Okay, Matthew 13. Sorry, the
lighting in here is a little low. I may have trouble myself. I think I need to go see Jaime,
but I'm still in denial. Alright, Matthew 13. We've been looking at the parables.
in Matthew chapter 13. And it's obvious from what we've
seen so far that if the Lord allowed His children for their
minds to be corrupted from the singleness of Christ, it's easy
to see in these parables that we would have much to be discouraged
over. Three out of the four hearers didn't hear. And we've seen here
that Satan, the devil, sows tares among the weak. In these parables,
we've beheld that there's sowing going on. There's seed being
sown in a field. And he, the devil, is the sower
of discord. Sower of discord. That's what
we see here. How did he corrupt Eve's mind
in the garden? By questioning God, questioning
His Word, and putting doubt in her mind. and her mind was corrupted
from the singleness of trusting God. And then Adam ate and the
whole mankind was plunged into spiritual corruption. Well, that's
how the trouble began and was spread in the Corinthian church
and the Galatian church. It was from folks criticizing
Paul and criticizing the brethren so that the doubt brought in. Doubt was put into the minds
of those babes there, and they were greatly affected by that.
Every time Paul preached, one of two things happened. One,
God's people were edified. They were comforted and rejoiced
in Christ. But on the other hand, those
that weren't called by His grace were offended, and they went
about sowing discord. That's how Satan operates to
put doubt into soul discord. But what the Lord is teaching
us here in these parables, brethren, is that we have much, much to
be encouraged about. Great, great things to be encouraged
about. Some ground was good ground by
His grace. That's good news. And also that wheat, we saw it
was never hindered by Him. So we have to be sure that whenever
we're hearing the Gospel preached and we're dwelling amongst each
other, that we're careful to know that God's going to grow
His people. He's going to grow His kingdom.
And He always has and He always shall. And He's going to be successful
in what He's doing. And so criticism and harshness
and things of that nature, the Lord stops our mouths from that,
so that we know He's going to do this work. He's going to grow
His people. He's going to be successful.
And that's the encouragement we find here in the parable of
the mustard seed, verse 31. Another parable put He forth
unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain
of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field, which
indeed is the least of all seeds, But when it is grown, it is the
greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of
the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." Now, we'll
look at this, first of all, looking at Christ, second of all, looking
at the kingdom of God, and thirdly, looking at each child of God
individually. Now, first, we saw last week,
Christ is the seed. That's what Genesis 3.15 declares
He is the seed of woman. Galatians 3.16 declares that
the promise is the everlasting covenant was made to the seed,
Christ, the Son of Man. And the text says here, The kingdom
of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed which a man took
and sowed. Our Lord took. Hebrews 2 says,
Verily, He took He took not on Him the nature of angels, but
He took on Him the seed of Abraham. That's what He took. He took
the flesh we are. And then the Scripture says,
as we saw last week, He said, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it dies, it brings forth
much fruit. He's the seed that took flesh.
He is the seed that sowed Himself unto death. And it says here,
verse 32, which is indeed the least of all seeds. Now, God's
thoughts aren't our thoughts. His ways aren't our ways. That
those mighty ones in Israel who esteem themselves as mighty and
full of strength and full of power, are referred to in Scripture
as cedars of Lebanon, oaks of Bashan. But the Lord chopped
down that mighty tree and His Son came forth in a way altogether
different from how man thought He would come forth. He came
forth through the womb of a virgin. He says in Psalm 139.15, My substance
was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. That's the womb. That's where He was made. And
then He came forth. Isaiah 53, 2. You're familiar
with this. It says, He shall grow up before
Him a tender plant, a root out of a dry ground. And there's
no form or comeliness about Him that when we shall see Him, we
shall desire Him. There's nothing about the way
Christ came, nothing at all, that made anybody desire him. It was purposed that way, not
the way he was born, not the place he was born, not the parents
that were over him when he was born, not his relatives, not
his education, not anything about him was made to make men look
at him and say, wow, nothing, absolutely nothing. And the text
here, we really do, we esteem Him the least of all seeds. But the text says, verse 32,
when it is grown. You know the Scripture says Jesus
increased. It says He increased in wisdom
and stature and in favor with God and with man. Verse 32 says, but when it is
grown, it is the greatest among herbs and becometh a tree so
that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."
And the Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest. He is the greatest
among all the plants of His field. The Holy One, the Faithful One. He is the Righteous One. He is
the One in whom His children lodge, dwell like birds do in
the trees. This is what He says. He said,
I am divine. I am divine. You're the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much
fruit. This is where we dwell. This
is where we abide in him. And this is how the believer
beholds him. We rejoice that he came forth
esteemed as the least and grew up to be the greatest. and accomplished
our salvation because that's how God purposed it. That's what
was best. And this too, this is why we're
thankful for that. Let's see this next thing. The
kingdom of heaven, the church is grown and begins and is grown
the same way. The exact same way. Verse 31,
it's like it says, it's a grain of mustard seed. Now the church
began from a very, very small beginning. So small that it came
without observation. So small. Look at Luke 17 to
your right there. Luke 17. Remember this? Luke 17 verse 20. When he was demanded of the Pharisees. That's what the Pharisees always
were doing. Demanded. demanding something
of him. And when he was demanded of the
Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered
them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation,
not with an outward show. You are not going to see it.
Neither shall they say, Lo, here, or lo, there. For behold, the
kingdom of God is within you, or among you. You know what I
want you to think about this now. The kingdom of God are the
children of God. And the church of God are the
children of God. And the church of God are those
that are born of His Spirit. And those that are born of His
Spirit are those to whom He's made an everlasting covenant. His New Testament. So that His
church, His kingdom, His children are the New Testament Church. They are the New Testament Kingdom. The Church of the Everlasting
Covenant. The Church and Kingdom of the
Everlasting Covenant. But we always think of the Church
as beginning with the Apostles. That's not where it began. That's
not where it began. Acts 7 verse 38 says, This is
He that was in the church in the wilderness. with the angel
which spake to him in the Mount Sinai with our fathers who received
the library oracles and he gave them unto us. You see, Abel and
Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David, they
were the kingdom and church of God. And they were there in the
midst of Israel, in the midst of Judah, all the time, the whole
time. But everywhere they went, they
were lightly esteemed, esteemed as nothing, not counted anything,
persecuted everywhere and in every way. And the folks that
were with them and around them didn't even realize that the
kingdom and church of God is right there in their midst, right
there among them. And it was them. And then we
know, we think of the apostles. And we think of the disciples
that the Lord called. And we think of those that He
called out as He went about on this earth and that the Lord
saved through them. But there was nothing about them
that was anything to be highly esteemed. They were the least
too. The least of the saints. He chose folks on purpose that
wouldn't draw any attention to them. It says, though, when it's grown,
it's the greatest among herbs, becomes a tree so that the birds
of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. And here's
the point. Though it's small, in spite of
all the attempts of Satan, in spite of all the attempts of
wicked men throughout every age, throughout every generation,
according to the promise of the Lord, He's kept His children,
His church, as the apple of His eye. and allow no harm to come
to Him. Ever. Ever. And He's doing the
same thing now. And it always starts small and
it continues to grow and continues to grow and it's the Lord who
adds to the church daily such as should be saved. Always. Always. And in the end of the
world, we're going to behold that this kingdom, this church,
this people is a people that we can't even number. That from
every generation from the beginning, a few here, a few there, a few
here, a few there, some that knew each other, some that didn't
know each other, and they're all going to be gathered up as
His trophies of grace And it's going to be a vast, huge kingdom
so that we see not one, not one ever hindered Him or stopped
Him or prohibited Him or was able to pluck any from His hand. None. Now that's encouragement. I need that encouragement. I
need to know that what we see with these eyes, You know, He
may grow this body to be big. He may not. But the encouragement
here is, those apostles, they saw some added. But in their
day, they still, compared to the world around them, were a
very small number. But here was the Lord's promise.
My kingdom's growing. It's growing, and none's prohibiting
it from being grown. Because He's growing it. Well,
here's the third thing. Every believer individually.
Now this is where we come down to us particularly, to us individually,
and to our brethren. And to think about this now.
Eternal life is by that seed that's sown into the heart. And
we start out as babes. And we grow in grace and in knowledge
of Him. He prepared in one place faith
to a grain of mustard seed. But now be sure you understand
by faith and by grace, by all the graces we're talking about,
that we don't grow more complete. The measure of
our completeness is not our faith. He said if it's as a grain of
mustard seed. Our completeness is the object
of our faith. Christ is what makes us complete
and perfect, accepted of God. It's Christ. But faith does grow,
and love does grow, and long-suffering grows, and patience grows, and
the believer is a child, and he grows, just like the babies
grow. But there's a difference in the
way that the children, the way God grows His children. We've
seen here that the way He does things are not the way we do
things. The way He does things are the opposite of the way the
world does things. And that's the case with an individual
believer. It's the opposite. He says, Ephesians
4.15. I want you to look there. Ephesians
4.15. He says, but speaking the truth
in love that we may grow up into Him in all things, which is the
head, even Christ. And he says here, verse 16, it's
from Him that the whole body is joined together and that every
joint is supplied and that He works effectually in the measure
of every part and He makes increase the body so that it's edifying
to itself in love. He does it. Now, Peter said,
grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. He said grow in grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ and grow in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. I've said this to you before. I've pointed this out
to you before. Of is an important word because of means two things. It means by Him and it means
about Him. Grow in grace and knowledge which
is by Him. In other words, We grow by the
grace of God through the Spirit of God given to us through our
Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. That's how we're grown. And we
grow in knowledge which is by Him. He teaches. God receives the glory for teaching
His children in the heart. The Son of Man, Christ Jesus,
the Lord of Glory, receives the glory for teaching His children
in the heart, in the truth. And not only this, but it means
about. What we're taught is about God's
grace in and by and through the Lord, our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. And we're taught about knowledge
of how He's Lord and how He's Savior. how He is the fullness
of the Godhead, how the glory of God is manifest in Him. And
we're taught about how He went about in grace and mercy saving
us. And as we behold Him, growth
in grace is growing up into Him. Now, the growth, here's how it's
opposite. Growth in grace and knowledge
of Christ doesn't make us get to the point where we think more
of ourselves. It makes us think less of ourselves
and more of Him. John said, He must increase,
but I must decrease. That's growth in the Kingdom
of God. That's growth in the Kingdom of Heaven. Nothing constrains
a believer to give himself willingly for the glory of God and for
the good of His brethren, like beholding Christ who gave Himself
to glorify God and to save His brethren. And when we behold
that, brethren, it causes us to know more of Christ's mind. That's what Paul said in Philippians
2. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ. I want to know
more of the mind of Christ that made Him make Himself of no reputation. Because the more I behold Him
who made Himself of no reputation to save a sinner like me, the
more it makes me want to forget any glory that I might imagine
is due to me so that I can so that he'll receive the glory
and I can be used for whatever is necessary for my brethren."
Long-suffering. That's what Peter was talking
about when he said, grow in grace and honor to Him. He was saying,
you know the long-suffering of our God. He said, you know how
He suffers long. He's not willing that one for
whom He died, not one to whom He gave His Son, He's not willing
that anyone should perish. And He's going to call them all
by His grace. And He's caring. He's waiting for that reason.
He's suffering long with this world right now because He still
has a people in this world. And Peter said this, he said,
Beloved, seeing you know these things beforehand, beware lest
ye also being led away by the error of the wicked fall from
your own steadfastness. And then he said, Here's what
our steadfastness is. Here's what the truth is. But
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. So it's never getting so self-sufficient. It's growing
more self-dependent. More absolutely dependent upon
Him. He's making Himself in the likeness
of sinful flesh, taking the sin of His people on Himself. bear
the burden of those who are in error, and so fulfill the love
of Christ. This is what Christ did. He took
the sin of His people on Himself. He didn't. And He put it away. He put it away. 1 Corinthians. I want you to see
this. I don't want to quote this. I want you to read it with me. This is what we're talking about.
1 Corinthians 14 verse 20. See, we grow to maturity in understanding,
in grace. But watch this. But as we do
that, we grow to be more like children in other areas. Watch. 1 Corinthians 14 verse
20. Brethren, be not children in
understanding, That's what growth in grace and knowledge is all
about. Not children anymore in understanding. But, how be it,
in malice be ye children. But in understanding, men. A
man in knowledge, but a child in malice. That's growing in
grace. This is what He said. You know, remember He brought
the child and He set the child there? And He said, except you
become like this little child, you cannot enter the Kingdom
of God, Kingdom of Heaven. Remember what He said at the
very end of that? This is what He said. He that is least among
you all, the same shall be great. Isn't that right? Using those He's grown to be
least. Get that now. Using brethren,
individual brethren that He has grown to be least, is how He
makes His kingdom the greatest. You understand that? And here's
the point. Just as He maintained and He
grew His church, just as He came and He grew up, no man could
take His life, no man, He said, I'll lay it down to myself. Nobody
could do Him any harm. till He did our appointed. And
just as He did that and is now divine, the righteousness, the
holiness, the separation of His people, the acceptation of God
of His people, just as He's that way, just as His church began
with the least and He's just grown it and grown it and grown
it and saved every one of His people so that His kingdom is
the greatest. Even so, He's working individually
in His children. Whenever we lose sight of this,
this is what we looked at all through James. Whenever we lose
sight of this, what happens is we become like men in malice. Like wicked men in malice. And
thinking we can fix something. But rather, when we remember
how He's growing in the success and the triumph. Oh, it may not
appear like that with Esau as long as we remember that and
are reminded of that and are grown to maturity in that knowledge
and grace of God, then we'll have that understanding as men,
but in malice. And our dealings with one another
and how we speak and how we treat each other will be children. We'll be very careful not to
offend. And brethren, that's a treasure.
That's a blessing. That's a blessing that he promises
that we know. And it's great encouragement.
Is that an encouragement to you? It's encouragement to me. He
won't fail. Our Lord won't fail. Amen.