God’s Grace in Salvation

The Parables of Jesus #03: An exposition of Matthew 13:44-46. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, March 15, 2015.

Intro:
He was a gifted teacher.  The response of the crowd after Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount was, “This man teaches like no other.  He speaks as one who has authority.”  On the road to Emmaus the response was, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”  Great crowds followed him and hung on every word.  It is also clear that our Lord was the master of the parable.  The use of the common to explain the extraordinary.  “The kingdom of heaven is like…” opened the eyes of believers to the wonder of God’s work in redemption.  His use of parable was part of his ministry of revealing and concealing.  We began looking at the parables a few weeks ago as our Lord spoke of the various soils in their response to the seed that was sown.  A man sowed in his field.  Some seed fell along the path and the birds came and took it away.  Other fell on rocky ground and because there was no depth the plants soon withered and died.  Some seed fell among thorns and the thorns choked the life out of them.  But some fell on good soil and produced a crop.  From this we learned that merely exposure to the gospel is insufficient.  Joyful acceptance without being firmly rooted in the truth proves to be deadly.  A crowded heart, concerned with the cares and troubles of this life render the Gospel ineffective.  While the open and receptive heart brings life eternal and abundant.  Next, through the parable o the weeds, the mustard seed and leaven we discovered the sure and certain growth of the kingdom.  The kingdom of God prospers despite its being entangled with death.  The church grows despite its small, humble beginnings, and the church impacts the culture through its transforming power.  This morning we will consider two more parables revealing the wonder of God’s grace in salvation.  Our text is found in Matthew chapter 13 beginning with verse 44.

Text: Matthew 13:44-46

We are good Baptist so if you ask, “How are we saved?”  We answer, “We are saved by grace through faith.”  We are “grace people.”  Amazing Grace is our “national anthem!”  We are big on grace but I’m not sure we always understand the depth and the wonder of God’s grace.  Sure we believe that we are saved by grace.  We know that is our doctrinal position but in practice we also give ourselves a little credit.  I’m not sure we understand just how gracious God’s grace really is.  From the Bible we know that apart from the grace of God we are dead in trespass and sin.  We are not sick or even gravely ill – we are dead!  We are without life spiritually.  There is no good thing that dwells in us, that is in our flesh.  We are in no way deserving of salvation.  We are deserving of death and eternal damnation.  “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  “The wages of our sin is death.”  All that God owes us is His eternal wrath and judgment but because He is gracious He has offered us life through His Son, the Lord Jesus.  To be dead in sin is to be without life.  To be dead spiritually is to have no interest in God or the things of God.  We are, to use a good old theological term, totally depraved.  We are radically sinful.  Sinful from the core of our being.  Everything about us is affected by sin.  Our minds, our will, our emotions, our spirit – everything.  The thought and intent of our hearts is only evil all the time.  Such people do not, on their own, just decide to “accept Jesus.”  Unless the Spirit of God graciously draws we will never come to faith.  Unless and until God moves toward us we will never move toward Him.  This is background for understanding the parables before us in our text.

In our text we witness man’s response to the gracious drawing of the Spirit of God.
As we work our way through we discover that…

Thesis: These parables gloriously reveal the work of God’s grace in salvation bringing us to Christ and enabling us to freely, unreservedly and wholeheartedly give ourselves to Him.

These are two very familiar parables.  The treasure hidden in a field and the pearl of great value.

I want to point out just two things this morning.

  1. The drawing of God’s grace varies within individual experience.
  2. The apprehension of salvation follows a distinct path.

Both recognize the supreme value of the Gospel.
Both determined to possess it.
Both were willing to lose everything in order to gain it.
Both acquired it by faith.

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