Matthew chapter 13. We've been looking at the parables in this chapter. We looked at the parable of the
sower. who went forth to sow. And we
saw four types of hearers, four types of soil. And then we looked at the parable
of the tare and the wheat. There's always tares among the
wheat. You know, one of the sobering
things about the parable of the sower, I was listening to a message
on this last week again. And the person I was listening
to pointed out, he said, you know, only one out of the four
was good ground. And he said, well, if you take
that as a ratio, only a fourth of the congregation believe the
gospel. That's sobering, isn't it? That's a sobering thought. But here, We're going to look
at a parable, a couple of parables, maybe even three or four, depends
on how far I get. In verse 31, it says, 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, a very small, very small seed, a mustard seed. But when it is grown, it is the
greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of
the air come and lodge, they find refuge in its branches."
He speaks here of the Kingdom of Heaven, There is a kingdom,
a very real kingdom that's not of this world. It's the kingdom of heaven. It's
a spiritual kingdom. Our Lord said one time, the kingdom
of heaven cometh not with observation. It is a spiritual kingdom and
it's called the kingdom of heaven. And that is the kingdom you and
I as the church, as believers, that is the kingdom we are interested
in. That is the kingdom that's going
to last. There is an end to the kingdom
of men. I'm not going to let myself get
overly upset and excited over the kingdom of men. But I am
going to let myself get excited over the kingdom of God. That's
the kingdom I belong to. That's the kingdom that's going
to last, is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven is spoken
of 32 times in the gospel of Matthew. The kingdom of heaven
is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and His church. where
the gospel is preached and God has established a church in a
community among a people, the kingdom of heaven is among that
people. The kingdom of heaven is among
Spring Lake. It's here in Spring Lake. The
kingdom of heaven is in Spring Lake. The gospel is here. And there's a church established
here, and it means this, the kingdom of heaven is here. It's
here. And as long as the Lord's church
and the gospel is in this place, then the kingdom of heaven is
in this place. Now if it's removed, if God removes
it someday, then the kingdom of heaven has been removed from
this place. Now, the kingdom of heaven has
a king. It has a King. Jesus Christ is
Lord and King of the Kingdom of Heaven. He is the Lord. He
is the King. And we, as believers, are His
devoted subjects. And that makes me happy. I thank
God we have a King. We have a King, we have a just
King. We have a merciful King. But we have a king and we love
our king. Do we not love our king? Long live the king. That's what
they would say in England. Long live the king. Well, our
king is eternal life. He's not just gonna live a long
time. He is life. Our king is life. and we love
our King, and we trust His wisdom and judgment, we don't call into question the
judgments or the wisdom of our King, because He is the wisdom
of God. Our King, listen now, our King
is the wisdom of God. He's not just a wise king. Solomon
was a wise king. David was a wise king. But David
and Solomon were not the wisdom of God. Jesus Christ is the embodiment
of wisdom. That's who Jesus Christ is. He's the embodiment of wisdom.
He's the embodiment of truth. He's the embodiment of grace.
These did not just come by Him. He is these things. And He's
these things to us. We trust our king. We trust his
judgments. We trust his wisdom. We don't
need to vote. We just need to trust. I'm not
going to vote on what he thinks about it. No, I'm going to trust
him. I'm going to trust him. I'm not
going to cast a vote. I'm going to trust him. I cast
a vote for people I don't trust. You know, if this guy gets in
office and he's not very good, let's vote him out, right? Just
vote him out of there if he's not a good, Representative, get
him out. We don't vote on Jesus Christ.
He's Lord. He's God. And it's his kingdom. And he's infinitely wise. He's
infinitely just. He's infinitely merciful. And
we love our king. We love our king. And this kingdom
that's of God is a blood-bought kingdom. It's a blood-bought,
blood-purchased kingdom. It's His because He's Lord. He created it, but it's His also
because He purchased it. Every subject of His in this
kingdom has been purchased by His blood. They've been purchased
by His blood. And it's a kingdom of grace. It is a kingdom of righteousness.
It is a kingdom of glory. I can't put that into words.
I can't put that into words. And it's also a kingdom of love.
Love is the rule of life in His kingdom. Love is the rule of
life. Paul said, it's the love of Christ. that constrains me. It's not
ten commandments hanging on a wall that constrains me now. Not the
believer. It's not a system of rules and
regulations that constrains us. It's love. It's the love of Christ
that constrains us. We love our Master. We love our
Lord. We don't want to do anything
that brings reproach on His name. Believers don't do what they
do because they're afraid that God's going to take it out the
front door in a casket. They do what they do because
they love Jesus Christ. Love is the rule of their life. And that's how you and I deal
with each other, is in love. It's in love. Now, the one thing I want us
to see here, and I'll probably only end up dealing with a couple
of these, is the consuming nature of Christ and the gospel. Now, the original title here
I had was The Progress of the Gospel, but this morning, looking
at this, I realized the very consuming nature of Christ and the gospel when
it comes to you. When it comes to you, it takes
you over. Jesus Christ is just not a part
of the package deal of this life. He's not an insurance policy.
Jesus Christ absolutely comes in and takes over. The stronger
man, as we saw earlier, comes in and takes over the house. And I say this, Lord, take me
over. Own me. Own me. Take me over. I don't know anyone
wiser to trust myself to than Him. There's no one who has more
power to subdue indwelling sin and Satan than Jesus Christ. He has the power to do it. Now it says here, It says, another parable put
he forth to them, verse 31, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like
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 of herbs and becomes a tree, and so that the
birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. You
know, the gospel has such small beginnings. It has just small beginnings.
Let's think back. We've been going through Genesis.
We've been going through Genesis, so let's think back here a minute. Let's think back to Abraham.
God called one man named Abram. His name was Abram. And God changed
his name to Abraham. Abraham was a pagan. He was an
idle worshiper until God called him, made him a trophy of his
grace, revealed himself to Abraham, sent him out of his own country
and away from his brethren. And then God made a covenant
with Abraham. He said his seed would cover
the earth and he would be the father of the faithful. And then Abraham had a son named
Isaac. Isaac had a son named Jacob,
and Jacob had 12 sons, and one was sold into slavery, Joseph,
and he was sent there by the providence of God into Egypt
to keep Israel alive in the famine. They went in 70 people. They
came out a multitude. They came out a multitude. You
know, the church has had a small beginning, a small beginning,
but I tell you what, when this is over, When this is finally
over, there's going to be a multitude in heaven that's going to sing
His praises. What looks small in its beginning
is going to be great in its end. Now fast forward 2,000 years
in a little town called Bethlehem. A poor carpenter and his wife,
they come into town. They come into town to pay taxes.
And while there, she gives birth to a baby boy. And no one thought
much of this baby boy. A few shepherds, a few wise men,
I mean, a hand, just a handful. That's all. There wasn't a crowd
around that stable. It was just some animals and
a few shepherds and these wise men showed up. Basically, our
Lord came into this world unnoticed. Pretty much unnoticed. He grows
up unnoticed until he's about 33 years old, and when he comes
on the scene to fulfill his ministry and to suffer and die on the
cross as a criminal, you know, if you could go back and look
at the books of the criminals in that day, you know his name
would be written in it. They'd have his name written
down in that book as a criminal. He was numbered with the transgressors. He was numbered. Can you imagine
that? God Almighty came into this world in the flesh and allowed himself to be numbered
with the transgressors. People like me and you. People
like me and you. Our Lord, when He entered into
His ministry, He called 12 apostles. I'll tell you what He called,
12 nobodies. They were called unlearned and
ignorant men. That's what they were called,
unlearned and ignorant men. Fishermen, men of low occupation. Those are the men He called,
and from those twelve men, excluding Judas, the apostle Paul, Saul,
but then changed to Paul, took his place. But with those twelve
apostles, He turned this world upside down.
From that small beginning there in Jerusalem, and those twelve
apostles, The gospel has gone out throughout this world. There's
no place where the gospel is not preached. It's interesting
when I look from time to time on Sermon Audio, they give a
monthly report, the other nations that we preach to, China, North
Korea, There's people in North Korea that listen to the message
that we preach here. There's people in China, Africa,
there's Spain, the UK. I mean, you just, I mean, I can
name, I forget how many, I didn't even count them, but there's
a whole list of them that listen to the gospel. And
that's just me. That's just me. What about all
those others that are on there? The gospel has gone out through
all the world. Henry said one time, he said,
I used to wonder how that's going to happen. How it's going to
happen that the gospel is going to be preached all over the world. And then this thing of the internet
comes along. And you can go on the internet
and you can hear the gospel 24-7. You can listen to the gospel
all day long. And people do. People do. The gospel is being preached
and God is saving, now listen, God is saving and going to save
people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. You know
what He's saying? He said, there's going to be at least one saved
out of every family on this earth. I'm going to save a people. Now,
they may die in infancy. That may be how He say, He may
take them home in infancy, or He may bring them to faith in
time through the preaching of the gospel. But God's going to
save a people out of every family on this earth, every tongue,
every nation. All nations are His. They're
all His. He is made of one blood, all
nations. You know, we have different nationalities,
we have different tongues, different cultures, but there's only one
race, the human race. And God is saving people here
and there, all over this world. It started out so small. Abraham
headed out to the desert. God said, Abraham, leave. God
gives him a promise. God makes a covenant with him.
And that covenant is concerning his seed, which is the Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom all the families of the earth will be
blessed. And there goes Abraham. Then
there comes Isaac. Then there comes Jacob. Then
there comes his 12 sons. Then there's Joseph. Then there's
a multitude. And what this is, is a picture,
this is a picture, this is a type of the church. You go to Jerusalem
and you've got Christ entering into His ministry, you've got
twelve apostles, and now you've got the gospel preached all over
the world. Those little hall meetings in
Jerusalem sprang the gospel of the glory of God and sinners
saved all over this world. And like birds, he says, these
birds represent sinners. These birds represent sinners
finding refuge in Jesus Christ. Now the gospel, I'm going to
do one more parable here. We just spoke of the gospel starting
out just so small, so minute, and it grows into such a great
tree. Don't think the church is weak. She's not. Her Lord is God. Now he speaks
of leaven in verse 33. Another parable spake he unto
them. The kingdom of heaven is likened to leaven which a woman
took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leaven. I'm gonna give you a Webster's what leaven is. He said, leaven
is any substance that causes fermentation. Fermentation is
the state of agitation. I tell you what, if God saves
you, he gonna agitate you. Now that's gonna come in and
cause a problem. He's gonna, you know, you can't have, a dead
person can't be raised to life and not know it. It causes agitation. Listen,
it's a state of unrest. That's what it causes. A state
of unrest. It causes tumult within. Oh, you never had a warfare until
God saved you. You never had a trouble with sin until God
saved you. You never struggled. There was no struggle between
the Spirit and the flesh because you didn't have the Spirit. All
you had was flesh. It causes tumult within. Whatever
it is put into, it causes tumult. Fermentation is an inner activity. It's an inner work. That's what
grace is. It's an inner work. It's an inner activity that promotes
fermentation. It promotes development of growth. All this agitation, all this
tumult, you know what's happening? You're growing. It's causing
growth in grace is what it's causing. It's a development of
growth. It's a catalyst that transforms
something, changing its nature. Now, another parable spake he
forth unto them, the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven.
You see, leaven in the scriptures, often represents evil, it often
represents sin, but not in this parable. Not in this parable. In this parable, it represents
the progress of the gospel, it represents the progress of the
Word of God, it represents the progress of grace in the soul.
That's what it represents, as well as in the church. You see,
it's hid. It's hid. Grace is hid in the
soul by the power of the Spirit of God. It's not something you
can see. It's not something visible. There's
an inner work going on in the believer that you can't see,
but it's there. It's working. It's working. Grace is hid in the soul. The
Word of God is hid in the soul. through the preaching of the
gospel, and once in the soul, it works powerfully." It's transforming. It's changing. He who knows no changes is still
lost. It's changing. It subdues the
will. It enlightens the understanding.
It inspires the soul. It enables you to sing His praises,
which one time meant nothing to you. At one time, God meant
nothing to you. Christ meant nothing to you. Look over in Hebrews 4. Verse 11, it can be, as I said,
likened unto grace in the soul, powerfully at work, but it's
also likened to the Word of God. Here in verse 12, Hebrews 4,
for the Word of God is quick. and powerful and sharper than
a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart." I tell you, if God
sends His Word to you and me in power, it makes a difference. He said to the Thessalonians
that the gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power
and in the Holy Ghost. It's not something you see with
the human eye. It's hid in the inner man. It
works in the heart of those who receive it. It works in the heart
of those to whom it's put. It's put in there. Listen, it
works mysteriously. It works penetrating. It penetrates
the whole lump until the whole lump is leaven. You take a little
leaven, you women know more about this than I do, but you take
just a little leaven, You put it in this meal, this bread,
whatever you're making, and that little bit of leaven just permeates
that whole thing. It permeates that whole thing.
When God saves a sinner, Christ, His Word, His grace permeates
your whole being. It affects the way you think,
it affects the way you talk, it affects the way you walk,
it affects you. You cannot have the gospel, Christ,
grace in you and it not affect everything about you. It affects
the way you see the world. It affects the way you think. Your mind changes from going
after the things of this world to going after Christ. It changes. At first, when you're coming
to this world, you start out with your affections set on these
things. What am I going to eat, drink,
and wear? I mean, that's what your life is set on. The material
things of this life, satisfying your flesh, taking care of yourself,
and then when God saves you, it takes you over and you become
concerned with Him and your relationship to Him. I tell you, this leaven also,
and listen, the thing about leaven, it's a living organism, not an
organization. It's an organism. It's living. It's alive. And it permeates
the very thing it's in. Christ takes over that which
He's in. He takes it over. And not only does it work penetrating
the whole lump, listen, it works gradually. It's not like all
of a sudden everything changed. I mean, things changed drastically,
but... You know, salvation is like this. We are saved by the grace of
God. I have been saved, I'm being saved, and I shall be saved. There's a progress in salvation.
It's like when a baby is born. It's born a baby. It's born a
baby. And as time goes by, it grows,
and it grows, and it grows, and next thing you know, there's
a young man or a young woman. And they've learned some things,
they've been schooled. And that's the progress of grace
in the soul, that's the progress of Christ in you. You grow in
grace and in knowledge of Him, and you become less and less
concerned with this world, and more and more concerned with
Him. and the world to come, and the kingdom of God. And you learn
something about what it is to really pray, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done. It takes over, it just takes
over. Now the woman here who hid this, and I'll close here
in a minute. The woman who hid the leaven,
gave no power to the leaven. She gave no power to the leaven. She just hid the leaven in three
measures of meal. The power was already in the
leaven. We who preach give no power to the gospel,
give no power to the grace of God. We give no power to it. The power is inherent in the
gospel. It's the gospel of God. It's not the gospel of men, it's
the gospel of God. It's what it is. Now it says here that she hid
this leaven in this three measures of meal until the whole was leavened. It consumed the whole Bloaf! It took it over. It took it over. It really, really, really concerns
me. And I speak of myself, but also
speak of experience. It really concerns me when someone's
been around for years and years and they have no more interest
in Christ And there's no more fruit of the spirit, love, joy,
peace, long suffering. There's no more of that than
when they professed Christ 20 years ago, 30 years ago. That's scary. That's scary. Because the Lord said, in that
good ground, that it produced some 100, some 60, and some 30.
Now, we all don't produce the same amount of fruit, but we
do produce fruit. There's fruit there. And He's saying here, it's all
consuming, till the whole was 11. The whole what? Three measures
of meal. This represents believers. Believers. They are like the mill here,
ground up for the master's use. Broken hearted sinners. And when 11 of the gospel, 11
of grace, Christ is put in there, as time goes by, now listen,
as time goes by, it takes them completely over. It takes them
over. I was talking to Brother Donnie
Bell. He was talking to me a little
bit about getting his grave stone and all that, getting his grave
site stone. He said, man, I talked about
that. Me and my wife were talking about
that. He said, I got so excited. He said, I started crying. He
said, I really started crying. He said, I got excited about
the thought of going home. That's what happens when the
leaven takes over, when the gospel takes over, when grace really
takes over. These things become nothing,
and Christ becomes everything, when He becomes everything. During this whole process of
this leaven being put into this meal, During this whole process,
we are being saved and conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
That's what's going on. As we grow in Christ, our whole
being, our conduct is changed to conform to Him. We are filled with His praises,
with His grace, until the whole man is completely filled with
Christ. The gospel works a thorough change
in those who possess it, or who are possessed of it. Might be
the better way to say it. Matthew Henry said this, and
I close. He said, this leavened, which is the gospel, it could
be Christ, it could be the Word of God, because they're all one,
It spreads itself into all the powers and faculties of the soul,
and alters the property even of the members of the body. From
these parables we are taught to expect a gradual progress
of change."