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FBC POWELL, 5-11-08 PM
“THE PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM” PART 3
MATTHEW13:44-46
(#53 in Series, “Verse by Verse through Matthew”)
[Turn to text / Review chapter 13 – thus far four parables: The parable of the soils, the parable of the wheat and the tares, the parable of the mustard seed, and the parable of the leaven. Tonight, two more parables / Read text]
Those who have been around this church very long know that one of the great burdens that drive those of us in leadership in that so many professing Christians seem to be deceived and based on fruit and observable actions seem to not be Christians at all. If you go to the unmarried man and woman who are living together and ask if they are a Christian, the vast majority will answer, “yes”. If you ask people who haven’t been in fellowship with other believers in church for 10 or 20 years if they are a Christian, they will say “yes”. If you go to the crack house or the drunk on the street and ask if they are a Christian, the vast majority will say “yes”. In this nation, church attendance is falling and Biblical moral values are increasingly being rejected and yet the overwhelming majority of Americans would call themselves Christians. One of the real obstacles to reaching Muslims around the world is that they see American culture and morals and yet in their minds all
Americans are Christians and so they see Christianity as a morally corrupt religion.
Most of these deceived people are members of a church. Here in our area most are members of a Baptist church. That’s why most Baptist churches in the Bible belt average somewhere between one third and one half of their membership in attendance. We aren’t doing these folks any favors by allowing them to treat church membership so lightly and find false security in being outwardly attached to a church. It is unloving to refuse to confront them in love about the contradiction between their lives and their profession of being a Christian. You will hear much more about this in coming weeks, but over the next
3-5 months we are going to be personally and lovingly contacting every member of this church that we can find who has not been in attendance in six months and find out what their intentions are. We will no doubt find some who are unable to come and we were unaware of their situation and we can start ministering to them. For those who have chosen not to come, we will lovingly share the words of Hebrews 10:25 (HCSB) “ not staying away from our meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” We will then ask them to make a decision as to whether they want to continue to be a member or to be removed from the roll. Our goal in all of this is to truly minister in love to those who take membership seriously and to take away the false security of those who think that being a part of a church (even though they never attend) somehow makes it more likely they will squeak into heaven.
Let’s go back to the problem in our area and indeed our nation of so many who profess to believe in Jesus Christ but give no evidence in their life. I am convinced that the main problem is that they are deceived about what it means to believe in Jesus Christ or to use

the noun form, to place their faith in Christ. I have shared what I am about to share
2 numerous times before, we need to hear it several times a year. There are three elements to saving faith. Without all three, the faith a person claims is not saving faith. Spurgeon called these three elements, knowledge, belief, and trust. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones called the three elements, awareness, assent, and commitment. I use a combination of these men’s terminology.
1. Knowledge – There must be knowledge of the truth of the gospel. We must know some facts. We don’t have to have a seminary trained theologian’s knowledge about the hypostatic union of Christ and the theories of the atonement. There must be a basic knowledge of the predicament of man, the person of Christ, the accomplishment of Christ on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead. Faith without factual content is no faith at all. Dr. R. C. Sproule said, “I cannot have God in my heart if He is not in my head. Before
I can believe in , I must believe that
”. John Gerstner said, “Nothing can enter the sanctuary of the heart unless it first passes through the vestibule of the mind” [Both quotes are from
James Boice, “Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace?” page 138].
2. Assent – This means that one accepts and gives assent to the gospel as being true. To be saved, I must believe that Jesus is the eternal God the Son made flesh, that He died in my place and satisfied the justice of God with His shed blood, and that He rose literally from the dead. I must give assent to these truths. However, two out of the three elements of faith is not saving faith at all. Some have called just having these two elements “demon faith” . That is based on
James 2:19 (NKJV) “ You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble!” The demons also believe that Jesus is the
Son of God and deity. They know what He did on the cross, and to their eternal loss they know that in spite of all they did, He literally rose from the dead. Mental assent to the facts of the gospel is not saving faith!
3. Commitment – Here is the missing element of faith that both of the parables we are looking at tonight deal with. This element of faith involves stepping over a line and turning from everything else with the repentance that He grants to us (2 Timothy 2:25) and to trust completely in Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross to save us from the wrath to come with the faith that God gives us (Ephesians 2:8). We will look at this third element of faith as we examine the parable of the hidden treasure and the parable of the pearl of great price.
The first four parables in chapter 13 dealt with why we have the mess we have today in
America with so many claiming Christ who do not really know Christ. The parable of the soils and the wheat and the tares show us that there are large numbers who say that they are in the kingdom, but they only had a partial faith and were represented by the shallow soil, the crowded soil, and tares among the wheat. We saw through the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven, the growth of this false part of Christendom that professes Christ but has never possessed Christ or been transformed by Christ. With that long introduction, let’s look at these two similar parables that basically teach the same things.
As with two of the parables we looked at last week, I have been amazed at the opposite ways that these two parables are interpreted. There are some (Godly, scholarly men) who

say that the treasure represents Israel and the pearl represents the true church – those who
3 savingly believe on Christ. They teach that Christ gave everything to purchase us because of our value. That’s heart warming, but I have some problems with that interpretation.
First, Christ didn’t stumble onto Israel by accident, nor discover the church after a long time of searching. Secondly (and most importantly), neither Israel nor the church was a treasure of great worth when the Lord called us. We were sinners without any merit. We were dead in trespasses and sins without hope and headed for a deserved eternal condemnation. We became valuable only after He by His grace had transformed us and made us into a new creation. Also, we ought to become a little suspect when huge amounts of doctrine are pulled from a parable. The parables usually have one main lesson. They are not allegories where many things in the story have symbolic meaning. You can’t push the details of a parable to teach something Jesus wasn’t teaching through the parable. As I read the commentary of one Bible scholar I respect, I was amazed at the details he pulled out of these three verses to “prove” that the treasure was Israel and the pearl of great price was the church. It was a great example of over-interpreting a parable. You can’t push the details of a parable too far because a parable was given primarily to drive home a central point. Here is the central point of these two parables: The kingdom of Heaven is of tremendous worth and requires a whole hearted response. The kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God (synonymous terms) is the rule of God and where His people are safe and secure in His provision and care. It is the place of salvation. We could legitimately substitute “salvation” for “the kingdom of heaven”. When we savingly believe in Jesus
Christ, we read what happens in Colossians 1:13 (AMP) “ [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love”. Being “transferred into the kingdom of the Son of His love” is of immeasurable worth. What is it worth to know that my sins are forgiven,
I am justified (declared righteous in Christ’s righteousness), adopted into God’s family, given an inheritance, made a recipient of the promises, given a new nature, and stand secure in all these things never to lose them? It is a great treasure and a pearl of great price.
An underlying presupposition of both of these parables is that God has done a prior work in the heart of the man who finds the treasure and in the man who is seeking the pearl of great price. On his own, a spiritually dead blinded sinner wouldn’t even recognize the treasure when he stumbled upon it and the merchant would never seek this pearl of great price without a prior work of God in him. Romans 3:11 (NKJV) There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.
I. The Parable of the Hidden Treasure (V44)
In New Testament times banks were uncommon, and it was customary to bury treasures for their safe keeping. For years, Palestine had been a battleground and families would often bury valuables to protect them from invading soldiers. The Jewish historian Josephus said, The gold and the silver and the rest of that most precious furniture which the Jews had and the owners treasured [was buried] underground…to withstand the fortunes of war”
[MacArthur Commentary, p 382]. When the owner died or was captured and deported, the

treasure was lost forever unless someone happened to find it. This man could have been
4 traveling through and seen part of the treasure sticking up or he could have been a hired hand of the new owner and was plowing when he dug it up. Some are embarrassed at what seems like dishonesty in re-hiding the treasure and buying the land from the owner so he could have the treasure. That comes from a misunderstanding of rabbinic law. The treasure wasn’t put there by the present owner or he would have known about it. Rabbinic law said,
“if a man finds scattered fruit or money, it belongs to the finder” [MacArthur page 382].
The man was not even obligated to but the land but he showed his honesty by selling everything to buy the field. None of that is the point of the parable. When the Bible says that Jesus comes as a thief in the night, it is not endorsing thievery. The point is that the treasure was so valuable to the man that he was willing to give everything to obtain it.
II. The Parable of the Pearl of Great Price (V45-46)
This merchant was a wholesale dealer who perhaps traveled to many countries seeking pearls to resell. In that culture, pearls were so hard to get that they were extremely valuable. They were often bought as investments as diamonds are today. One day this merchant comes across a pearl that is far beyond anything he has ever seen. He considered it of more worth than anything he had ever seen and was willing to sell all that he had to get it. As in the parable of the treasure in the field, the main point is the extreme value of the kingdom of God or salvation.
III. Principles from the Parables
These parables teach us some tremendous truths that must not be missed.
A. Salvation Involves a Response from Man
God’s sovereignty in salvation does not negate man’s responsibility to respond to the gospel. Both of the men in these parables came to a point of decision to gain the treasure and the pearl of great price. Even so we must come to the place of personal appropriation of the gospel. The New Testament language of “believe”, “receive”, “call upon the Lord”,
“come follow me” all imply a time of decision. Don’t ever get out of balance with the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. That is why we have an altar call at the end of most services. We do not manipulate, appeal to shallow or selfish emotions, or pervert the gospel, but it is a call to respond to the gospel. Now the balance of that is that dead, blind sinners would never believe, receive, call upon the Lord, or follow Jesus unless the Holy Spirit did an awakening of their dead spirit and gave sight to their blinded eyes to see the truth of the gospel. Both of these are taught in Scripture and we must never get out of balance what the Scripture keeps in perfect balance.
B. The Way to the Way of Salvation Is Different
There is only one way into the Kingdom. John 14:6 (NKJV) “ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” Acts 4:12
(NKJV) “ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." While Jesus and His saving work on the cross is the only way to salvation, there are different ways to the way. In the first parable, the man

5 seems to come upon the treasure suddenly. There is no indication that he was searching for it. The merchant however was “seeking beautiful pearls”. Our stories are much like these two men. Some were not even that concerned about spiritual things and suddenly they were brought to see their condition and showed the beauty of the gospel and believed on Christ and were saved. Isaiah 65:1a (NKJV) "I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me...” Others search everywhere it seems for peace and the filling of the void they sense. They try eastern religion, the latest fads, and then one day their eyes are opened and they see the treasure of the true gospel and turn from everything else and turn to Christ. In the Bible, we see the woman at the well who just came to draw water and there she met the Savior. Paul was on his way to Damascus to persecute believers and was struck down and as a result came to Christ. On the other hand, the Ethiopian official of Acts 8 had been on a long quest for the truth when God opened his eyes as Philip read to him from Isaiah 53 and he was saved.
C. Salvation Is Free but It Costs Everything
Don’t skip lightly over this paradox. Don’t get these truths out of balance. Eternal life is a free gift. Romans 6:23 (NKJV) “ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus paid the sin debt in full. John 19:30b (NKJV)
"It is finished!" There is no amount of good works that can even partially merit salvation.
Ephesians 2:9 (NKJV) “ not of works, lest anyone should boast.” All of our efforts to merit the kingdom Isaiah called “filthy rags” (64:4). Augustus Toplady expressed it well with these words:
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly,
Wash my Savior, or I die!
The other side of this paradox is that coming to that fountain to be washed by the Savior means turning away from all else and seeing the old man and all of its pleasures and desires crucified with Christ. John MacArthur put it like this, “[These parables] mean that saving faith retains no privileges and makes no demands. It safeguards no cherished sins, treasures no earthly possessions more than Christ, clings to no secret self-indulgences.
Instead, faith begets a heart that longs to surrender unconditionally to whatever the Lord demands” [John MacArthur, “The Gospel According to Jesus”, p 148]. Ah, but we learn from these parables that when we have our eyes opened, we Jesus in his beauty and are willing to turn our back on everything to have Him. It is not a little prayer you pray and
“give Jesus a shot”. It is not something you tack on to the end of your life. He is the greatest treasure, the pearl of great price and all else in our life is as nothing compared to him. Paul described it in Philippians 3:7-9 (NKJV) “ 7 these I have counted loss for Christ. 8
But what things were gain to me,
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not

having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in
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Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith”. Those things which we give up and turn from and count as loss are the very things that hinder true joy. Martin Luther hit this truth is his great hymn when he said:
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
CONCLUSION
Today’s investment counselors will tell you that you shouldn’t put everything into a single investment. That’s exactly what both men in these parables did. Some people approach salvation the way investment counselors approach retirement accounts today. “Let’s do some Jesus, but we need to be balanced. We also want some worldly good’s, financial security, a worldly reputation, and just a sprinkle of sinful pleasure”. That is how most people approach salvation and that is why most professing Christians are lost. The beauty and magnificence of our Savior and the salvation He offers calls us to willingly turn away from and be willing to give up anything that we might have Him and this salvation He offers. Compared to this great treasure, this pearl of great price, all else is rubbish.
INVITATION (3302)