Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 51. Hymn number 51. Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us. He, for conflict, fits and arms
us. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, ye saints, forever
He is faithful, changing never Neither force nor guile can sever
Those he loves from him Keep us, Lord, oh Till the hour of our receiving,
Promise joyous with me. Then we shall be where we would
be, Then we shall be what we should be, Things that are not,
now nor could be, soon shall be our own. They stated we'll sing hymn number
355. 355. From every stormy wind that blows,
from every swelling tide that blows, There is a promissory
treatise found beneath the mercy seat. There is a place where Jesus
sheds the oil of gladness on our lips, a place that Besides more sweet, it is the blood-bought mercy
seat. There is a scene where spirits
bled, where friends hold fellowship. O sun, moon, star, by faith they
meet, around one common mercy seat. A winner could we flee for ae. In temptedness I let this flame How the host of El defeated,
And suffering saints no mercy gave. A bear on eagle wings we soar,
And sin and sins of last no more. And then comes down our souls
to greet While glory crowns the mercy Mark chapter 4. I'll start reading at verse 26
and read down to verse 33. And 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, and 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. And he said, Whereunto shall
we like 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. Our blessed Father in heaven,
you're holy, you're holy, you're righteous, you're glorious in
your being, eternal, infinite, all-powerful, great in your glory,
dwell in your own glory, inhabit eternity, And it's to you whom
we come. We come always as we do, empty,
empty, empty, waiting for you to fill us. Lord, we come with
empty hands. And Lord, myself, I come with
an empty heart. And I ask for Christ's sake to
fill us with your gospel, fill us with your word, fill us with
your grace and your mercy. And oh, Lord, we I pray that
it would please you today to cause the gospel to run well
here, that you and your sovereign mercy and grace would open a
heart, open a mind, speak to a soul and give it life where
they'd cry out to you. And oh Lord, we pray for Those
among us who are so sick, Lord, we have some very, very sick.
And, oh, Lord, we pray for them. We know your grace is sufficient.
We know you'll uphold them. But that don't lessen the trouble.
That don't lessen the trial. Don't lessen the heartbreak and
the fear and the anxiety. But, Lord, we know that you can
keep them. and you can uphold them and you
can meet the needs of their home and their hearts and their bodies.
And Lord, we have no one else to come to, no one else to bring
those that we love to you, but you. And we bring our loved ones,
bring our lost children and grandchildren, bring these that are lost in
this congregation to you, leave them in your hands. We know you're
the judge of all the earth. and you'll always do what's right.
Bring glory to yourself today in this service. We ask it for
Christ's sake, amen. Hymn number 452. On the third verse, that second
word there will say in wonder instead of in pity, in wonder. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. For me it was in the garden He
prayed not my will but thine He had no tears for his
own griefs But sweat drops of blood for mine How marvelous, how wonderful,
And my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful,
Is my Savior's love for me. In wonder angels beheld Him And
came from the world of light To comfort Him in the sorrows
He poured for my soul at last How marvelous, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be How marvelous, how wonderful Is my
Savior's love for me He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own. into Calvary and suffered and
died alone. How marvelous How wonderful, and my song shall
ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior! When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see, Will be my joy through the ages,
To sing of His love for me. How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be How
marvelous! How wonderful! Let's stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. If God begins his work of grace
In any sinner's heart, That sinner he will keep secure, From Christ
he can depart. The objects of eternal love shall
persevere, I know. Chosen, redeemed, and called
by grace, God will not let him go. Frustrated grace can never be,
Christ did not die in vain. All those for whom he shed his
blood, eternal life must give. Grace shall complete what grace
began, all glory to the Lord. Be seated. Look back in your Bibles with
me, if you will, to Mark chapter 4. We're going to
deal with the mustard seed, the parable of the mustard seed,
down in verse 30. And he said, Whereunto shall
we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall
we compare it? Like a grain of mustard seed,
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 the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadows
of it. Now our Lord Jesus Christ, He
is the greatest teacher, taught His people, taught them well,
And He's taught them in parables. And as I told you so many times,
He uses these earthly illustrations, He uses something of the earth,
something that we don't understand to teach us some spiritual truth,
some heavenly truth. And that's what He's doing here.
And he's comparing the mustard seed to the kingdom of heaven,
and how it would grow, and how it would prosper, and how it
would start from a very small thing, from a tiny, tiny seed,
and grow into a great tree. And of course, first thing we
want to realize about this is, he's telling us this parable
of the kingdom of heaven is like, it's the first thing he said,
what shall we like in the kingdom of heaven? Like a grain of mustard
seed. Well, let's say some things about
the kingdom of heaven. He says, it's like a mustard
seed. Well, I'll tell you something, in Christ is this mustard seed,
of course, the first thing, but His kingdom is not of this world.
That's the first thing about God's kingdom. It's not of this
world. Don't belong in this world. Just
like we're strangers and pilgrims going through this world. We're
just on a journey. We're just passing through. This
world's not our home. And I don't want it to be my
home. No, I don't want to dwell in here forever. And then the
second thing about the kingdom of heaven is, it cometh not with
observation. You re not looking around for
signs, and when He says, Not with observation, that means
it s not going to come. You know, they say, It s over
here, it s over there, it s going to be here, and people start
pointing to signs, like this thing with Israel right now,
premillennialist and dispensationalist is going absolutely nuts, saying,
Boy, the end s coming now! The end s coming now. And when
our Lord taught us to pray, you know what one of the first things
He told us to say was? Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done. So he's talking about the kingdom.
And here's another thing, and I'll tell you what, and this
is the first thing. If you was learning arithmetic, the first
thing you learn is one plus one equals two. You learn how to
count to 10, and then you start adding up those things or multiplying
them. Well, how Lord Jesus Christ said, if you want to know the
first thing, that I want you to understand is this, seek ye
first the kingdom of God. Don't worry about everything
else in this world, it's gonna come, but seek ye first, that's
the first thing you do. And then everything else will
be added with that. Seek you first the kingdom of
God. And I'll tell you something else, you know, that there has
to be some understanding of the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom
of God, Before, and that's the foundation of faith. You gotta
have some understanding of the kingdom. That's the foundation
of our faith. When that thief was beside the
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, you remember what he said? Here's
what his faith, God gave him faith and regeneration. He said
this, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Remember
me, remember me. And all by, And I want you to
turn to Romans chapter 14 with me. I want you to see something
about the kingdom, the kingdom of God and what it is. You know,
it's described in so many ways in the scriptures, but here's
one in Romans chapter 14 and verse 17, telling us what the
kingdom of God is. And he said, what are we gonna
liken it to? What are we gonna liken it to?
We know so little about it, but he speaks about it often. He
said, for the kingdom of God is not in meat, dietary laws,
not in what you eat, what you don't eat. People won't eat this,
won't eat that, won't eat something else, and that has nothing to
do with it. Or what you drink, or what you
drink, But here's what the kingdom of God is. First of all, it's
in righteousness. The righteousness of God, the
righteousness of Christ, that's where the kingdom of God is.
And not only that, but it brings peace. When you're in the kingdom
of God, you got righteousness and you're a peaceful person. You have peace with God, peace
in your heart, peace of conscience. And then he goes on to say, then
you have joy. do you have joy? The Holy Ghost in you, the Holy
Ghost blessing you, Holy Ghost helping you to understand. And
our Lord described in the Beatitudes, He says this, He said, Except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, I tell
you what, those fellas had a righteousness. Paul, when he was a Pharisee,
said, I had a righteousness that was blameless before the law.
When people looked at him, said, if anybody's going to heaven,
that fella is. But oh my, and that's why our Lord said, accept
your righteousness exceeds the scribes and Pharisees. And he
said, also accept a man be born again. He can't see the kingdom
of God. except a man be born of water
and the Spirit, he can't enter the kingdom of God. And our Lord
said it like this, not everyone, not everyone that says unto me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of God, but he that
doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. And so he's
telling us what the kingdom of heaven's like and what it's compared
to. And oh my, look what He says
here. He says, the mustard seed, you
know, He talks of a grain of mustard seed. We looked up there
before and it says, cast into the ground. This mustard seed
is mentioned in three different places, Luke and Matthew. And
of course, the mustard seed, first of all, is the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. You know, Zechariah chapter 4
and verse 6 says, despise not the day of small things, And
what a small, small beginning our Lord Jesus Christ had in
this world. He was the seed of the woman
and He had no comeliness about Him. And I tell you what, He
was small beginning in His mother's womb. And all that we would be,
all that we would be as spiritual people started out in that seed. Everything that we would become
started out in that seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. All that the
church, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ would become in
this world is in the seed. It's in the seed. In him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and everything that God
is and all of his attributes dwelt in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it said here, the seed is
the smallest, the smallest of seeds. He was a seed in his mother's
womb, and when he was born, he was a tiny baby, small, small. He appeared small, and his beginnings
were very, very small. He was born in a stable, born
in a cow's barn, born in a barn, The stink of cows and donkeys
and goats and lambs, and he was there, that's where he's born.
What a small, small beginning. Small. And I tell you what, born
in poverty, he's born poor. Born so poor, started out with
nothing. His parents didn't have anything.
When they took him to offer sacrifice for him, all they could afford
was doves. Doves, that's all they could
afford. They couldn't afford a lamb. They couldn't afford a bullock.
They couldn't afford a heifer. Poor, poor. He had no wealth
whatsoever. All the days he lived, he never
had any wealth. He had no influence. He had no
influence while he was in this world. He is so small, consider
small. Had no education, no education. People's big on education now,
and we got a bunch of educated idiots. Well, we got a bunch
of educated idiots. Oh, my. No education. Our Lord Jesus' beginnings were
so small, he had no political clout. He had no political clout. He had no armies, or no government
backed him. Nobody cared anything about him.
He said he was a root out of dry ground, ground very, very
dry, a root out of dry ground. There was no comeliness about
him, no beauty about him that you'd look at him and say, I
desire him. No, no beauty about him, no comeliness
about him that we should desire him. No, no. And oh my. And then when he started teaching,
started preaching, his doctrines and his words, instead of drawing
out men love for him, it drew out men's enmity, drew out the
enmity of the human heart towards him. That's why he says, we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews, they stumble over him. And over
the Greeks, over the wise people in this world, he's foolishness,
he's foolishness. And when he was nailed to the
cross, bless his holy name, when he was nailed to the cross, forsaken
of God and men, oh, how weak, how weak he appeared. But that's
when he died and that seed was cast into the ground. That seed
was cast into the ground. What fruit came out of his death?
What fruit came out of our Lord's death? Well, the first thing
is He glorified God Almighty in all of His attributes. Every
attribute that God has was glorified in His blessed Son on that cross,
every single one of them. And there's no use going through
them because you know as well as I do. And here's the second
fruit that He had out of His death. He saved all for whom
He died. He saved every single one of
them, and He will save every single one of them for whom He
died. And then here s a third thing that He did. He ll present
the Bride to Himself. His Bride, the Church, He s going
to present it to Himself. He has presented it to Himself.
They already seen everybody that's gonna be there. You know how
many they said? 10,000 times 10,000 thousands,
a multitude that no man can number. Oh my. No wonder they said, worthy,
worthy is the lamb that was slain. Oh, we're here today are the
fruit of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell
you, let me go, and you know that the other thing about the
mustard seed is this, that the mustard seed not only was the
Lord Jesus Christ, but also the church and the gospel, the gospel. And oh my, and he talks about
this mustard seed and its growth and how much it growed. And what
he's teaching us is the growth and how the gospel and how the
Church started out with such small, small beginnings, with
a little seed, and grew into a great big tree. You know, the
Gospel has progressed in this world. It started out with hardly
nothing. It started out with one man. It started out with
one man and what he had to say. The Kingdom of God, of course,
the Kingdom of Heaven, of course, is the Church. his people on
this earth. The gospel beginnings were very,
very small, very small. Oh, just a grain, like a grain
of mustard seed, small, just one seed, one grain. And he cast
it into the garment. And our Lord told us where the
seed was sown is sown in the world. But when this gospel,
when Christ was sown, and we're the church, and He begat us by
His death, begat us by His seed, that gospel in our Lord Jesus
Christ, the church, grew. You know how far, how it started? It seemed so small. It seemed
so feeble, so helpless, and so powerful, powerless, excuse me,
so powerless. And His founder, the Lord Jesus
Christ, He was so poor in this world, His life ended as a dying
malefactor on the cross. And the first people that gathered
around Him, you know how many there were? When He was on His
cross, there was just five, just five of His people got around
Him, just five. And we're pretty much in that
condition today. There's very, very few people
interested in the cross of Christ. There's some of you that's not
interested in the cross of Christ. Some of you that don't care what
happened on that cross. Some of you don't care about
your sin and your soul. But oh my, and I tell you when
he left this world, you know when he started left this world,
He started out with 12 men and one of them was the devil. Started
out with just 12 men, just 12. Oh, and when he left this world,
not many, not many believed on him. The first preachers were
just fishermen, fishermen, nobodies. old rough men, working men, hardworking
men. Oh, my, they were fishermen,
tax collectors. In fact, they took notice of
these men that they d been with Jesus, said they were ignorant
and unlearned. They re nobodies. Now, I tell
you one thing, and every one of them that He called to Himself,
and every one of those disciples, every one of them, you know what
they all had in common? They were sinners! And Christ
called sinners to Himself. He called the common people to
Himself. Oh, and you know where this church
started and where the gospel started? It started in an obscure
place on this earth, a little old bitty tiny country in this
earth, a small place called Judea. And then not only that, but it
was governed by the Roman Empire. When our Lord preached His first
doctrine, I've told you this before already, when He preached
His doctrine, you know what it done? It produced enmity in the
human heart. The enmity in the human heart.
Man don't want to be told there's nothing. Man don't want to be
told his flesh profits nothing. Man don't want to be told that
he cannot come to Christ except the Father draw him. He don't
want to be told that he's dead in trespasses and sin. Don't
want to be told how filthy he is and how he hates God and how
he despises the gospel. He don't want to be told that.
Don't want to be told he's a hypocrite and he's deceived in himself.
Don't want to be told that. Don't want to be told that Christ
Jesus is the only Savior and he's the only one that can save
anybody on topside of God's earth. and the only people He saves
is sinners, and then He's got to be one to make you a sinner. Ain't that right? Oh my, the gospel's enemies. Oh, I'll tell you what, when
the gospel started and the church started, oh, the gospel's enemies
were powerful, powerful people. Oh, the church of that day. And
I'll tell you what, all the synagogues and all the powerful people were
against him and against the gospel and against Christ. From the
highest to the lowest were against him and his gospel. It started
out as a mustard seed and then it began to grow, began to grow. You know, I read this week, that
over in the Mideast, over in the Eastern countries, that a
mustard seed, when it grows, it'll grow to 10 to 15 foot high. It actually does become a tree.
And birds get in that tree and they eat the fruit off that tree.
And everybody knows that mustard is a very, very strong, strong
herb. Very, very pungent, pungent.
But oh, he said it grew, that's what our Lord said in verse 32.
But when it's sown, it groweth up and becometh greater than
all orbs and shooteth out great branches so the fowls of the
air may lodge under the shadow of it. You know, after In 40 years after our Lord Jesus
Christ went back to glory, ascended back to heaven and sat down at
the right hand of God, the known world at that time had heard
the gospel. And you know when the first places
started growing? After He ascended back to glory
on the day of Pentecost, it grew from 12, that was 120, gathered
in a upper room, 120, after our Lord was here for a little over
three years preaching, he had 120 people. I'd love to have
120 people here. But he had 120 people. That's
all he had. You'd think that people have
been, that the buildings have been full. But oh my. Within 40 years after
our Lord's ascension, after he went back to glory, all the known
world at that time had heard the gospel. All the churches
that you find in the New Testament were established in those 40
years. Corinthians, Thessalonians, Colossians, Ephesians, Galatians, all these
churches were started in those 40 years. in those 40 years. And I tell you what, when they
started, there was great, great persecution, but it started out
with 4,000, 20, 120, then 3,000, few days, 5,000, so they had
8,000. And he left. Started with 12 men,
12 men. There was persecution. There
was opposition. Violence, violence, violence.
against those who believe the gospel. Yet even though they
opposed it and persecuted it and had violence against it,
yet it kept on spreading. It just kept on spreading. It
just kept on growing. It kept on growing. And the Lord
Jesus said here, it waxed great. It waxed great. There's not a place on this planet
where you can't go, where you can't find believers somewhere.
I don't care what country you go in. I don't care what, if
you can find them, there'll be a believer somewhere in that
place. There'll be somebody that trusts
Christ. There'll be somebody that knows
Christ. Huh? Oh my. But it grew and it
waxed strong. You know what it did, what it
produced in people? They left off their idols. left
their idols of silver and gold and wood, idols of self-righteousness
and self-confidence, the self-righteousness and the hypocrisy. They left
all their idols behind. They left their free will behind.
Let me tell you something I read this week. There was a scholar
from out in California. He studied for 40 years free
willism. He studied it. I mean, he absolutely
studied free will from every angle that you could. I can't
think of his name, but he come to the conclusion that when you
look through history, the man left to himself that free will
is the awfulest thing that a man could possibly have on this world.
And that's a fellow that don't even believe come to that conclusion. But all my idols, people left
their idols. Paul left his idols of self-righteousness,
Phariseeism. And I tell you what, when you
come to Christ and the Gospel comes to you, the first thing
you ll do is you ll start saying, Oh my, I can t believe that,
and go there, I can t believe that, and continue in the Gospel.
I can t believe Arminianism and grace at the same time. I can
t believe free will and grace at the same time. I can t believe
that I ve got ability, and Christ has ability at the same time.
You can't do that. You can't believe you got power
and Christ got all the power. You can't believe that. And oh my, they cast aside their
traditions. Oh, so many traditions. I had
lots of them. Oh, I had lots of traditions.
And I tell you what, but that, They started to cast them aside
year after year after year after year, city after city after city,
country after country after country. They believed and they received
the gospel and received faith. And preacher after preacher was
raised up, raised up. And even though emperors, kings,
philosophers, All tried to stop it, and they're trying to stop
it today. Lots and lots of politicians,
lots of infidels, as I would call them, they're trying their
best to do away with Christianity. Do away, their best to do away
with it. But emperors and kings and philosophers
tried to stop. This gospel tried to stop the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know what? It grew. It
kept on growing. It waxed a great tree, and it
was planted by the Lord Jesus Christ. Men like Luther, Calvin,
Martin Luther and Calvin, John Knox and Huss, And the first
writer of the Bible, William Tyndale, they spread the seed
of the gospel. God got the Bible into the hands
of common people. They went around sowing that
seed everywhere they did. And I tell you what, when he
said this great tree and the fowls in it, that means that
we got a dwelling place, we got a place to hide, we got a wonderful
place to be. And I tell you, in all the works
of men come to naught, You know, I want you to look with me in
Daniel chapter four. Go over to Daniel chapter four. And look in chapter four with
me. You know, all the works of men came to nothing. As a bunch
of men got together and said, let's build us a tower. Let's
build us a tower. And let's build it all the way
to heaven. We'll work our way. We'll work our way to heaven.
We'll build us a tower. We'll make us brick by brick
by brick by brick, and we'll end up just slacking them bricks
on top of one another, and we'll build us a tower, and we'll climb
up on that tower, and we'll get to heaven itself. We'll work
our way. We'll do it. We'll get it all
done. We'll get it all done. And Nebuchadnezzar walked around
and said, Oh, this is great Babylon that I've made. God turned him
out to be a beast. Oh my, Babylon doesn't even exist
anymore. And I tell you, this tree was
spoken of before it ever came. Look in verse 10 of Matthew,
excuse me, Daniel chapter four. Thus were the visions in my head,
in my head in my bed, I saw and behold a tree in the midst of
the earth and the height thereof was great. The tree grew and
was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the
sight thereof to the end of all the earth. And watch this, the
leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and listen to what
it was for all of us. It was meat for all. The beast of the field has shadow
under it, and the fowls of heaven dwelt in the bowls thereof. Oh my. Let me show you another
in Psalm 80. You see that great tree? And
I'll tell you that's where we get our food from, that tree.
Christ set up that tree, Psalm 80. And then I'll be done. Psalm
80. Look in verse eight. Look what it says here,
what our Lord did. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt,
brought a vine out of the world, and planted it. Thou hast cast
out the heathen and planted it. You prepared room before it,
and you caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
The hills were covered with the shadow of it. And the boughs
thereof are like the goodly cedars. So you see, everywhere you look,
we see, our Lord, this great tree growing and growing and
growing. And you know, our Lord Jesus
Christ did some wonderful, wonderful things for us. And He saved us
by His grace. And I tell you what, He is that
blessed seed and the church is the fruit of that seed. The gospel
is the fruit of that seed. And I pray that God in His sovereign
mercy calls that gospel to find a lodging place. That seed, Christ
would find a place in you. Our blessed Master, our great
God and Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. We are looking for your
glorious appearing, but we thank you for the grace
that come and taught us. We ask for your mercies, oh,
your mercies, your mercies, your mercy. You said your mercies
are new every morning. You say your compassions fail
not. So Lord, we ask for those new
mercies. We look to you for compassion.
Look to you for all things. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for what
you did for us. Thank you for sending us the
gospel. Thank you for this tree growing all over the world. And
we come and find a place to dwell. We come and find a place to hide.
Come to find a place to eat. the meat off of that tree. Lord,
forgive us of everything that's so unlike you. Have mercy on
us and please bring glory to yourself through this body of
believers. For Christ's sake, I pray. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus God
willing, I'll see you tonight, 6 o'clock. Ah.