sells out all that he has. What are you talking about?
When you find God’s eternal truth, you will find out, a
lot of truth you had back here, had the wrong setting. You
begin to “tie them in” with a millennium; most people
do, and get false conceptions. Let the truths endure and
lead you to a day when we all come into “Union
Station”. When God shows you this one pearl of great
price; nothing more than the divine door to the Church and
the unity of God’s people; how we can get in and how we
got out; what do you do? It just causes you to “sell
out”. You are ready to start learning all over. You have
to sell out and start learning all over. Now, why do you
want to “sell out”? Well, you really do not need it,
because, any truth---if it was really truth---that Babylon
had; the pearl of great price has it all!
It used to be, when you
wanted meat, you went to the meat market; if you wanted
bread, you went to the bakery; if you wanted groceries you
went to the grocery store; fruit, you went to the fruit
market, but now, they have super markets. Even so, when
you wanted to hear about baptism; you went to the
Baptists; if you wanted to hear about the Holy Ghost fire,
you went to the Methodists; if you wanted to wash feet,
you went to the Brethren, but now, God has a super market,
you just bring your basket and “come on down”.
Anything they ever had back there, that was
truth---God’s super market has it all!
In the 3rd chapter of
Revelation, just let me mention a few things that God has
laid on our heart and then we want to clarify a thought or
two. The 7th verse of the 3rd chapter of Revelation,
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, write:
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true.” We
know that through the Wesleyan age, people were brought
into a “holy state” in that of: the baptism of the
Holy Ghost, but “these things saith He that is holy and
He that is true:---it is not just enough to be holy,
you’ve got to have the truth. “He that hath the key of
David”---Go back to the first chapter of Luke and he
will tell you there, the key of David meant nothing more
than he that hath authority, or is the head over the house
of David, or the people of God. “He that openeth, and no
man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth: I know thy
works: behold, I have set before thee an open door and no
man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast
kept my Word, and hast not denied my name.” That’s
what will put an open door before you.
“Behold, I will make
them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews,
and are not, but do lie: behold, I will make them to come
and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved
thee:” If I were preaching on that, I would stop awhile
and say that that was certainly pointing to the very
thought of feet washing. It causes us to come and worship
before your feet. It will bring us in to that one
“bundle of love” where you have love and concern one
for another, and the Word of God said: if you do not love
your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom
you have not seen? Yes, God gave us a certain way to show
our love to our brethren. You read the 13th chapter of
John, and he said, a new commandment I give unto you.
Where did He give any new commandment? The commandment had
always been that we love our neighbor as ourselves, but He
said, a new commandment I give unto you: that ye love one
another, as I have loved you. How had He just loved them?
He washed their feet. A new commandment: I give unto you;
that you love one another even as I have loved you---right
here. If I’m your Lord and Master and washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another’s feet. He has given us a
way to worship God through our brother.
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