Gospel of Luke chapter 13 verse
17, the end of last week's study, sums up the end of all things,
the two different types of people. Look at verse 17, it says, His
adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced. His
adversaries will be ashamed, and His people will rejoice for
the glorious things Done by Him. That sums up, that describes
the difference. Alright, we take up in verse
18, He does. He, after that, and everything's
connected, everything our Lord did and said is connected if
we had the understanding. Before this, he talked about
a fig tree that bore no fruits. They cut it down and the man
said, let me dig it, let me dung it in a while. And every tree
that's not planted by our Lord will be cut down. And then this
woman that had an infirmity, 18 years, he healed her and those
bound by Satan, that Christ came to save, he will bring them all
to himself and save them, heal them. And he begins to give this
parable, two parables about the kingdom of God, verse 18. Then said he, unto what is the
kingdom of God like? Where unto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard
seed, which a man took, cast into his garden. And it grew
and waxed a great tree, and the fowls of the air lodged in the
branches of it. And we're just going to deal
with that one parable. But Matthew 13, the Lord gave seven parables. Matthew 13. There was a great
multitude gathered to hear him, and he spoke seven parables,
which is, you know, the number of perfection. The law of the
Lord, the word of the Lord is perfect converting the soul if
he plants it, if he puts that seed in you and gives life. In the first parable he gave
there, Matthew 13, I preached on it on the radio, is a parable
of the sower. And that's significant because
it all starts, life begins with the Lord sowing this seed in
the heart of His people. And as we said on the radio,
three out of four hearers, they didn't hear it at all. They didn't
receive the word at all. Only one ground. It was plowed up. That's a broken
heart. And this gospel is only for broken-hearted
sinners. That's who the Lord sows this
seed of the gospel. That's who He comes to. He is
the seed. So it's significant. And the
next parable in Matthew 13 is wheat in the tares. Because the
Lord's people are sown by Him. Wheat. And the tares are the
seed of Satan, whom he sows in the earth. And they grow up together
and they look similar until the end. Some of them you don't even
know until the end. Until the Lord binds them and
the tares and casts them out in the wheat in his garden. Everything
is significant. gospel, only two parables are
given. And that's significant. These
must be vital. These are the only ones that Luke recorded. Now the Lord is the one who posed
this question, what is the kingdom of God like? Under what is the
kingdom of God like? What shall I, where unto shall
I resemble it? And he gives a parable which
is A resemblance, because no one parable can perfectly show. Seven parables he gave, but not
one can perfectly reveal the kingdom of God. Where unto shall
I resemble it? What does it resemble? And he
says in verse 19, it's like a grain of mustard seed, which a man
took and cast into his garden. Now first, there's several things
here. There's the kingdom of God. There's
a mustard seed, there's a man that sows it, there's a garden,
there's a tree, and there's some fowls. Okay? And this is wonderful. Once again,
I hope it's not just interesting. I hope we all examine ourselves. Am I in this kingdom? Am I in
this tree? Am I one of these fowls? I've
already given away what the fowl are. That's just people. Alright,
the kingdom of God. The first important thing to
know, our Lord said this, that my kingdom is not of this world. He said if it was, we would fight. We would fight. No. His kingdom
is not of this world. We're not trying to save this
world. The Lord is going to destroy
it. And his kingdom is not that place over in the Middle East
called Israel or Jerusalem. No. There's a new Jerusalem that's
coming down out of heaven. In fact, you're in it right now. It's the church. His church. And the kingdom of God, he said,
cometh not with observation. This is important to note. Look, they're rebuilding the
temple over there. Let them rebuild it, but Christ
is not going to be in it. His temple has been and is right
now being built. It's His church. That's where
He dwells with His people. And it's not a building made
with hands. The Lord doesn't dwell in buildings
made with hands, but among his people. This is a church building. This is not the church. It's
the church house. Church house. I long ago trained
myself, tried to train myself, not to call this building the
church. It's not. You are. You're the
church. You're the temple of God. This
is the church house, okay? God's house is where His people
are. When the people are not here,
God's not in here. Right? Christ is not in here.
But where His people are, that's where He is. Now, it doesn't
come with observation. The temple, you're the temple
of God. Alright, verse 18, he said, now
it resembles, verse 19, a grain of mustard seed. First of all,
it's a kingdom where a king reigns. This will immediately tell you
or somewhat tell you who is in this kingdom. It's where a king
reigns. King of Kings and Lord of Lords
in His church among His people. They know it. They fear Him. They reverence Him. They know
that they're in His hands to do with as He pleases. Kingdom
of God, Christ, His dear Son, that's what it's called. Kingdom
of His dear Son. All power is given unto Him in
heaven and earth. He reigns, He rules. He's not
a figurehead. You know what a figurehead is,
don't you? On those ships years ago, they used to put a carving
of something out in front, leading the way, and oftentimes it was
a, I don't know, an eagle or something ferocious, or even
a beautiful woman, or whatever out there, leading the way, warding
off evil spirits, or whatever you may be, okay? That's a figurehead. That thing, that's an idol. That
can do nothing. Our Lord is reigning and ruling. He always went before
His disciples. He was always out in front of
them, leading them. That's what shepherds do. They lead their
sheep. In fact, He's before them and behind them. He's Lord. You're right. He's King. He's
King. Kings aren't voted on. The people
don't decide who's King. They're born King. That's who
Christ is, the King. It's the Kingdom of God, the
Kingdom of Heaven it's called. It's not on this Earth. Though
He reigns, though He owns this Earth, this is not His Kingdom,
this Earth. It's the Kingdom in Heaven. And
His Church is on Earth, but He's taken us out of this place. It's
in heaven. It's an unseen kingdom. It's
an eternal kingdom. And His kingdom is forever. Alright? He said it's like a
grain of mustard seed. The Lord chose a mustard seed
as this type of the kingdom of God because the mustard seed
is one of the smallest of all seed. One time we studied this
together and I took a mustard seed and put it in one of those
little envelopes. Do you remember that? I put one in it. It took
me hours because it's so small to put one seed in each envelope
and I passed them out to you all. Remember? Years ago. It's
so small. It's so tiny. Mustard seed. And the Kingdom of God is like
a mustard seed. Seed, because there's life in
it. Seed is the Word of God. Seed
is the Gospel. Seed is Christ Himself. And it
has very small beginnings. First of all, he calls it a mustard
seed. A mustard seed. Aside from being
very small. And it's perfectly round. Perfectly
round. That's like manna, right? Here's
some benefits I looked up of mustard. And it's on Google,
it must be so. But I happen to believe it is
so because it all speaks so clearly of Christ. It's God made them. So it has to be so. And a lot
more than they know. Number one, it treats psoriasis.
which is a form of leprosy. I have it. I have it all the time. This
mustard seed, this gospel, this word treats leprosy. It relieves what's called contact
dermatitis. I had to look that up. Google.
It means things that irritate your flesh. When you put something
on or come in contact with something, poison ivy, it soothes it. Things that irritate your flesh. That's this gospel. It has heart
healing properties for heart health. Respiratory ailments. Breathing. You breathe easier
when you hear this gospel. Aches and pains. Helps with it.
When Hezekiah got sick, Elijah took a mustard plaster, put it
on his chest, and healed him with that mustard plaster. Did
your grandmother ever do that to you? Kind of heats you up,
doesn't it? I've had it. Heats you up. The
equivalent now is what? Vicks Vapor Rubbers. Heats you
up. Your chest, heart burn. Aches and pains. It has a healing
effect on your nerves. Soothes anxious nerves. And listen to this. It controls
diabetes. So what's that got to do? Right there's a woman that should
have been dead years ago. She's got severe diabetes. What's keeping her alive? Jesus
Christ. She was dead in trespass. Right there she sits. Alive.
Unto God. Yeah, He controls diabetes. He controls this virus. That's all good, isn't it? I
believe all that. Not because Google said it, but
because it so applies to our Lord. Mustard seed. Now it says in verse 19, a man
took that mustard seed. A man. Behold, a sower went forth
to sow. The God-man, Christ, is the man. His preachers are men. He sends
men out to preach the gospel, not women. And their sowers,
they do one thing, they sow the seed. And this man took and he
cast this seed into his garden. The Lord cast, like a net, cast
this seed. And that's what his preachers
did. And his garden is his church. The garden is his church. This
whole world began in a garden, where our Lord was in a garden
with his creatures, Adam and Eve, the first two sinners. That's
where he met with the first two sinners was in a garden. There
happened to be a tree there too. But in the last chapter in the
Bible, that tree is found also. But the scripture says of his
church, a garden enclosed is my sister and my spouse. A garden. That's where the Lord will be
found. I love this verse in Psalm 416. It says, Awake, O north
wind, come thou south and blow upon my garden. This is the church
saying, Lord come, Holy Spirit come, blow upon my garden. Let the spices flow in. Let the
praise. Thanksgiving worship flow out
of this garden. Let the spices flow out and let
my beloved come into his garden and eat the pleasant fruits thereof. Oh, let me be here today to worship
him. May he find in me a heart to
worship in spirit and truth in his name. May he find me. May
I be one of his plants in his garden. that He blows upon and
the spices flow out, like that prayer we heard from the heart.
Praise Him. And then the next verse says
in chapter 5, it says, I am coming to my garden, my beloved, my
spouse. I am. She says, come and you
got blown. He says, I am. Here I am. I said, come, let's eat, let's
drink, let's sit. Isn't that beautiful? He's beautiful. So the church is his garden. And it grew, this mustard seed,
this little seed, small beginnings. As I said, in the garden there
were two sinners. Two sinners heard the gospel. Two sinners
heard the good news. Do you know how many there are
now? A number which no man can number. At one time, there was
one man in glory, one sinner who died on the earth, Abel. One sinner was singing at the
top of his lungs, unto him who loved me and washed me from my
sins. One. You know how many there
are now? A vast number. There's no American
number. Thousands, tens of thousands,
and thousands have sang, all singing that same song that Abel
was singing. And it grew. It waxed a great
tree. Tree. Now, this tree, like the
seed, who does that represent? What does that represent? Does
it represent Christ? Does it represent His kingdom? Does it
represent His gospel? Does it represent His church?
Yes, it does. All of the above. It represents
Christ. It represents His kingdom. It
represents the gospel. That grows. His church outgrew
it. But first, who gets the preeminence? Who is this mustard seed? Who
is this tree? It's Christ. It's Christ. Look at Isaiah 53 with me. You
know these, but it's always good. I never tire of looking at this.
I never tire. Isaiah 53. Christ had small beginnings,
didn't He? On this earth. Look at verse
53, now who hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of
the Lord revealed? He shall grow up before God as
a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form
nor countenance. We shall see him, there's no
beauty that we should desire him. Christ, over 2,000 years
ago a child was born. A baby. In a manger, in a cow trough,
in a cattle feeding trough, a baby. That baby was God. That little tiny baby is the
God whom the heavens cannot contain. I believe that. Don't you? That's
God. That's Immanuel. The King has
come. And it began with Him, a small
child. And He was small, and verse 3
of Isaiah says He's despised and rejected. Oh my, but He grew
great, like this tree. The tree of life. The tree of
life is Christ. He is God's family tree. Are you found in God's family
tree? It is Christ. As I said, it's
significant. One of the first thing, the first
thing that God created on earth was herbs with seed and trees
with fruit. And I believe He created a tree
of life. before any of those trees, which
represents Christ, because Christ is first, and Christ is last. Christ is the beginning, and
the beginning God, in Revelation 22. That's that tree of life. The healing leaves thereof. All right, look at verse 19.
It says, now, this tree waxed a great tree, and it had branches. Fouls of the air lodged in the
branches of it. The great tree, his kingdom,
Christ is that tree. He said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches. His kingdom is this tree. They had small
beginnings and now it's great. And his branches are his tabernacles,
his synagogues, his little church houses. And, you know, it began
at least the day of our Lord over in Jerusalem, and then the
church began there, a small group of disciples, and boy, it grew
and grew and grew, didn't it? It branched out, didn't it? All over Turkey, all those churches
up through Turkey, you know, it went. East somewhere, and
then across the Europe, Germany, and you know the Reformation,
all that, and then England, and Spain, and France, and Calvin,
and Knox, and all of those, and then came... That seed, like
milkweed, you ever busted open a milkweed pod? You wish you hadn't. It goes
everywhere, you know. Well, that's what happened to
the church. It was persecuted, but it was scattered. Oh, and
the Lord did that. The Lord did that, all that persecution. Ten great persecutions of the
church in the early years. Ten great persecutions. Lots
of disciples killed. Lots of martyrs. As a result
of that, the Lord spread in the gospel. They had to leave. And
they went all over the world. And this gospel came over here
to the Gentiles. We have it because of that persecution. So it branched out. His tabernacles, his synagogues,
everywhere. Everywhere. The fowls of the
air, verse 19. Fowls of the air lodged in those
branches. Fowls are there. Who's that?
That's God's people. There's an old saying that we
use all the time. Birds of a feather. What do they
do? They flock together. Like sheep,
they flock. Birds. Birds, several things
about birds. They're in the air. They fly around. Things that
are higher. Things that are nobler. They're
not worms crawling around, groveling. We feel like worms, but no, there's
a new man inside of you who's lofty, who dwells on things in
heaven, whose conversation is in the heavens, not on earth.
That old man is still on this earth, but that new man, he soars
above the earth like these birds. Heavenly creatures is what birds
are. Heavenly creatures. Birds need a place of safety. Psalm 84. Have you ever wondered
where birds go in the winter time? Look it up. I googled it. I knew before I
googled where they lie. In the trees. In the trees. That's why God
made them. for his glory and for birds to launch there. Isn't
it amazing that the Lord protects those little birds in that two
foot of snow? You'd think they'd all die, wouldn't
you? Why? Because there's not a sparrow
that's not under his divine absolute control. Not one of them will
die unless he says so. Not a hair of your head. That's
how I got it. And that's us. Those sparrows.
Look at Psalm 84. I love, love, love this. How
amiable are thy tabernacles, branches, O Lord of hosts, my
soul longing. We believe David was exiled at
this time on the run. He wanted to be back in Jerusalem. In the temple, worshiping, hearing
the Word preached, my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts
of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God. Is that you? In your way, when
you can't be here, do you long to be here with God's people?
That's a good sign that you're in His kingdom. Yea, the sparrow
hath found a house, a swallow, a nest for herself, where she
may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hope, my King
and my God. That's where the sparrow. We
have the same robin. Robin's my favorite bird. One
of my favorite people too. But we have the same robin building
a nest right on our front door. I mean, the first time, Stephen,
I thought, it kind of aggravated me. And the second time, I'll
leave her alone. Now, I think, isn't that nice?
She trusts us. She totally trusts us. She keeps
coming back and dwelling there and raising her. You know, we're
not going to hurt her. In fact, we've, I make sure that
that nest is secure for next year. Look at verse 4. God's people, they're blessed.
They dwell in thy house. Blessed are they that dwell in
thy house. They will be still. Praise He did. Don't you love
that? You can read that two ways. In
His house, they'll be still. They'll still them. They'll be
still. Be still, know thy God. And in
the end, after all these years, they'll be still in the house. Praise in heaven. So these birds, they dwell in
these branches. They need a place of safety.
And Christ is the city of refuge. Brother Kelly and I were out
there digging a ditch and he was slinging that mattock. Stephen was back there helping.
And he was slinging that mattock and I thought of that where if
the axe fell off of a handle and hit a fellow in the head
and killed him, if he'd run to the city of refuge, the fellow
that killed him, I told Kelly, I said, do you know where the
city of refuge is? And it's Christ. And His church,
where He is. Do you not come here where He
is with His people and flock together and huddle up like sheep? and where Christ has promised
to be, and do you not feel like it's a place of safety and refuge,
a place to eat? Here's another thing about birds.
This is why the Lord chose birds. Birds sing. You can't stop them from singing.
They have to sing. They start singing first thing
in the morning. Dark, light, snow, rain, sleet,
or snow? Birds you ought to sing. Oh,
let me be like those birds. I've been reading all the songs,
not all of them, because too many, that tell us to sing. Oh,
sing unto the Lord. Make a joyful noise. You say,
I can't sing. You can make a noise, can't you? Sing unto the Lord. Who do those birds sing to? Who
are they singing to? The Lord. That's why he made
them, didn't it? Don't you get joy in hearing
those birds sing? Many a time I've felt down and
wake up in the morning in a bad mood, the wrong side of the bed. You know why it's the wrong side
of the bed? It's because you're on it. But I get out of bed on the wrong
side of the bed. My wife, bless her heart, Lord,
she's a good testimony. She wakes up happy all the time.
I wish I was more like that. But many times, I wake up and,
oh man, and I hear those birds sing. I thought, what? Sing. Sing. Everything to sing about. Everything
to be thankful for. So the birds, they sing. So do
God's people. They're singing unto the Lord,
and I'll tell you who else they're singing to. Their mates. They're
calling their mates. Aren't they? It's a mating call. Come! Oh come let us adore Him. Oh come let us adore Him. Oh come let us adore Him. Christ the Lord. We come here to sing unto our
Lord. We come here to gather together. We come here to exhort one another.
We come here to help one another. Come! But sing, you've got everything
to sing about. Oh, but what? Stop it. Sing. I've told you so many times that
I know it by experience. God's Word tells us to sing,
commands us to sing. Why? It's for His glory, it's
for our good. I can't tell you how many times
I've been feeling bad and I start singing. It just lifts my spirit. Like Jehoshaphat and the children
of Israel, they were all surrounded by the enemies, and they were
at their wits end. And they said, what are we going
to do? He said, our eyes look to thee. He said, this is what
you do. Stand still. See the salvation of the Lord.
Here's what you do. Sing. Just start singing. And they did, and you know what?
The Lord sent ambushments, and their enemies were slain. See,
birds have to sit. It's their nature. You can't stop them. Birds are
a prey, an animal of prey. They're often taken in snares,
aren't they? They're often snared. The fowler
is what Satan has called it. The fowler. And he often takes
one of them, but now there's not... We fall to his snares,
don't we? Yes, we do. But there's not one
that falls to the ground without your heavenly father. And though
a righteous man fall seven times to a temptation or whatever,
you know what? The Lord will pick him up again. Though seemingly
held captive by the God of this world, no, none of God's people
will be held captive for long. He takes captivity. He releases. I told you about that time a
bird, I put a net all over my vine, my grape vine. Birds were
eating all the grapes before I could harvest them. I put a
net all over. I saw it one day just flopping,
moving. I went down there and there was
a bird caught in that net. Caught in that net. And I went down
there not to kill it, but to release it. And it was sad. The thing didn't trust me. Didn't
trust me. And it died of fright. Died in
my hand while I was trying to release it from that net. Didn't
trust me. Don't die of fright, people.
You need not die of fright. And the Lord is not trying to
release us. He has and He shall. He will.
Trust Him. Just be still. If that bird would
just be still. Just stop. Stop flailing. I'm going to turn you loose.
I'm going to make you free. Birds. Isn't that wonderful?
There's so much more. And they lodge in those branches. They dwell in those branches.
They live in that tree. That tree is their life. That
tree is their refuge. That tree is their place of safety. In Christ we live and move and
have our being. He is our dwelling place, isn't
it? And let me end it this way. You
know, mustard seed. Our Lord said, if you had the
faith of a grain of mustard seed, Just that much faith is saving
faith. If you feel like, I don't have
much faith. But do you have any? Do you believe God? Do you believe
His Word? Do you believe Christ? That Jesus
is the Christ? Do you? I know you don't trust
Him like you should. I don't. I preach it, and I don't
trust Him half the way I want to. Not that much. But I do trust
Him. I do believe Him. Don't you?
I really do. Don't you? Saved. You're in the kingdom. Kingdom
is in you. Okay.