Turn with me back to Mark chapter
4. Mark chapter 4, let's read this
parable again. Verse 30 says, and he 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. 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. And with many such parables spake
he the word unto them as they were able to hear it. But without
a parable spake he not unto them, and when they were alone, he
expounded all things to his disciples." This is the fourth parable that
our Lord has given in this chapter. And this is what the parable
is about. It's about rest in Christ. That's what it's about. I would love for us to all walk
out of here resting in Christ. I want us to all understand the
fact that we are safe. We're safe. We're absolutely
safe. Rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the big picture of these
four parables. Our Lord gave four parables in
this chapter. He described the life experience
of a believer in these four parables. He didn't just give one and then
just give another one. He was saying something with
all of them. And He described the life experience of a believer. in what our Lord has done to
us and for us. Our Lord's first parable was
on ground made ready, wasn't it? Ground made ready. Ground that had been broken,
tilled, stones cast out, thorns ripped out. That's what happened
to us. We were made ready. God made
us ready. What did he make us ready for?
He made us ready to hear the gospel. His second parable was
on lifting the candle up. A candlestick and a candle. And
that candle is Christ and it's His message. The ministry of
declaring the gospel. That's what we're here for. We're
here to declare the gospel. That's how life and faith comes
to a child of God. God broke us. He broke us and
then He made us ready. And He crossed our path with
the Gospel. He opened our ears. He dug it out. He made us ready
to hear. And through the hearing of the
Gospel, a seed was planted. That's how a seed becomes planted.
In the soil that's made ready. And the watering of the Word.
We come back and we open up this same Word. The same Gospel that
opened our eyes is the same Gospel that Feeds us every time. One message, right? Same one. And through that life-giving
message, our Lord described in His third parable, growth in
grace. He made us ready. And then He
planted that seed through here in the gospel. And then He sends
His Spirit and He blesses that and He waters it. And He feeds
it and He causes growth in grace, that seed, which is Christ being
formed in us, Christ in us, our decreasing and his increasing. And that's a life of a believer.
We just said a minute ago from the day we're born, it's all
about me until God says I am. And then it's all about him.
And the rest of our days, it's about us decreasing and him increasing. growth in grace, and what that
produces, the end result of that is our Lord's fourth parable,
rest in Christ. For those of us that he's tilled,
planted a seed in, caused it to grow, We can spend the rest
of our life on this earth and we can spend all of eternity
resting in Christ, trusting Christ, true, true rest in Him. Verse 30 says, And He said, Whereunto
shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison
shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard
seed. That's what he said it's like.
It's like the grain of a mustard seed. Now, our Lord used the
illustration of a mustard seed on two different occasions. This
one right here, and this occasion is recorded in Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. Same occasion, three different
times. And on another occasion, which is recorded in Matthew
and Luke, go with me over to Matthew 17, and we're going to
read the other one. Now right here, the disciples
could not cast a devil out of a man. They tried. This man's
father brought his son, who had a devil in him, to the disciples.
They couldn't cast him out. Verse 17, Matthew 17, verse 17. 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? And 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. Now that ought to strike a chord
with us. If we enter into what our Lord just said, that ought to do something. He'd
given them this ability, didn't he? He gave them an ability. And they came and said, why couldn't
we do it? He said, it was because of your unbelief. That's why. Verse 19, then came the disciples
to Jesus apart and said, why could not we cast him out? And
Jesus said unto them, because of your unbelief. For verily
I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you
shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place,
and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you."
Faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it is. They could
not do this because they were looking to themselves for the
ability. And we say it over and over again.
That's the first thing we run to is myself. Okay, I'm in a
situation. What's the answer? That's not
it. That's not it. They were not
looking to Christ. What our Lord is going to teach
every single child of God is this. There is no power. There is no ability. There's no life, there's no authority,
there's no salvation outside of Christ. Outside of Christ,
nothing outside of Christ. Our Lord used the illustration
of a mustard seed to describe faith in Christ and He used it
to describe Christ, Christ Himself. It's all Christ. Now go with
me to Matthew chapter 13. This is the same account as our
text, alright, the same parable as our text. Matthew 13, look at 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. A mustard
seed is a little bit bigger than a 32nd of an inch. That's how big a mustard seed
is, tiny. Our Lord said, the least of all seeds. But when
it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs. It's an herb. We have herb gardens. And he
said it becomes a tree. I googled it and I saw a picture
of a mustard herb. I saw a bunch of them and they
range in height, but I saw some of them that were between 30
and 40 feet tall. It looks like a tree. Huge trunk,
branches, huge tree, massive, a great tree. I've never seen
an herb like this in all my life. Massive. Now here's the truth
concerning our Lord. Here's the truth. This great
God of heaven, He humbled himself more than any man. How can you
describe God? How can you describe God? The
heavens and the heavens of heavens can't contain him. But he humbled
himself more than any man. He made himself to be the least,
didn't he? The least. He said whoever does
that is the greatest in heaven. He's the greatest in heaven.
He made himself to be the least. He went all the way to the lowest
part of the earth. He made himself to be the least
esteemed. He allowed himself to be put
in the position where the whole world would cry, crucify him. He had to allow himself to be
put in that position. on purpose. He had to make that
happen. This is God. No man has ever
been or will ever be as despised as he was. He made himself to
be the most despised man on earth. Isn't that something? No man
will ever be as rejected as he was. No man. But here's the truth concerning
our Lord. The stone which the builder set it not has become
the head of the corner. The head of the corner. He made
himself to be a root at a dry ground and then through his victory,
through his victory over death, he's become the righteous branch. He made himself to be a little
root at a dry ground. But now he has become the righteous
branch. He truly is highly exalted. We keep saying it over and over.
He's highly exalted. He truly is. Highly exalted. His name truly is above every
name. And this is what he has to say
to every sinner that he made ready to hear this glorious news
of grace. He says, you come to me. And I'll give you rest. I'll
give you rest. You come right here and you rest
on the righteous branch. Here's the illustration our Lord
has given. He is a great tree with great branches and leaves
in this canopy. And he said the birds can come
right inside this tree. You can come all the way inside
and they can just land right there on that branch and rest. Rest. Come right in here and
rest. I will uphold you. I will. I will cover you. I will. I'll be your shield, I'll be
your shade, you bring your young and they'll be safe. They'll
be safe. Now go with me back to Mark chapter
4. Verse 30, He said, Where unto
shall we like in 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. Thank God he was sown in the
earth. Thank God he was sown in the
earth. Because verse 32 says, 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. Now go with me to Psalm 91. Psalm 91. I pray the Lord will
let us enter into this. This is what I wanted to get
to. I have needed this. I've needed
this so badly. The Lord has comforted my soul
through this. And my prayer is that he will
comfort yours through this. I have frailties. I have weakness. I have sin. doubt and fear. I have been called to be a preacher
of God's truth at a time when there is some political unrest. What's going to happen? What's
going to come of this place? And I worry about it. I worry
about my family. We have story after story after
story of men who endured things for the truth's sake, don't we?
Real things happen. And we can look back and say
it was for the gospel sake. And I'm so glad. But this flesh
says, now wait a minute. Wait just a minute. We're talking
about me now. You understand where I'm going
with this? Now look right here at Psalm
91 with me. Psalm 91 says, He that dwelleth in the secret place
of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He that's dwelling inside this
righteous branch, inside this great tree that was sown into
the earth and did all His work for you. He that's right up inside
there, up under that big canopy, shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. Verse 2, I will say of the Lord,
He is my refuge. Not the next president. He is
my refuge and my fortress. My God in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler. and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his
feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall
be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day."
Don't be afraid of it. Don't be afraid of it. Hold your
place right there and turn with me over to 2 Chronicles 20. 2
Chronicles 20. Verse 1 says, It came to pass after this also
that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with
them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle."
They're coming against Israel, God's people. Then there came
some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, there cometh a great multitude
against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria." They're
coming in from Syria. And behold, they be in Hazazon,
Tamar, which is in Gedi. And Jehoshaphat feared and set
himself to seek the Lord and proclaim a fast throughout all
Judah. And Judah gathered themselves
together to ask help of the Lord. Even out of all the cities of
Judah, they came to seek the Lord. That's what they did. And
Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem. in the
house of the Lord before the new court, and said, O Lord God
of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven, and rulest not
thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thine hand
is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand
thee? Art not thou our God, who didst
drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel,
and gave it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever? And they
dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for
thy name, saying, If when evil cometh upon us as the sword,
judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and
in thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and cry unto
thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help. And
now behold the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom
thou wouldest not let Israel invade when they came out of
the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and destroyed them
not. Behold, I say, how they reward us to come to cast us
out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit.
So he said, these three countries that you would not let us go
take have turned on us. All three of them, they're all
coming together against us to kill us and take this land. Verse
12, O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might
against this great company that cometh against us. Neither know
we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. I don't have any idea
what to do. So we're just going to look to
you. We'll just wait on you. And all Judah stood before the
Lord with their little ones, their wives and their children.
Then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah,
the son of Jeiel, the son of Madaniah, a Levite of the sons
of Asaph, came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the
congregation. God came down to this man. And he said, Hearken
ye all Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, And thou, King
Jehoshaphat, thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed
by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours,
but God's. Tomorrow go ye down against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz, and you shall find them at the end of the brook before
the wilderness of Jeruel. You shall not need to fight in
this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still
and see the salvation of the Lord with you. Don't you love
it when God's men say that? Just stand still. You're going
to see the salvation of the Lord. You're my people. I did all this
for you. I put you in this great tree. See the salvation of the Lord
with you, O Judah in Jerusalem. Fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow
go out against them, for the Lord will be with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites of the children
of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korites stood
up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. When they heard the gospel, oh
man, they praised God. And they rose early in the morning
and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went forth,
Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God. so shall you be
established. Believe His prophets, so shall
ye prosper. And when He had consulted with
the people, He appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should
praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army,
and to say, Praise the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever.
Jehoshaphat said, I tell you what, let's have all the singers
get in front of the swords, And let's let the front line sing,
praise the Lord. The battle's not ours, but his.
Verse 22, and when they began to sing and to praise the Lord,
and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon,
Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah, and they
were smitten. For the children of Ammon and
Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir utterly to slay
and destroy them. And when they had made an end
of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy one another.
They all came at three different sides and they didn't know who
they were fighting. And they all started fighting each other.
Verse 24, and when Judah came toward the watchtower in the
wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and behold, they
were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped. And
when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of
them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the
dead bodies and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves
more than they could carry away. And they were three days in gathering
of the spoil. It was so much. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. The battle is not ours. He said,
if my people were of this earth, they would fight. But the battle's
over. There's nothing to fight. Yeah,
but the world says. You see, I pay for cable and
the news says. Yeah, well, God said. Rest. Rest. Rest. You're safe. All the faith that
we really do have is the grain of a mustard seed. It's about
all we have. Take that grain and put it in
Christ. Because you're safe. Look back
at Psalm 91. I'll be quick. Psalm 91. Verse 5, Thou shalt not be afraid
for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by
day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for
the destruction that wasteth at noonday. God sent all those
plagues to Egypt. All those plagues. He sent pestilence.
He sent darkness. It did not come nigh Israel.
God said all the cattle of Egypt are going to die. Not one cow
fell of an Israelite. He sent darkness to the point
where they could not move from the place they sat for three
days. Every Israelite had light in his tent, every single one.
Verse 7, A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand
at thy right hand, but it shall not come thy knee. Does that
mean it might not come nigh thee? Verse 8, only with thine eye
shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. God led
Israel out across the Red Sea. You know how fearful they were?
They got this army behind us and this obstacle in front of
us. As soon as they made it across, boom, and they saw all these
dead bodies float up to the shore. Verse 9, because thou hast made
the Lord which is my refuge, even the most high thy habitation,
because you're sitting up there on that righteous branch. There
shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy
dwelling. For he shall give his angels
charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. Not only do
our guardian angels behold the face of the Father, isn't that
what he said? They're always beholding. You be careful lest
you offend one of these little ones. Their angels are always
looking right into my face. Not only do they behold the face
of the Father, But Psalm 34 verse 7 says, and I'll just read it
to you. Psalm 34 verse 7 says, The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear Him and delivereth them. God Himself
is camped around His people. This has always been one of my
favorite verses. This is Psalm 125. They that trust in the Lord
shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth
forever. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth
even forever." God Himself, I said, I'm going to camp around you. I'm going to camp around you,
the Lord Himself. You perch up on that righteous
branch and then you rest there. You just rest there, you're safe.
You're safe. Isaiah said in that day there
shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for a sign. A sign of the people. To it shall
the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious. It's going
to be a glorious rest. Oh, it's going to be so glorious.
We're afraid, we're afraid, we're afraid. Stand still, you're going
to see it. You're going to see and it's going to be glorious. Can you imagine the Jehoshaphat
and all the children of Israel? They were ready to fight. They
believed. Help my unbelief. And then they
get out there and there's all those three days. Not only did
they not have to fight, God made them rich through it. They couldn't
carry it all the way. Adam and Eve, they were banished
from the garden. spiritually separated from God
because they laid hold on a tree that they were not supposed to
lay hold on. God said, there's a tree of life. There's a tree
of life. You lay hold on that tree. You'll
live forever. But they laid hold on the knowledge
of good and evil. The law. They tried to mix the
law with grace. They tried to mix works and grace. And when they did that, they
learned the life damning lesson that you cannot mix anything
with Christ. Either we're going to trust Christ
and only Christ and all of our hope is going to be in Christ
alone or nothing at all. It's Christ alone or nothing
at all. You cannot add anything to the
grace of Christ. So run to grace and then rest. Run to the Lord Jesus Christ,
the tree of life, that mustard seed tree. You run to the tree
of life and then you rest. There's nothing to do. What are
we going to do about all this? Nothing to do. Salvation, there's
nothing to do. There's nothing to do in anything. There's nothing to do. Lord,
we're going to look to you. Thy name is in this house. So
we're going to look to you, and then we're going to rest. And
I'll close back in Mark chapter 4. Verse 33 says, With many such parables spake
he the word unto them as they were able to hear it. As they were able to hear it.
He that hath ears to hear Let him hear. If God's given you
ears to hear, then you hear this. Rest in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just rest. Just take a sigh of relief. It's
fine. It's all fine. All right, let's
stand together.