Open with me back to Mark chapter
4. Mark 4. Our Lord has given us
another earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Another parable. And the theme of our Lord's parable
is the title of this message. What is true growth in grace? What is true growth in grace? Growth in grace sounds wonderful,
doesn't it? Sounds wonderful. Growth in grace. Would we not love for it to be
said about us that we've grown in grace? grown in grace, truly. What is true growth in grace? Our Lord tells us right here
in these four verses, this parable. Verse 26, He said, So is the
kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground and
should sleep and rise night and day. And the seed should spring
and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth
fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, after that the
full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought
forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest
is come." Now this is a story. Our Lord gave a story. parable. And what I want to do is begin
by looking at the characters in his parable. He's given these
different characters to his story. Verse 26, he said, so is the
kingdom of God as if a man. He started it with a man. And
verse 27 says, this man should sleep and rise night and day,
and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how."
That is not the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not Christ. Turn with
me over to Psalm 121. Psalm 121 verse 2 says, My help
cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth. He will not
suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. Will not do it. In our parable,
the man would sleep and rise night and day, night and day,
sleep and rise. And it said he knew not how the
seed grew. That's not the Lord Jesus Christ.
Turn over to John 21. John 21 verse 17 says, He saith
unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he
said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto
him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
You know. Over and over in this word it
says, Jesus knowing all things. Knowing their hearts, knowing
all things. There is not one thing he does
not know. Is that not amazing? There is
not one thing he does not know. Not one surprise to him. The
reason is because He purposed and decreed all things. Every
single thing. What we think are the good things,
what we think are the bad things. He purposed and decreed every
one of them. He made, He created all things. He orders, He controls all things. Let me ask you a question. Are
we safe? Whose hands are we in? God Almighty's
or ISIS's? Whose hands are we in? He orders. He controls all things. All things. So the man in our parable is
not the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you who he is. He's the
preacher. He's just sowing seed. He goes to sleep and he gets
up and he sows more seed. The vessel chosen to spread seed. Back over in Mark chapter 4,
verse 26 says, And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if
a man should cast seed. Now who is that seed? We know who it is, don't we?
We know who it is, but let's prove it anyway. Okay, let's
prove it. Go with me to Genesis 15. Genesis
15 verse 18 says, In the same day, the Lord made
a covenant with Abraham, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this
land. Unto thy seed. Chapter 17, verse
7 says, And I will establish my covenant between me and thee,
and thy seed after thee in their generations. for an everlasting
covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee."
God made a covenant with this seed, the seed of Abraham. Every child of Abraham, did God
make a covenant with every child of Abraham? No. Turn to Romans
9. Romans 9, look at verse 6. Not as though the word of God
hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are
of Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God. But the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. So this promise didn't
go to every person in the world. It went to a chosen people. This chosen seed. Go with me now over to Galatians
3. Verse 16 says, Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. Christ. All of God's promises are to
Christ. All of God's promises are in
Christ. Look right here at Galatians
3 verse 29. It says, And if ye be Christ's, then are you Abraham's
seed. And it is according to the promise.
See, I wasn't born in Israel. I cannot trace my lineage back
to Abraham. And if you're Christ's, then
you're Abraham's seed. Go with me to 1 Peter chapter
1. 1 Peter 1 verse 23 says, Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. This seed is the incorruptible
seed. The incorruptible seed, Christ
himself. God has raised up a sower. To
sow incorruptible seed. And I can't enter into that. Think about that. Not just seed.
Incorruptible seed. Incorruptible seed. Seed that
will not return void. I love knowing that. I thought
about a sower. I was thinking about all this.
Thinking about a sower sowing seed. It didn't matter if he
was sick that day. and didn't feel good and didn't
feel like he got a good throw. It's not about his throw, is
it? It's about the seed. It's about this incorruptible.
He said it's not going to return void. He said it will accomplish
what I sent it to do and he said it will prosper. It's going to
prosper. That's the promise of this seed.
Now go with me back to Mark 4. Verse 26, he said, so is the
kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground. Now the first parable we had
in this chapter, the parable of the sower. In that parable,
we had a sower. We had seed and we had ground,
right? Just like this one. When I first
looked at this, I thought that's a repeat of the first one. It's
not. It's not. The parable of the
sower is all about the ground. Ground made ready. You and me. This parable is all about the
seed. It's all about the seed. So we
have God's preacher, we have Christ the incorruptible seed,
and we have sinners made ready. Now how does that produce growth
in grace? It all starts here. Before any
growth can take place, before any growth can take place, think
about seed going into a ground. Before any growth can take place,
life must be given. Life must be given. It has to
start there. Life must be given to dead ground. Verse 26, He said, So is the
kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and
should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring
and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth
fruit of herself. Now this is important. Of herself does not mean by way
of herself. It means out of herself. It's
going to come up out of this ground. That dead earth is just
the vessel. That's all it is. Think about
a real seed. Think about planting a garden. That dead earth, the
life is in the seed. The life is in the seed. Even
science knows that. The life is in the seed. If you
don't plant a seed, no fruit will come up. Don't go out into
the ground and say, I'm waiting on a tomato plant to spring up.
It's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen.
The life is in the seed. Totally in the seed. Life comes
by the water of God. Didn't he call this the water
of the Word? Life comes by the Son of God. That's how life grows. That's how something grows and
springs up. But let me show you what our
Lord said in John 12. Go with me over to John 12. John 12 verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Much fruit. Do we see the parable? If it die, if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. Our Lord came down. The incorruptible seed came down
in the likeness of sinful flesh, came into sinful flesh. Earthly clay, from dust we came,
to dust we're going to return. that were dust. He knows we're
dust. But God was manifest in the flesh
and this incorruptible seed made himself to fall into the ground
and die. And through that death, life
has been given. Life, fruit has sprung up. That's
where it all begins. It's all about this seed. And
if a seed does not go into that earth and die, no life will be
given to that ground. Now, here we are, okay? Here
we are. Through His death, made alive. We're alive. We are alive. But no growth in grace will occur. We are alive. OK, we're alive. But we will never grow in grace. Until we understand this right
here. We'll never grow in grace until we get a hold of this right
here, until we cling to this right here and look to this right
here. It's in Galatians 2. We are alive, but we will never grow in grace
until this sinks in. Galatians 2 verse 20 says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I. Yet not I. You see, I'm the earth. I'm the earth. Did I ever forget
that? I'm the earth. Earthy. There is no life in the
earth. The life is in the seed. The life is in the seed. Paul said in verse 20, I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in thee flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. I don't frustrate the grace of
God. Well, I'm looking to myself for
growth, but I'm not seeing it. I'm just getting so frustrated.
Well, then I'm looking to the wrong place. I'm looking to the
wrong place. The life is not in the earth.
The life is in the seed. This plant that our Lord describes
in his parable, that's not us. That's not us. When I started
studying this, I thought, OK, that's us. And I got to do this
and then I got to do this and then I got to do that's not us.
That is Christ in us. That's Christ in us. What he
said in our parable was the seed will spring and grow up. First the blade, then the ear,
after that the full corn in the ear. How does a sinner that God
has made to be alive grow in grace? He remembers, he's the
ground. He's just the ground. It's always
in the front of his mind, just the ground. Ground that he made
ready, that's all I am. He stays low. He stays flat on
his face at the feet of Christ and Christ springs up. Christ
springs up. God's gift, God's grace springs
up. The lower that a sinner becomes
in self, in mind, in heart, the lower a sinner becomes, the more
clearly Christ is seen. That's what it is. The more clearly
Christ... The flesh is brought down and
you see that blade of the seed. And then the flesh is brought
down and you see the ear of the seed. And then the flesh is brought
down and you see the whole corn in the ear of the seed. Growth
in grace is a continual movement downward. That's what it is.
It's a continual movement downward until God finally causes this
flesh to truly lie prostrate at his feet. That means flat
on your face, prostrate at his feet. That's when the fruit of
Christ is truly lifted up. Growth in grace is when a sinner
puts himself in the dirt and gives all the glory to Christ. Every ounce of the glory to Christ.
It's the old man bowing to the new man. That's what it is. If
you see grace in a sinner, in a believer, in a child of God,
somebody that has been given life, life must be given first. But if you see grace in that
center, what you're seeing is Christ. You're seeing Christ. You see goodness, you see kindness,
love, all those things. What you're seeing is Christ. God has made that center lay
down and Christ is springing forth. And you fall in love with
that center because you love Christ and you see Christ. That's
what causes us to love each other. We see Christ. God's operation
on a sinner. He performs this operation on
a sinner. God's operation on a sinner is not just a reformation. It's a brand new creation. That's
what it is, a brand new creature. We don't just become reformed.
He does not just make that old man better. He puts a brand new
man in there. Christ in us. Christ in us. Look with me over at Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians 1 verse 25. whereof I am made a minister
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in
you. That's the hope of glory. That's
the hope of glory. Christ in you. When a mother
is pregnant, a mother is pregnant, something
starts growing in her belly and you can see it happening. You
can see growth there. Right? She's growing. She doesn't
want to hear that, but she's growing. I see it. I see growth
there. That is not just a reform. That's not just a change in her. That's a new creation. That's
a brand new creation. Our Lord told Isaac's wife, Rebekah,
He said, two nations are in thy womb, two manner of people. One shall be stronger than the
other. Who is it? Who's going to be
stronger than the other? He said, the elder shall serve
the younger. The elder is this flesh. I've had this flesh since day
one. This is the elder in me. Christ
in me is the younger, that new man, that new creation, that
end time God put in there. And here's the promise of God
to us. The elder in you is going to serve the younger in you. I love that. That flesh is going
to serve Christ. He will bow down. He will. I will make you grow in grace
by making that old man bow down, lay down to that brand new man. Go with me one more time back
to the text. Mark 4 verse 26, He said, So
is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the
ground and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should
spring and grow up, he knoweth not how, for the earth bringeth
forth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, after
that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought
forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest
is come." That sower who's throwing that seed, he goes to sleep,
he rises night and day, he does not know how it grows. Salvation is not in the preacher.
You sling that seed out there, I have no idea where the seed's
going to fall, what kind of ground it's going to fall on, whether
God is going to make it to grow. I don't know what he's going
to do with it. All we do is sling that seed. But Christ is in us. If we're ground made ready, Christ
is in us. And he said in verse 29, When
the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because
the harvest is come. When that day comes for God to
gather up all of his fruit, what's going to make me worthy to be
gathered together with the fruit of his saints? The seed in me. The only reason I'm going to
get to go is because His seed remaineth in me. That's the whole
reason. It's all about the seed. It's not about my decision. It's
not about my reform. It's not about anything but that
seed. We're going to get to go because that seed remains in
us. And when the harvest has come,
we're all going to come in rejoicing. bringing in the sheaves. We're
going to be gathered with all of his fruit. And it's all because
that seed came down, fell into this ground, died, gave life,
and sprung up. Just all because of that seed.
So here's our prayer. Lord, make it to grow. Plant
the seed, make it to grow. We bow to you. All right, let's
stand together.