Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 37 from your spiral hymn book.
Hymn number 37, Approach My Soul, the Throne of Grace. Let's all
stand together, number 37. Approach, my soul, the throne
of grace in every time of need. There's mercy for the needy one
who Jesus' name shall plead. Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm and bleed His blood alone. The blood, the precious blood
of Christ has opened up the way by which I can draw near to God
and to my Father pray. Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin, I'll call upon my God. And if I fall, He'll lift me
up and cleanse me in the blood. The way is open, God will hear
my groans and cries of grief. Nothing can keep me from His
throne but my own unbelief. O Lord, my unbelief remove, and
turn my heart by grace. Compel me to approach your throne,
and there spread out my case. Please be seated. O Lord, my unbelief remove, and
turn my heart by grace. Compel me to approach your throne
and there spread out my case. That's a good prayer, isn't it?
Let's pray together. I ask the Lord to meet with us. Our merciful heavenly Father, We do pray that you would help
thou our unbelief. We confess to you, Lord, that
we are so prone to wander. We're so prone to lose sight
of thee and be attracted by the things of this world. And Lord,
we pray in this hour, that you would cause our affections to
be set on the Lord Jesus Christ. That you would enable us, Lord,
to approach your throne of grace and there spread out our case.
Lord, we're in need of your mercy. We're in need of your forgiveness.
We're in need of the light of the gospel. We're in need of
your joy and your strength. and the hope that you give in
the person of thy dear son. We're in need, Lord, of knowing
thee. And we pray that you would be pleased now to teach us and
to open the eyes of our understanding and to open thy word and to rend
the heavens, Lord, and come down to open that which no man can
shut. We ask it in Christ's name and
for his sake. Good morning. Will you open your
Bibles with me to Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4. I've titled this the Kingdom
of God. And I hope this morning that
the Lord will not only give us an interest in the kingdom of
God, but will give us the hope of knowing that we are in the
kingdom of God. For every other kingdom of man,
every kingdom of this world is doomed for failure. It's all
going to fall. It's all going to be destroyed.
The only thing that's going to last is the kingdom of God. Now the Lord teaches us in Mark
chapter 4 in parables. Parables, as you remember, are
natural events that have a spiritual meaning. And the parable of the
soils or the parable of the sower, this parable of the seed, however
you like to think about that parable that we looked at last
Sunday where the Lord likens all men or all hearers, I guess
I should say, to four different types of soils. Remember the
wayside soil who really didn't hear anything, the thorny soil
who thought he heard something and then had no depth of root
to it and produced no fruit, the thorny soil, the seed being
the gospel, The sower being Christ and his church, as the gospel
is declared, falls on different types of soils. And the thorny
soil is the one that's choked out by the cares of this world.
And every child of God can relate to those first three soils because
they know that there's been times when they've heard the gospel,
they've heard the truth, And they no sooner got out that door
and they forgot what they heard. They know what it's like to have
a burst of enthusiasm only to be revealed that there's real
no depth of commitment. They know what it's like to be
distracted by the things of this world and be choked out by the
things of this world. That having been said. That puts
the fear of God in our hearts because we hold ourselves suspect
of being one of those first three soils. But that having been said,
those first three soils are not relating to the people of God.
They're relating to the unbeliever. The fourth soil, the soil whereby
the Lord has toiled their hearts and prepared them is the only
one of the four soils that produces fruit, produces fruit. The fruit of our lips, the confession
of our faith, the hope that God gives us in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said they shall bear
much fruit. And the fruit of the Spirit,
our ability to love God and to love His people and love His
Word and love His Gospel, that's the work of the Spirit of God
in the heart. And so our hope, and now the
Lord's going to continue these parables and He's He's going
to move to relating the next parable to the kingdom of God,
the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? In
a sense, all kingdoms belong to God. You remember in Daniel when Nebuchadnezzar
had that dream And none of his soothsayers, none of his wise
men could tell him what his dream was. And then finally someone
said, there's a Hebrew in prison and he interprets dreams. Remember
that was the butler I think that said that. And so they bring
Daniel out of prison. And Daniel interprets his dream,
tells him what his dream was and then he gives him the meaning
of the dream. And what Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed was a figure. a large
statue. And that statue had a head of
gold, it had arms and breasts of silver, it had belly of brass,
it had legs of iron and feet mixed with iron and clay. And then at the end, the scripture
says that there was a large rock that was cut out of a mountain
without the hands of men. And that rock was sent to crush
that figure and crush the whole figure into powder. And then
that rock, which was cut out of the mountain without the hands
of man, grew into a great mountain itself. Now, what is the meaning
of that parable? What is the meaning of that dream?
Well, Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold. Daniel goes on
to tell him, you're the head of gold. There's only been, in
the history of the world, there's only been four empires that have
literally ruled the world. And the first one was the Babylonian
Empire. They ruled the world. That was
the head of gold. They were overthrown by the Medes and the Persians.
That's the arms of silver and the chest of silver, the belly
of brass. The Medes and the Persians were
overthrown by the Greeks and the Greeks ruled the world and
then the divided Roman Empire being represented by the legs
of iron and where are we today? Those are the only four empires
that have ever ruled the world. The Babylonians, the Medes and
the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, no one else ever
has and no one else ever will, ever. There's not going to be
a one world government ever. It's not going to happen. Let
the fear mongers talk about, you know, the bringing together
of the world. No, we are right now represented
by those feet that are mixed with clay and iron. And that's
the way it's always going to be until the mountain, the rock
that was cut out of the mountain without the hands of man come
and crush the whole figure. And then that rock grows into
a great mountain. That rock is Christ. And all
the kingdoms of this world, all the kingdoms of men, God raises
up kingdoms. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, you're
going to fall. Daniel was actually alive and
prophesied the coming in of Darius who was the leader of the Medes
and the Persians and overthrew the Babylonians. And the Lord
revealed to his prophet what he was going to do. And so all
kingdoms are God's kingdom in that he reigns sovereign over
them. He reigns sovereign over the
Russians and over the Chinese and over the North Koreans and
over the Americans. And he does with them whatsoever
he wills. And all these kingdoms, every
single one of them, are going to fall. They're going to be
crushed by the rock, the kingdom of God. And that's the kingdom
I want to be a part of, don't you? I don't want to be a part
of a kingdom that's going to be blown away by the wind and
going to be made into powder. I'm very thankful, as I know
you are, for the opportunities that God has given us in this
country, the freedoms that we enjoy, the prosperity that we
have. I'm thankful for that. But this
kingdom is not going to last. It's not going to last. It's
going to come to an end. This country in which God has
blessed us to live in is not the kingdom of God. And it's
not a Christian nation. It's just another kingdom that
God raised up and privileged us to be a part of. But it's
not the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the only
kingdom, the only kingdom that's going to stand. Let me show you
that. Turn with me to the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 12. Our God hath done whatsoever
he wills with the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the
earth. That's from Daniel 2. That's
what Nebuchadnezzar said, didn't he? No man can stay his hand. No man can say unto him, what
doest thou? He reigns sovereign over all
the affairs of men. And our God's going to shake
this earth and everything that's been made is going to be destroyed. Look at this in Hebrews chapter
12. We'll begin reading in verse
18. For you are not come to the mount
that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness
and darkness and tempest, and the sound of trumpets, and the
voice of words, which voice that they heard entreated that the
word not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure that
which was commanded." Now, the Lord's talking about Mount Sinai. the mountain of the law, the
mountain on which Moses went as a type of Christ and received
the law. And the Lord said, don't touch
this mountain. This mountain will kill you. And even if, look
what he says, for they could not endure that which was commanded.
And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned
or thrust through with a dart. Even an animal could not touch
the mountain. The mountain was holy. The mountain
was judgment. What's God saying? Don't try
to approach the kingdom of God by the law. Don't do it. It will kill you. The only thing
the law says to you is guilty, guilty. Guilty is charged and
then executes the penalty for the violation of the law which
is the death penalty, the death penalty. Anybody that tries to
approach God by the law is going to suffer death. And so terrible was the sight
that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. Now the only
reason that Moses survived going up on that mountain, the only
reason he survived is because God put him in the cleft of a
rock. That rock was Christ and the Lord protected him from the
wrath and judgment of the law of God by hiding him in Christ. And that's the only way that
you and I are gonna be protected by the law is if we'd be found
in Christ. Men by nature are just, well,
they're just attracted to the law. They deceive themselves
in thinking that somehow they can satisfy the demands of the
law. The law is holy. The law is just. And the law's
good, but the law can't make you holy. And the law can't justify
you. And the law won't add an ounce
of goodness to your flesh. The law shows us the righteousness
of Christ. It makes sin exceedingly sinful. That's what the scripture says
about the law, doesn't it? But you, but you, are come unto
Mount Zion." Mount Zion, that's the New Jerusalem, the heavenly
city. Look, and unto the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable company of
angels. This is the kingdom of God. You
see, the law represents the kingdoms of this world, and they're all
going to be judged by the law. and to the General Assembly and
Church of the Firstborn which are written in heaven." Now,
when were the names of the church members written in heaven? When was the Lamb's Book of Life
written? Well, in fact, it was never written. It's always been. It's always
been. We can't conceive of eternity,
but this is that which is eternal. God didn't just wake up one day
and say, I'm going to elect a people. I'm going to choose a people.
No, God doesn't change. He's the same today, yesterday,
and forever. And he said, I change not. And
that's the only reason you sons of Jacob are not consumed. The
Lamb's Book of Life is an eternal book. those whom God has chosen in
the covenant of grace, which never had a beginning. That's
why the Lord says, I've loved you with an everlasting love. And you remember everlasting
is not something that starts now and lasts forever. Everlasting
is something that never had a beginning, never had an end. Now we live
in time and space and it's impossible for us to comprehend what that
means. One day, It doth not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know this, that one day, when He shall
appear, we'll see Him as He is and be made like Him." When a
child of God takes his last breath and enters into glory, you know
what he discovers? He discovers that he's always
been there. He doesn't walk into heaven wide-eyed
and thinking, wow, isn't this wonderful. He's always been there. This is so true, this is clear.
Look at the rest of these passages. To the general assembly and church
of the firstborn which are written in heaven and to God the judge
of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect. Now he's
describing the kingdom of God. The spirits of just men made
perfect. Now that's the child of God,
justified by the Lord Jesus Christ and made perfect by his righteousness. No one else is going to enter
into heaven. And to Jesus. And to Jesus. How's this chapter in Hebrew
start out? In verse 1, looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of your faith. So we come unto Jesus
the mediator of the new covenant and the blood of sprinkling that
speaketh better things than that of Abel. Now Cain and Abel represent
long grace. Cain brought the labor of his
hands in hopes that that would earn him favor with God and God
had no respect for the sacrifices of Abel, of Cain. Abel, on the
other hand, brought a blood sacrifice, didn't he? Where did he get that
idea from? Oh, his father Adam had taught both of them very
clearly. You don't approach God without blood. And so Abel brings
a blood sacrifice. And Abel is spoken of in the
scriptures as being a type of the gospel. But now we have the
full revelation of the gospel in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
25, see that you refuse not him that speaketh. Oh, don't say
no to God. Don't say no to God. Don't say,
well, I'll do my best. I'll try to keep the law. I'll
bring something. I'll bring something. No, don't
do it. That's what the Lord is saying
here. This whole book is about law and grace. And we're going
to be saved by grace, not by the works of the law. So the
Lord say, and don't go to that mountain. That mountain will
kill you. We come to a new kingdom. We
come to, to, to, to just men made perfect. We come to the
heavenly Jerusalem. We come to the, to, to the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the kingdom of God. For if they escaped not who refused
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. God has spoken from
heaven. God who at sundry times and in
divers manner spake to our fathers by the prophets hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his son. The express image of His
glory, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has spoken. What has
He said? He said, you remember how that
mountain quaked and shook? You remember how men feared?
I'm going to come and I'm going to shake everything. I'm going
to shake everything. And the only thing that's going
to survive my shaking is that which is not made. Look, here
it is. Verse 26, whose voice then shook
the earth, but now he hath promised saying yet once more, I shake
not the earth only, but also heaven. Oh, and heaven was shaken. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
to this world, the angels, a multitude of heavenly hosts shook the heavens
in praise and in worship for what God had done in saving his
people. And this word, yet once more,
signifies the removing of those things that are shaken as of
things that are made. So God says everything is made
is going to be shaken. Everything we make, everything
we put our hands to is going to be shaken. And when God shakes
it, it's going to be destroyed. All the kingdoms of men and all
the nations of this world this world itself. That's why the
scripture says the heaven and earth will pass away. Everything
that's been made, God's gonna shake. That those things which
cannot be shaken may remain. What is it that cannot be shaken?
What is it that was never made? What is it that is eternal? Election. covenant of grace, redemption,
sanctification, the kingdom of God and all of
its subjects and the one who rules and reigns over it. These
things were never made. They've always been. And God
says, I'm going to shake everything that's been made. And when I
shake it, it's going to be destroyed just like that rock that destroyed
Nebuchadnezzar's figure. That's what's going to happen.
And the only thing that's going to remain is that rock that was
cut out without the hands of man, and it's going to grow into
a great mountain and a great kingdom. That's the kingdom of
God. Now, that's the kingdom I want to be a part of, don't
you? You know, we get so caught up in things that are made, don't
we? Lord, set my affections on things
above where Christ is seated at Thy right hand. cause me Lord
to to put the hope of my salvation and that which is not made. It's
not made. Verse 28, wherefore we receiving
a kingdom which cannot be moved. Which cannot be moved. This is
the kingdom of God. It cannot be moved. Let us have
grace Now that word have means to hold fast. Let us hold fast
to grace. Grace, the free gift of God,
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who's
not made and cannot be shaken. Let us hold to him. Let us not
go back to the law. That's why in the book of Galatians
Paul calls into question the faith of the Galatians. Who has bewitched you? Why do you go back to the law? Did you receive your salvation
by grace or by works of the law? You say by grace. Well then why
are you going back to the law? Why are you going back to Mount
Sinai? Why are you using the law to try to get assurance of
your salvation? But isn't that the devil's ploy? You see, every time the accuser
of the brethren says to you and me, if you were a child of God
and a member of the kingdom of God, you wouldn't think like
that. You wouldn't act that way. You wouldn't have said that.
And what's he doing? He's dragging us back to the
law. No, the whole hope of my salvation. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. I get no assurance of my salvation
when I start looking to myself to see whether there's evidence
of me being a child of God, being the Kingdom of God. I get great
assurance of my salvation and great hope when God gives me
the faith to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, to rest all the
hope of my salvation in Him. He cannot be shaken. Everything
else is going to be shaken. Let us have grace whereby we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. The fear that God gives the child
of God is a reverential fear. Just knowing that the Lord Jesus
Christ meant, fulfilled, I did not come to destroy the law,
he said, I came to fulfill the law, to satisfy its demands,
and that's what he's done. Sanctification, that cannot be
shaken. Cannot be shaken to be holy before
God in the Lord Jesus Christ. stand on that rock which cannot
be shaken." Everything else, when the storm of God's wrath
comes, when God speaks from heaven and shakes everything in this
world and all the kingdoms of this world and all the things
that men of this world have made, the only one that's going to
stand is the one who's standing on the rock. Everyone else is
going to be swept away. Let us have grace. Let us hold
to grace. All right, go back with me to
Mark chapter 4. We haven't gotten to our text
yet, have we? Verse 26, and he said, so is
the kingdom of God. As if a man should cast seed
into the ground, Now that seed is the gospel. It's the word
of God. We are born again not of corruptible
things such as silver and gold but of incorruptible even by
the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. And this
is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Of his own will begat he us. with the Word of Truth. There
is no salvation apart from hearing. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the Word of God. Somebody says, I can just go
off into my enclave or I can just go in the woods and pray
to God. No, God uses the foolishness
of preaching, the preaching of the Gospel, the lifting up of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the means by which God
saves His people. Anybody else is just fooling
themselves, deceiving themselves. So the seed has to be scattered.
God says the kingdom of God is like a man who scatters the seed. Christ has to be preached in all of his glory. The Lord doesn't use a lie to
save people. There's a whole lot of folks
that say they're preaching Christ who aren't. They're just not. They're denying him his glory
and salvation. They're leaving out essential
elements of the gospel. And the Lord's not going to use
a liar to save his people. So the seed, the true seed has
to be scattered And look at these next verses, I'm so encouraged
as a gospel preacher, I'm so encouraged by these next verses
and I hope that you as a child of God will be equally encouraged.
Look what he says, and the man who scatters the seed should
sleep and rise night and day and the seed should spring and
grow up and he knoweth not how. It is required of a steward that
he be found faithful. Judge nothing before its time. We don't know what effect the
gospel has. You know, and I've seen this
over the years. Sometimes I think, I get very hopeful in thinking
somebody's hearing something and then they just walk away. And then I think somebody's out
and, you know, they're just in la-la land. They're not listening
to anything and the Lord's speaking to them. You can't tell. We can't
tell. You know, I can remember in religion,
we used to pride ourselves in the number of converts that we
had. You know, we would count people every Sunday. I mean,
if a dog walked through the church parking lot, he got counted as
a, you know, as a participant in the service that Sunday. We
just counted everything. And then after the Lord taught
me the gospel, he showed me what David had done. Remember when
David counted Israel? And the Lord sent a plague. I think there was 200,000 that
were killed by that plague before God's hand stopped. Three days
of plague. David said, I've done an evil
thing. sent Joab all the way through Israel to count all the
men. He wanted to see how big his
army was. We can't count. God knows His people. Just be faithful to tell men
the truth and leave the results up to God. They're up to Him
anyway. They're always going to be up
to Him. And so this man, the Lord says,
the kingdom of God is like a man who scatters the gospel and he
doesn't know, he goes to bed and he wakes up and he goes to
bed and he wakes up. He doesn't know what's happening.
He doesn't understand how that seed germinates. He doesn't understand
that some of the seed has fallen on thorny soil or rocky soil
or wayside soil. Some of it's fallen on good soil
and how it grows, he doesn't know. He doesn't know. verse 28, for the earth bringing
forth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, and
after that the full corn of ear. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 4 please, 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Verse 1, let a man so account
of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries
of God. Moreover, it is required of a
steward that a man be found faithful. Tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth. Don't measure your success by
who believes and who doesn't believe. You don't know who's
believing. You don't know whether your children or loved ones are
going to believe. Just be faithful in telling the
truth. Be faithful to pray for them.
That's what we can do. We can speak to men and we can
pray for men. That's what Paul said. I watered,
I planted, Apollos watered, God gave the increase. He gave the
increase. So it's required of a steward
that he be found faithful. But with me it is a very small
thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment. Yea, I judge not my own self. I can't judge myself. The heart
is deceitful. It's wicked above all things.
Who can know it? We can't judge ourselves. For I know nothing by myself,
yet am I not hereby justified? He that justifies me is the Lord. He that judges me is the Lord.
He's going to judge me. And my hope is that he's judging
me in Christ. And if he judges me in Christ,
I'm going to be justified. Justified. Therefore, judge nothing
before the time until the Lord comes. who both will bring to
light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels
of the hearts and then shall every man have his praise of
God. He works all things after the counsel of His will and He
makes everything beautiful in His time and you know that all
things work together for good for them that love God and those
that are called according to His purpose. Our God is on His
throne and He's doing everything for his kingdom, for his kingdom
and his kingdom is not of this world. Do you remember when Pilate
asked the Lord, are you the king of the Jews? And what did the
Lord say? My kingdom is not of this world.
It's not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
my disciples would fight. I have a heavenly kingdom. It's impossible to know what
God is doing. The scripture says that His ways
are past finding out. They are past finding out. The
secret things belong to the Lord our God. And so the Lord says
the kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seeds. He doesn't
know where it's all falling. He doesn't know what's going
to happen. He doesn't know how it's going to grow. But all of a sudden
it just starts growing. And then the harvest comes when
it reaches its full ear. Go back with me to our text. Verse 29, but when the fruit
is brought forth immediately, he put it in the sickle because
the harvest has come. You see that verb brought forth
that just means to be ripe. When the fruit is ripe, he puts
in his sickle. I was thinking about our brother
Cody. Who would have known it? It's
been over a year ago now. The Lord said, you're ripe. You're
ripe. I'm going to take you home. And
when you're ripe, he's going to take you home. You remember when Jacob's sons
came back from Egypt and said, the man in Egypt told us, if
we don't bring Benjamin back, if we don't bring Benjamin back,
not to come back. We're not going to get anything
from him. And he had already kept Simeon, I think it was,
down there. And so what did Jacob say? Jacob
said, Joseph is not. Joseph's the man in Egypt. Simeon
is gone. Now you want to take Benjamin?
All these things are against me. That's what Jacob said. Isn't that the way we are? We
look at our circumstances and we think all these things are
against me. Not if you're in the kingdom of God they're not. All the things that Jacob thought
were against him were actually working for him and for his salvation. If you're in the kingdom of God,
all things work together for good. The kingdoms of this earth,
they're all gonna be destroyed, every one of them. Make the hope of all that you
have the Lord Jesus Christ and His kingdom. The kingdom of God
is also called the kingdom of Christ. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily in His name. And in Him, you are complete. Thank you.