Alright, our text is going to
be in Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4, verses 30 through
34. This parable is one that is mentioned
in both Matthew and Luke, as well as Mark here. So we're coming
to the end of the parables here that Mark is sharing in this
section, but it's been good to see them.
This morning, what we're going to see in this parable is that
the believer's faith and the Lord's kingdom are both small
and imperceptible to the natural eye at its beginning. It's small
and imperceptible, but the Lord assures us here in this parable,
and he's even prophesying to us that the kingdom, his kingdom,
shall increase and it's going to grow. It's going to be established
here and the earth, and it's going to grow and become a great
kingdom here because it's his kingdom. It's his work. He's
the Lord and he's able to do this. Our title is Mustard Seed
Faith. Mustard Seed Faith. We'll have
three divisions. The faith of believers, then
the growth of God's kingdom, and then we'll look at that mixed
multitude that gathers there on the branches of the kingdom
of God. Let's look at the first two verses in our text in Mark
chapter four, verses 30 and 31. And Jesus said, where unto shall
we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall
we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard
seed, which when it is sown in the earth is less than all the
seeds that be in the earth. Now from the parables that we've
been looking at, we see that the gospel is precious seed. The gospel is precious seed which
the preacher is given by the Lord and he sows this seed. He
sows this word. He's casting out this word through
the gospel message out to the people that are there gathered
to hear it. But I have no power and you have
no power. It's the power, the work is of
the Lord. He's the one who gives the increase
as it pleases Him. As it said, what we saw last
week, that the preacher knoweth not how. He doesn't know how
the Lord does His work. He doesn't know or understand
how the Lord causes that seed to go into good ground. and to
take root and germinate and to spring forth and put up that
little tiny green plant that pops through the ground. He doesn't
know how, even the brethren don't know how. Even when you think
about how the Lord dealt with you, you think back, I don't
really know when the Lord began this work. I can't exactly say.
I know that he was kind and gracious to me for a long time while I
was ignorant and religious and doing things. Maybe he began
it then. I don't know. I know I didn't
hear the gospel until a certain time. You don't even know necessarily,
but you just know and look back and say, Lord, you did it. You
didn't leave me there in darkness. You brought me all the way through
and brought me to here where I am today. So we only know that
it grows. We just know that the Lord does
it. He does that work. And now the kingdom of God comes
into focus for us here. and we'll consider first the
individual believer in his kingdom and then we'll see how the Lord
grows his whole entire kingdom. Each person is a tiny seed, a
tiny seed of faith that the Lord puts in His people, that He gives
to His people, and it's likened to the size of a mustard seed,
just a tiny little grain, a little tiny thing that's imperceptible
to you and I, and something that we don't see. And our Lord uses
a mustard seed a couple of times in the Scriptures, and when He
does, He's talking about faith. So turn over to Matthew 17. Matthew
17, and in verse 14, we'll just look at an example, and we'll
look at one other example, and then we'll talk about the two
of them. Matthew 17, in verse 14, it starts, And when they were come to the
multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down to
him and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic
and sore-vexed. For oft times he falleth into
the fire and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples,
and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said,
O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. So the
Lord attributes the fact that this evil spirit couldn't be
cast out of the boy because of their lack of faith. And he says
in verse 18, Jesus rebuked the devil and he departed out of
him and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the
disciples to Jesus apart and said, why could not we cast him
out? Jesus said unto them, Because
of your unbelief. For verily I say unto you, If
ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this
mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and
nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth
not out but by prayer and fasting. So that's one example where the
Lord speaks of faith, right? He uses a mustard seed and compares
it to faith. And now turn over to Luke 17.
Luke 17, and we'll look at verses three through six. Luke 17, verse 3, take heed to
yourselves, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. And
if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee
seven times, a perfect number in a day, and seven times in
a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive
him. And the apostle said unto the
Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if ye had
faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine
tree, be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in
the sea, and it should obey thee. So that we see that there's faith
involved in our walk. When we forgive another, when
we forgive our brethren and we're kind and patient toward our brethren,
that's faith because we're trusting the Lord is going to teach them.
Just as the Lord teaches us and breaks us from the power of sin
and deals with us gently and patiently and kindly, so it is
that we're trusting, Lord, you did it for me. I'm not going
to stand here and lay into my brother or sister and not forgive
them because you forgave me. in all my ignorance and all my
weakness and offense that I am to you, and so we're kind and
forgiving to our brethren, and that's faith. That's faith because
we're trusting, Lord, you taught me, you'll teach them too. I
don't need to be the one that lords over them and puts them
in their place. But what I want us to see is
that there's four things that we see in these passages concerning
faith. First, we see that true faith
begins as a very small thing. He compares it to a mustard seed.
It begins as a very small thing. And as children of God, I have
no doubt that oftentimes we doubt whether or not we have any faith
at all, or whether we're even a child of God. When we examine
ourselves and look at ourselves, we're usually not very impressed
with what we see in ourselves, and oftentimes even doubt whether
we're His or know Him at all, and whether we believe Him. But
in 1 Timothy 4.14, Paul instructed Timothy, saying to him, Neglect
not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy
with the laying on of the hands of the Presbyterian. or with
the Presbytery and the reason why is that Timothy was feeble
and weak and doubted had many doubts in himself, and Paul was
encouraging him to say, don't look at yourself. Don't look
to your smallness and your weakness and your youth. Trust in the
Lord. The Lord has given you this work.
He's put that faith and that hope in you, and he's calling
you to this work. Be faithful to do that which
the Lord has called you to do and what he's laid in your heart.
Remember, he's very kind and gentle and patient to us. It
says in Isaiah 42.3 that a bruised reed shall he not break and the
smoking flax shall he not quench. So the Lord, he's gentle and
he's patient and he's kind to us. And so don't be discouraged
because your faith seems small. It always begins as a small thing. But the Lord, he's given it and
it's effectual to the end that he's given it to us for. Then
we see secondly that it's not the greatness of our faith but
the greatness of our God. Our God is great. Our faith is
small and weak and puny, but that doesn't determine what the
Lord is doing with us. He's the one who's great. If
you remember last week, when we were looking at 2 Peter, we
saw that faith in the brethren isn't all given to the same degree.
We don't all have the same amount of faith But it's like precious
faith. It's like precious faith. It's
the same faith that the apostles had. It's the same faith that
all the brethren have had. Why? Because the source of the
faith is the same. It comes from God the Father.
And we know that the object of the faith, it's the same. We
all hope and trust and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
see that the result of our faith is the same. We're all inheriting
in Christ Jesus eternal life in Him. So it's the same source,
same object, same result. It's the same faith, even if
the degrees to which we have it or use of the Lord may vary.
But that's the Lord's doing. That's His work. That's His will.
It's as He, as it pleases Him. And none of us can say, well,
why isn't this one being called to that? That's none of your
business. That's not our business. He doesn't call us to that. He calls us to believe Him and
trust Him and walk in the light and in the faith that He's given
to each of us to do. We don't have faith in our faith.
That's carnal works. When we look to our faith and
trust in our faith, we know that's carnal. There's a lot of religious
places that speak of their faith and whip people into having faith
and looking to their faith. And that's where their confidence
is, is in their faith. But it's not in Christ, and that's
a problem. That's not where we want to be.
Our faith is to be fixed in the object, which is Christ. That's
our hope. and our joy, that's mighty, effectual,
and saving faith. All right, three, with God we
see that all things are possible. All things are possible. Nothing's
impossible for our God, and we know this, so we believe Him.
We ought to believe Him and trust Him and rest right there in Him. Turn over to Mark chapter nine.
Mark nine, verse 23. Here we see this. And Jesus says to the man, if
thou canst believe, Mark 9.23, 9.23, if thou canst believe, all things
are possible to him that believeth. In straightway the father of
the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. So that
we see here the faith of this father, it's very, it's small,
right? We learn a lot there from the
Father. There's a lot of times where we don't feel any faith
at all. But what a sweet example. Lord,
I believe, help thou my unbelief. Because we know we're not, it's
not a perfect, we ourselves aren't perfect and we're weak and feeble,
but the Lord is so kind and the Lord healed that child. Even
though that man's faith was weak and crumbling and he saw it,
but the Lord healed that boy and delivered him back to the
Father. And then again in John 11, 40,
Jesus said unto Martha, said I not unto thee that if thou
wouldst believe thou shouldest see the glory of God? And he
raised Lazarus from the dead and called him forth from the
tomb. So we desperately need his power
and his grace in these things, but we see that the Lord triumphs
in these things, and he gives us faith. He calls us to enter
into these things, even though it's often weak and puny and
failing and faltering. But the Lord works faith in us,
and we see that in so many examples through the scriptures. We see
how Moses, by faith, he witnessed and saw the Lord destroy the
Egyptians in the Red Sea who were pursuing him. And he gave
faith to Moses to look and to behold this work. Joshua saw
Jericho's walls fall in on the city, and they conquered that
city by faith. And the Lord gave faith to Caleb,
And so the children of Israel went up there to the land of
Israel and they possessed the land because God had given faith
to Caleb to see and there was no doubt that he was going to
see and witness and behold the work of God and bringing the
people of God to occupy that land. By faith, Jairus' daughter
was raised from the dead. We know that by faith the centurion's
servant was made well again and he lived and went on to serve
his master. And we know that blind men and
deaf people saw and heard the Lord. The Lord did all this through
faith, which he worked and gave to his people. So believe your
God, trust him. You may not think your faith
is anything, and you ought not to think your faith is anything,
but if it's of him, It's of him and he's going to do it. He's
showing you what he's doing. He's giving you confidence in
Him that you might rest in Him and have peace and joy in Him.
And then we also see that unbelief, on the other hand, is a terrible
and an awful thing, and it doesn't do any good to not believe and
to not trust in Him. In Matthew 13, 58, it says that,
and He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. That's when Christ went back
to His hometown, and He didn't do many works there because they
were offended in Him. They were offended. They said,
this is Jesus of Nazareth. We know his mother. We know his
brothers and his sisters are here among us. And they were
offended in him. And that's how a lot of people
are. They're offended in Christ. And that's why they don't see
anything. The Lord could do a mighty work
in their midst, and they wouldn't see anything. He wouldn't do
anything for them. And yet the Lord, by his spirit, before the
children, his children, he could do a tiny work. a small little
work and we just give him thanks and praise for what he's doing
because he's done the work and he causes us to see that he's
doing all things well and he's building his kingdom. Turn over
to Isaiah 48. the Lord reminds us in what we
are in the flesh and we see here in Isaiah 48 that left to ourselves
we would be like unbelieving Israel here Isaiah 48 verse 16
and it says Isaiah 48, 16, Come ye near unto
me, hear ye this, I have not spoken in secret from the beginning,
from the time that it was, there am I, and now the Lord God and
His Spirit hath sent me. Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth
thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest
go, O that thou hadst hearken to my commandments. Then had
thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves
of the sea. Thy seed also had been as the
sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof.
His name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before
me." And we know this, this is Israel, where the Lord came to
Israel and they rejected him. They despised him and didn't
want him to come unto them and so the Lord didn't save them
and he didn't save their children. Now some believe, right, there
were Jews who believed and they were saved because the Lord worked
that in them but we see apart from his work left to ourselves
in this flesh There's his deadness, his dryness, we won't see or
hear him. Christ said when he came down into Jerusalem that
last time, and he said in Matthew 23, 37, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not. Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. We often blame God for our unbelief,
right? Well, many do. Not his children,
they don't, but because of a knowledge of election, there's many that
would blame God for their indifference or their unbelief, saying, you
know, having more of a fatalistic view or something basically fatalistic
view, and they blame God for their unbelief and their doubts
that they have, but election isn't given to us that we should
doubt whether or not the Lord is going to do something, but
election is given to us to be a comfort to us, to know that
there's nothing good in me, and that left to myself, I can't
believe, and I can't do a saving work, but the Lord has a people,
and he's put me here. He's caused me to hear this gospel. in the hopes that I would hear
his word, and receive that word, and not reject him, and not be
indifferent to these things, but that he would cause that
word to hit that good ground, and to be settled there, and
established there, and to grow up before him, and to hear his
word, and to believe him, and to rest in him. The fact that
each of you is here, you brethren, that you and your children, you
come, that's a good thing. That's something to rejoice in
and to be glad in and to trust that the Lord has done it for
the good of his people. He's not left you out there in
the wilderness, out there in the cold, but he's set you here,
he's brought you here to hear his words. So don't doubt him.
Don't disbelieve him. But believe Him and pray, and
pray believing and knowing that He does this. He's a kind and
merciful and gracious God. And He's done this work here
among you to save you and to show you good and to show your
families good. Trust Him. He's done that. Believe. Pray believing and not doubting
and saying, I don't know if they're elect. Don't think like that.
It's a comfort. Election's given as a comfort
to you, so trust Him and believe Him that He's done this work.
All right, now, let's move on and look at the growth of God's
kingdom. The next thing that we see is in verse 32, and we
see that this work, it's a work of God that He grows and that
He establishes in the midst of His people, and that when He
does it, when He's in the work, it's going to grow. It's going
to grow. It's not going to fail. It's
not going to fall short. It's not going to be cut off.
The Lord's going to cause it to grow. In Mark 4.32 it says,
but when it is sown, it groweth up and becometh greater than
all herbs and shooteth out great branches so that the fowls of
the air may lodge under the shadow of it. So what we've been seeing
here and looking at these parables and what the Lord's teaching
us is that salvation is not a work that the sinner does for themselves.
We see that, that it's not a work that we're doing for ourselves
or something that we're doing to get ourselves saved, but rather
what he's teaching us through these parables is that He's working
his salvation. He's sending that word out and
he's working the salvation in the hearts of his people. It's
a work of God done for the sinner and that we see through these
parables that salvation is by grace. It's unmerited favor that
God has for his people and he's sending that word out to us. It's all for the sake of his
son. And in Romans 5 verses 6 and 8 we read, For when we were yet
without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. And then we
read in verse eight, but God commendeth his love toward us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So we see
that it's not because of our works. It's not because we've
done anything good, but in spite of the fact of what we are, in
spite of the fact that we're sinners, God has done this work
in us and he sends his gospel word out. And so You know, we
often, you know, look at ourselves and we often think, you know,
I really... should have been so much further along. I really
should have known some of these scriptures so much better now.
I really should be such a more effectual speaker before people,
or I should be so much more able to do certain things in the Kingdom
of God, and it's such a shame where I am when I look at myself
and I don't like what I see, and I'm so weak and puny, and
I'm not where I ought to be in the Kingdom of God. What's happening
is that the Holy Ghost is growing us in a way that's very contrary. That's fleshly thinking. at ourselves desiring to see
what we want to see. We want to see great works of
faith. We want to see great examples of strength in us where we can
draw some comfort and some hope in those things. But what's actually
happening is that the Holy Spirit's growing us in an opposite way.
We're being humbled and brought low to see that in ourselves
we're nothing, that we're not strong, that we don't have great
faith. And so that the Lord is creating in us a sight to see
that he is wonderful and that he is gracious and kind and sweet
to us and gentle to us and that he's doing all this work in spite
of me. I can't even catch up to what
he's doing. I'm not where I should be but
yet he loves me. And He's feeding me with the
Gospel. And He's showing Himself kind and gracious to me and patient,
even though I don't deserve it. Even though I have foolish thoughts
and do foolish things, the Lord's being patient and kind with me. And He's forgiving me of all
my sins, so that as we're going down and sinking down in our
own thoughts of ourselves, Christ is rising and the love that we
have for him that's formed in our hearts because of his mercy
and grace toward us increases. And so that you see, wow, yeah,
I can't look back and look at all this awesome things that
I've done, but rather isn't the Lord awesome and wonderful and
great for his great love wherewith he loved me, even though I don't
deserve this grace and this kindness toward me. He tells us in Isaiah
42 verses 15 and 16, he says, I will make waste mountains and
hills, and I'll dry up all their herbs, and I will make the rivers
islands, and I will dry up the pools. And that's what he does
in our flesh. He dries these things up so that
we're not confident and high and puffed up and lifted up in
our own thoughts. Able to look at all the stuff
that we've done. He evaporates that. He takes that all away and dries
it up and he says, and I will bring the blind by a way that
they knew not. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them." So the fact that he's growing you more
dependent upon him and seeking him, Lord, be merciful to me. Lord, be patient with me. I don't
have anything to pay you that I owe. Lord, I don't have anything
that's good or that you need, but be patient with me, Lord,
Be kind and be gentle, and that's what he's doing. He's working
that love in your hearts for him, and that's a sweet thing. That's precious, and there's
nothing that this flesh can do to earn that. He does it in spite
of us, so be thankful and grateful for his work in that way in our
hearts. And then we see, that's what
he does to us individually, and then we see when we look at the
scriptures how the Lord takes individuals like this, like you
and me, who are weak and poor and worthless and the off-scouring
of the world that they don't even care for and he gathers
us together and he builds his kingdom, he creates, he forms
his church and he brings us all together to know him and to worship
him You know, in John 1.5.6, how did this work begin? In John 1.5.6 it says, There
was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came
for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through
him might believe. And that's how it began. Some
guy eating locusts and wild honey and dressed funny. And the Lord
used him to begin this little tiny work. Christ comes, right? In Mark 1, 14, 15, Jesus came
into Galilee. After that man had been locked
up, Jesus comes into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of
God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. And then our Lord was crucified
and died a death that none of us would want to die, but he
was crucified Yet he rose again, having accomplished the work
that the Father sent him to do, and he ascended up into heaven.
And we read in Acts 1.15, in those days, Peter stood up in
the midst of the disciples and said, the number of names together
were about 120. So after the Lord himself, the
Lord of glory was here, doing all these wonderful works before
men and preaching the gospel, And that is still a tiny little
thing. There's only 120 disciples at
his ascension. Think about that. In all the
world, there's only 120 believers now at this time. But the Spirit
moves and does a work and Peter begins to preach and it says
that In Acts 2.41, they that gladly received his word were
baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three
thousand souls. So we see that the Lord gives
us this gospel, and this is what we have. This is what he's given
to us to preach to the people, to feed the church, and this
is that little tiny seed that he's going to use to cause to
go out to the hearts of his people. to declare that we ourselves
are ruined, we fell in the fall, we can't save ourselves. God
has shown us that we're weak and we're insufficient and unable
to earn his favor, unable to look to him with our works and
receive a smile from our God. He doesn't smile on us or our
works, but in Christ. In Christ. he looks upon us and
he smiles and he's kind and he calls us giving us faith and
hope in him to see to behold that this one the Lord Jesus
Christ was sent of God into this world as the Lamb of God, to
be the righteousness, to be the forgiveness, to be the hope of
the people that He came and did all that was necessary, everything
that was necessary, everything that we failed and could not
do, Christ did. He accomplished it so that He
Himself is our righteousness and that He Himself willingly
and all that goodness and all that perfection, He said, Father,
Give me their debt. I'll pay their debt. They can't
pay it. Put it on me." And he, in perfect
righteousness and holiness, the Father laid the sin of the people
on him and he bore that wrath and the anger of God and the
condemnation that was our just due, God poured it out upon him. swallowed up the wrath of God
for his people. He bore all that wrath and paid
the price in full with his own blood so that now we are the
purchased possession of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are redeemed
by his blood. And He makes reconciliation for
us. He made atonement for us so that
now God is no longer angry with us and frowning upon us, but
now He smiles upon us. And the Lord Jesus Christ, and
He blesses us and gives us all these sweet blessings such as
faith and hope and love and gentleness and temperance and kindness for
one another and to rejoice in Him. And He's done all that.
He's done all that work so that now we're not even left in darkness,
these things, but it pleases Him to bring us into the light
of these things, to make known to us what He's accomplished
for us. so that we are regenerated by His Spirit, that we might
know and understand the things which God has done for us in
His Son, Jesus Christ. So, we see how He's done all
this work, and then, through that Gospel, through that gospel,
through that hope, the Lord added to the church daily, such as
should be saved. He does all that work, and that's
what He does, so that Christ is our confidence, and to stay
right there preaching the Lord Jesus Christ, preaching that
gospel, dispensing that precious seed. That's the hope of every
believer. As Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation,
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it's written, the just
shall live by faith. So we're not ashamed of that.
Others may mock us and say that's silly, that God can't save that
way. Oh yes he can, and he has, and
he does, and he's worked in the hearts of his people so that
there is our hope fixed in what Christ has done. All right now. Finally, let's look at this mixed
multitude. You know, the world receives
a tremendous benefit by us being here. Not that they are shown
grace. The people of God are shown grace.
and there's a benefit to them because the Lord didn't destroy
this earth. If there was no people here, if there was no one that
he loves, that he is determined to save, this world would already
be ended. He's doing a short work and when
he's done, that work of him gathering in all the lost sheep of his,
then this work will be wrapped up and folded up, and that'll
be the end of it. He'll destroy it, and that'll
be the end of it. As Peter says, the Lord's not
slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness,
but as longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any of us should
perish, but that all of us should come to repentance. He's gonna
bring us all to repentance from dead works to trust in the faithful,
wonderful, glorious works of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's gonna
cause us to rest And now it says of this kingdom in verse 32,
But when it is sown, it groweth up and becometh greater than
all herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the fowls of
the air may lodge under the shadow of it. What we're seeing here,
all these fowls of the air that lodge under the shadow of it,
is that many will come into this kingdom. Many come to this kingdom
here on earth, into the local assemblies. There are goats among
sheep, and there's vile among the precious, and there's unclean
among the clean, and there's tares among the weak, but it's
not our job. The Lord doesn't call us to figure
that out and to root out those that we think maybe don't believe
as they ought to, because you know what we would do? We drive
out those that are precious. We drive out the humble brother
and sister and we'd be left with a bunch of Pharisees, which obviously
we would be too, but we wouldn't do that which is right, but the
Lord, he takes those that are weak and those that are despised
in the world, right? Didn't Paul say, not many wise,
not many... I forget how he worded it, but
in 1 Corinthians 1 there where he says, it's not many great
people, there's not many mighty, there's not many wise that the
Lord calls, but a lot of us We don't have it together, and yet
the Lord is pleased to gather us together, and we don't despise
that, and we're thankful for that because we know He's made
us honest with ourselves that, yeah, there really isn't anything
great about me that the Lord should love. We're thankful for
that. And then it says in Mark 4.33,
And with many such parables spake he the word unto them as they
were able to hear it. And isn't that another sweet
view of our Savior that he doesn't overwhelm us, he doesn't overrun
us with these truths and shove them down our throat, but through
patience, repeating this truth, causing us to hear the gospel
over and over again. He just sweetly sinks it into
our heart and causes us to hear his word and to just grow in
him. He's so patient with us. He's so gentle and so patient. We don't have to rush. He's not
rushing with us. There's a diligence that he creates
in us, but We see how the Lord is very patient and gentle with
his people. And he provides for us, to strengthen
us and teach us. He says in Jeremiah 3.15, I will
give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you
with knowledge and understanding. So he teaches us and gives us
an understanding. And then it says in verse 34,
But without a parable spake he not unto them, and when they
were alone he expounded all things to his disciples." So our Lord
is still teaching his people. He's still sending out this same
gospel, and that's how he's instructing us and teaching us and growing
his church and settling us in the Lord Jesus Christ so that
as it pleases him daily, such as should be saved are the ones
that are being saved. And it's a patient work. It's
his work. And so remember these parables. Think on these parables and what
the Lord has shown us that it's a work that he must do. He's
got to work it in the heart. And remember what we saw last
week, just how it's imperceptible to our eyes so often. We don't
even know when it began or how the Lord does it, but He does
it. And so don't despise the day
of small things that we see here among us in this little group.
Know that He's teaching us. He's called us and gathered us
together for this thing and be patient as the Lord is patient
with us and trust that He's grown. We don't see it. It's imperceptible
to our eye, He's working that faith in our hearts. He's teaching
each of us, you and me, and causing us just to behold the wonders
of our God and to rejoice in His work. Let's close with Isaiah
56. Isaiah 56, and we'll look at
verse 6 through 8. I just want us to rejoice in
what the Lord has done here among us. his people, you know, just
be glad in what he's done and what he is doing and trust him
that he's doing the work and will do it. And it says in Isaiah
56 verse 6, also the sons of the stranger that join themselves
to the Lord to serve him and to love the name of the Lord
to be his servants, everyone that keepeth the Sabbath from
polluting it and taketh hold of my covenant. We know that
the Sabbath is Christ and we take hold of the covenant by
faith because the covenant is Christ given to the people for
a covenant as he says in another scripture in Isaiah but it's
Christ is given to us and that's what we're laying hold of. He's
the Sabbath. He's the rest. He's the covenant
given to the people. That is our assurance that God
has forgiven us and put away our sins forever. Even then,
verse 7, will I bring to my holy mountain, that is Mount Zion,
not Mount Sinai, but to his holy mountain, Mount Zion. and make them joyful in my house
of prayer, their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be
accepted upon mine altar." Christ is the sacrifice and Christ is
the altar. He's everything to the believer. For mine house
shall be called, for mine house shall be called the house of
prayer for all people. The Lord God, which gathereth
the outcasts of Israel, saith, yet will I gather others to him,
beside those that are gathered unto him. So he's the Lord and
he's established his kingdom and is establishing it. And he's
assured us that though it's a small thing, though it's a tiny thing,
the Lord is the one growing it. And he did grow it, right? There's
only three of you here, you know, meeting initially together and
the Lord is popped it out and grew it out and brought it past
her and is gathering his people. Trust him. It may be a small
thing, but that's how he began it in the beginning, and he promises
to grow it out and to establish his kingdom in the earth. So
just trust him and rejoice in his work and be thankful, brethren.
Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
that the work is not ours, Lord, not by our strength, not by our
might, but by your spirit, Lord. And Lord, we look to you and
trust that as you've worked faith and hope and love in our hearts,
Lord, that it's your work. That's not a work of this flesh,
but your work. And Lord, even as you've started
this work in our hearts, Lord, we ask that you would Bless these
eyes to behold and to see your kingdom established and grown
even in this part of the world, in Missouri. Lord, we pray this,
just rejoicing what Christ has done for us and saving us from
our sins, unworthy sinners. But Lord, gather in your people,
bring the sinners here that they may hear the good news and rejoice
in what Christ has done. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.