Certainly a blessing to be here
today. We have been blessed in the singing
of these songs that remind us from whence our salvation comes. I think if there's one thing
that our age is characterized by, it is an ignorance of from
whence the salvation of God's people comes. And we endeavor to declare from
whence that salvation comes. Salvation's of the Lord. It's
in the Lord and it's from the Lord. And apart from His mercy
and kindness to bring us to the place where we would call upon
His name, we cannot know who He is. But He is gracious and
He does call His people unto Himself. And that's, as we look
here in the fourth chapter of Mark, we see
that he is unfolding the glory of his kingdom in the earth. Now some people, and you listen
to a lot of so-called Bible teachers, uh... in our day and has been
this way for a long time and they're looking for a kingdom
they're looking for christ to establish a kingdom somewhere
down the road they believe that uh... you know one day he's going
to be a king and he's going to sit on the throne and uh... men will be able to go Take a
boat, I guess, if you live over here and you take a boat over
there to where he was and you could fall down before his throne
and worship him. I believe that's a very foolish
consideration of what the kingdom of God is. Because the Lord Jesus
Christ came into the world as a king And he presently rules
as a king over his kingdom, which he came into the world to establish.
And he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. He didn't say, I'm gonna do it
one day. He said, I will do it. And he has come and established
that. And of course, as we read last
week, these first few verses, in the chapter, in Mark chapter
four, and as he gave the parable of the sower. And it's important
that we understand that the lesson that he's teaching here is that
he is the one who sows the seed. And it's his field into which
the seed is sowed. And his purpose in the sowing
of the seed is that it might fall into the good ground and
sprout up and bring forth fruit. That's the whole purpose of what
he's teaching here in this parable. And as we read on in this chapter,
he is building upon that very thought. He said here, in verse, let's see here. And verse 20, he said, and these
are they which are sown on good ground, such as hear the word
and receive it and bring forth fruit, some 30 fold, some 60
and some 100. These are they, he said, that
seed which is sown on the good ground. The good ground is the
ground that's prepared for the seed. It's the place where the
seed is the purpose purposed to fall and grow and to bring
forth fruit. And so he goes on with an explanation
of his kingdom, which he has established in the earth and
is presently establishing and calling his people unto himself. And he said unto them, is a candle
brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed and not to be
set on a candlestick? For there is nothing hid which
shall not be made manifested, neither was anything kept secret,
but that it should come abroad. If any man have ears to hear,
let him hear. Now, do you have ears to hear? That's the question that we need
to ask ourselves. Are we hearing the word of God?
Now, everybody's hearing it, unless we happen to be deaf.
And in that case, we might not hear it with these ears, but
assuming that we all can do have the physical gift of hearing,
we do hear the word of God, but that's not the hearing that he's
talking about here. He's talking about blessed are
those who hear the word of God. That is, that it goes into the
ear and into the heart, and a man receives it and rejoices. You know, there was a miracle
that took place on the day of Pentecost. Now, the miracle that
gets the most press and gets men most excited was that they
say there was a miracle of the gift of people speaking in other
tongues. And you've got people that really
get fired up about that. And they build whole denominations
surrounding it. And it becomes a central point. But dear brethren, the greatest
miracle that took place on the day of Pentecost was not that
men spoke in other tongues. but that men heard the gospel
of Jesus Christ in their own language. Now that was a glorious
thing because you see, a man can speak in tongues and go away. I've known people that claim
they can speak in tongues, turned out to be the biggest devils
that ever lived. I mean, yet they could blabber
away with the best of them. But when a man has heard the
word of God, there will be a profound change that takes place in his
life. Can't help it. It's just that's what the work
of hearing the word of God does. Now we do find in this parable,
he said there were some that heard the word and received it
with joy, but then it fell on, it just became choked out with
vines in one place and then in another place didn't have much
earth. Now those heard the word of God in a measure. But see,
that's not the hearing of the word that he's talking about
here. He said, let him that hear, let him hear. It's not temporary. You know, I was raised with the
idea in the church that I grew up in that if you ever hear the
word one time and you come and you make a confession of faith
and buddy, you're in. And it doesn't make any difference
what else happens, buddy, you're in. And when somebody died, the
one thing they wanna do was find out, well, did he ever join the
church? And buddy, if they can find out that he did, oh, praise
God, he's in heaven today. Well, that's not hearing the
word either. Because the hearing of the word of God is that which
lasts. See, the hearing of the word
of God is that which a man can't escape from. It's like Peter
when he said, Lord, when the Lord asked him, will you go away?
He said, Lord. He said, where are we gonna go?
He said, that has the words of eternal life. We can't go anywhere
else. We're not gonna find anything
else. We're not looking for something else. And so it is, that's what
hearing the word of God is. It's that which has, takes root
and it has effect and a lasting effect. It's not temporary. in
a man. And so he said unto them, is
a candle brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed, not
to be set on a candlestick? Now what's he talking about?
He's talking about bearing the fruit. He said you don't light
a candle and then stick it off in the closet. He said the reason
that you light a candle so that it might be seen. And he said
the reason that the seed falls into the good ground is that
it might bring forth fruit. that it might bring glory to
God. You see, that's the whole purpose
of the Lord drawing a people unto himself. He didn't draw
people unto himself in order to have a bunch of secret disciples
that went around out here and never said anything. The scripture
says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. We rejoice in Him. We want to give glory to God.
for that which he has done. There is nothing which shall
not be manifested. That is, the Lord will manifest
his children in the earth. There will none wake up in heaven
one day because they were the elect. They'll wake up in heaven
because God called them out of darkness and into the light to
embrace Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners. He's a glorious Savior
and He saves men. There says, Nothing hid which
shall not be manifested, neither was anything kept secret, but
that it should come abroad. The Lord will manifest His truth. If any man have ears to hear,
let him hear. Listen. And He said unto them,
Take heed what you hear. With what measure ye meed it
shall be measured to you and unto you that here shall more
be given. Take heed what you hear. Don't
just listen to somebody that comes along telling you they're
preaching unto you a gospel that sounds good to the flesh. Take
heed what you hear because that which you hear is that which
is either the truth or it's an error. See there's Now, you know,
I'm not the discerner of the Lord's people, but there's only
one gospel. And it is the gospel of Jesus
Christ as the Savior of sinners. And there's no other gospel that
we can preach, that we shall preach, or that we ought to preach
than that. And anything else is a deception. If any man would add to or take
from that gospel, then he has not preached the gospel. So it
is, take heed what you hear. For he that hath to him shall
be given, and he that hath not from him shall be taken, even
that which he hath. Now that seems like a hard thing,
does it not? But that's the truth of the gospel.
And the Lord illustrated it in the parable of the sower. Because
he said some falls on those stony grounds and some is taken away
by the birds. You see, those who are given
the privilege to hear the gospel are a very privileged group of
people. It's not a light thing. for a
man to be able to hear the gospel. It's a glorious thing. We ought
to rejoice daily that we have heard the joyful sound, that
we have been given ears to hear and to delight in the things
of God. How could we do that? How can
a man hear except the Lord gives him ears to hear? And he that
hath not from him shall be taken even that which he hath. Though
a man may seem to walk with the Lord for a season.
Yet if he has not ears to hear, even that which he hath shall
be taken away from him. 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, he knoweth
not how. For the earth bringeth forth
fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, after the full
corn in the ear. And when the fruit is brought
forth, immediately he putteth forth the sickle, because the
harvest is come. Now is that not what he was speaking
about in the parable of the sower? He said he sowed the seed into
the good ground. And he did that not simply just
to see it grow in the ground, but to harvest it. Because the
fruit is that which he would have. And the Lord has ordained
his people to bring forth fruit unto him in varying degrees. He's given to every man the measure
of faith. And so it's folly when men look
at other men and say, well, he doesn't measure up to me, or
this, that, or the other. Now, we're not talking about
believing the gospel, we're talking about the fruit that's born.
I mean, the Lord is pleased to bring forth more fruit from some
than he does from others, but he brings forth fruit from all.
of his children according to the good pleasure of his will
and not ours. For the earth, he said, and listen
to this, so is the kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed
into the ground and should sleep. Does the Lord sleep? Well, he
slept in the bow of the boat, did he not? It's not talking
about the Lord sleeping. He's giving an illustration.
He's illustrating. through the planning of the state
what it is i mean whenever we uh... we plant seed in the ground
and then we don't know how it sprouts do we not i mean it's
not a thing we understand so is the gospel of the kingdom
of god when it's put into the to the good art we don't know
how it sprouts up i don't know where it will sprout or how it
will sprout it belongs to the lord but he said it will sprout
up and he said when it does He said, then the Lord will reap
the harvest of it. And He will do it. Here's the
thing that I remember the first time I ever read this. It said
that the Lord will make a short work in the earth. That He will do a quick work
in the earth. Now what does that mean? Well,
it means that what He does, He does suddenly. See, He causes
it to come to pass. And it's so overwhelmingly sudden
till a man can't imagine it. Now, you stop and think about
death. Death is sudden. You know, it
doesn't make any difference if a man lingers with some illness
and you see him going down, down, down, down, down. When death
comes, it's sudden. I mean, it's not expected, even
though you know that it's coming, yet when it occurs, it is a sudden
thing. And the Lord will make a quick
work in the earth. He'll make a sudden work in the
earth, a short work in the earth. He will bring his people to himself. For the earth bringeth forth
fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, and after the full
corn in the ear. The Lord works in his people. See, he doesn't just cause a
man just to, overnight he springs up and he's just perfect. No,
he works in us. Both the will and the do of his
good pleasure. And many times it seems as though the corn's
growing slow. But it's always maturing at just
the right time according to the will and purpose of God. But when the fruit is brought
forth, immediately he putteth the sickle in, because the harvest
is come. The Lord knows them that are
his. And he said, where unto shall we liken the kingdom of
God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? It's 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. What is the kingdom of God like?
He said it's like a grain of mustard seed. It doesn't seem
like anything to the world, does it? I mean, you ever seen a,
I remember we, of course, when I was growing up, we used to
plant tobacco. And I don't know if you've ever
seen any tobacco seed or not, but you can't hardly see them.
I mean, they're about the size of the head of a pin, maybe.
Or maybe even a little smaller than that. And you can take enough
seed that you could put in your hand and plant a couple acres
of tobacco with what would grow up out of that. And of course,
you can't plant those seed in the field. You have to plant
them in a bed and spread them out. And then they grow up and
then you take the plant and you transplant that plant. He said
this, the kingdom of God's like a grain of mustard seed. It doesn't
seem like anything to the world. It's just nothing. But he said,
when it is sown in the earth, it's less than all the seeds
that be in the earth. See, the world has big seed. Men like the big seed, do they
not? I mean, you know, they like something that you can really
see. I mean, here's some corn. I mean, you know, corn, you got
some corn. I mean, you can really see that.
It looks good, doesn't it? Men like the trappings of religion. They like all the things that
appeal to men. They like good preachers. I mean,
but if you can get you a preacher that'll make you feel good, then
you've really got something. You know, that's what people
are looking for. They want somebody that will tell them what they
want to hear and build them up. See, we don't need any of that
old discouraging stuff. We want somebody that'll jive
us up and get us feeling good, and that looks good, doesn't
it? He said the kingdom of God's
not like that. He said it's like a grain of
mustard seed, nothing to it. He said, but when it is grown
up, when it starts to bring forth the fruit, he said, then, he
said, it groweth up and becometh greater than all herbs. See, the kingdom of God does
not appear in the eyes of men to be great, but it appears in
the eyes of the children of God to be the greatest. It's a blessed
place. It's a place where the fowls
of the air may lodge under the shadow of its branches. Now the
world doesn't have any, they're not concerned with it. They're
not interested in roosting in that tree or laying under the
shadow of it. But the children of God are.
Even though to them it seems to be nothing. Or to the world
it seems to be nothing. And with many such parables,
Spake he the word unto them as they were able to hear it. I
think that shows the mercy of God. Does it not? He knows what
we need. And he gave to men what they
could hear. I mean, could he not have taken
his disciples right there to get going? He could have just
told them everything there was to know. And they'd have been
so overwhelmed, they wouldn't have been able to move. You know,
a lot of times we want the Lord to teach us things and we think,
well, we're not being taught quick enough. Well, the Lord's
teaching you exactly what He wants you to know. See, you don't,
people say, oh, well, you know, I wish I had dying grace. Well,
you don't need dying grace. If you're living, I mean, when
you need dying grace is when you're dying. And the Lord will
give you that which you need in the time that you need it.
And so it is that he will give you what you're able to hear,
what you need. And so he spake the word unto
them as they were able to hear it. Now, think about this. What if the Lord had put Peter through the test that
he did when he denied the Lord. What if he had done that when
Peter first started walking with him? If Peter had been crushed,
he probably never would have been worth a flip from then on. But see, the Lord brought Peter
along, and he taught Peter, and he brought Peter to the place
he needed to be at the time he needed to be. Because why did
Peter need to go through that? because he said, Lord, I'll stand
with you. See, Peter thought he would,
did he not? He thought he was strong, but the Lord had to show
him that he had no power of his own, and he could not stand with
the Lord. So he gives them such as they
were able to hear, but without a parable spake he not unto them.
But when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples. He taught those who, what? He
gave ears to hear. He taught in parables. He said
so that seeing they might not see. Hearing they might not hear. But then those whom He gave an
ear to hear, He calls them to hear. And they rejoiced in it. And the same day when the evening
was come, and I had to think about this when Brother Thomas
requested that hymn Master, the tempest is raging. I thought
that, you know, here we are in this passage of scripture. And
the same day when the even was come, he saith unto them, let
us pass over to the other side. Now, I had read here a while
back about the Sea of Galilee. I think it's about 15 miles across
the Sea of Galilee, which is not huge. But 15 miles, I mean
seven miles out in the water, that's a pretty good little place. I mean you can still see land,
but of course this was at night probably, and so they couldn't. And it would be a very frightful
experience. And when he sent them away, the
multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there
were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great
storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was
now full. Matthew records this, he says,
it was covered. Now what I think that it has
reference to is the fact that the waves were so high and the
storm was so great that the waves were crashing over the boat.
I mean obviously it doesn't mean that the ship was full of water
because if it was full of water it would have probably sank.
So it wasn't full of water. And keeping in mind also that
the Lord was in the boat and he was asleep, likelihood was
he was not sleeping in water. But he was nonetheless, this
storm was raging. And it says here that, there
arose a great storm of wind, the waves beaten to the ship,
so it was now full. And he was in the hinder part
of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him and said unto
him, master, Carest thou not that we perish? Now think about
that for a minute. Master, don't you care we're
gonna perish? What did he do? I mean, he was
asleep. Think about that. He was sleeping in the midst
of this storm. And he arose and rebuked the
wind and said unto the sea, peace. be still. And the wind ceased,
and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are
ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? Now we hear a lot about faith
today and people say, Oh, you just got to have faith, brother.
You just got to have faith. What was he talking to them about?
Was he saying, well, you just gotta have faith that you're
not gonna sink? You just gotta have faith that
somehow or other you're gonna get out of this? Gotta think
positively, you know? I mean, don't let negative thoughts
come into your mind, cause the boat might sink, but you gotta,
you know, think, think positively and focus on something that is
good. No, he said, how is it that you
have no faith? What did he mean? What he meant,
what he was saying was, don't you have any faith in me? He said, do you think I brought
you out here into the middle of this ocean for you to drown? Do you think I don't have any
care for you? How is it that you have no faith?
Why are you so fearful? He says, I'm with you. Remember
he said when the Pharisees said, why do your disciples not fast? He said, well, when the bridegroom's
with them, why should they fast? He said, the day will come when
they will fast. But he said, when the bridegroom's
with them, they rejoice. And so he's saying to them, here
I am right with you. See, he was teaching them some
things, wasn't he? Was he not? Why did he get them
out there in the middle of that? See, in this storm with him asleep,
why did he do that? Well, it's very plain that he
did it. And they feared exceedingly and
said one to another, what manner of man is this? See, they hadn't
pondered that before, but now he taught them such things as
they needed to know. See, they had never seen him
say, peace be still to the water. They knew he was a great teacher
sent from God. Even Nicodemus said that. So
they knew something about him, but you see, as time went on,
he showed them some more things that they might see. What manner of man is this that
even the wind and sea obey him? That's a question that ought
to be asked even now by the people of God. What manner of man is
this? See, he could not be simply man,
could he? He could not be just man. Just
like he told the Pharisees, who has power? Is it easier to say
to a man, be healed, or your sins are forgiven? Which is easier
to say. I mean, if you can do one, you
can do the other. And so when he said, peace be
still, ultimately they understood, hey, this man's not like any
other man we have ever known. And thus, we come to understand
that while he is man, how do we know that he's man? Because
he slept in the boat. He was tired. He was hungry. And after he fasted, he had needs,
his body had needs. Yet he made all things. What
manner of man is this? He's not a man like any man you've
ever known. But he is that man who was sent
by God to carry our sins, to bear our sorrows, our griefs. He's that kind of man. What kind
of man is this? He's a man who will never forsake
us. He'll never leave us. He's a
man who will come again to receive us unto himself. What manner
of man is this? Oh, that we might know him. that
we might know him as that everlasting son of God but that we might
understand that he is that man of sorrows who is acquainted
with our grief. A man of sorrows who poured out
his soul unto death in our behalf. What manner of man is this? He
is that man whom we worship. He is that man at whose feet
we fall down and we give him praise. Oh, that we might have
ears to hear today the words of Christ, Jesus the Lord. Why are you so fearful? How is
it that you have no faith? Now, brethren, every man who
has faith by the gift of God looks at himself and he says,
I don't have any faith. Oh, I wish I had some faith.
But you see, every man who is born of God, he has faith because
his faith is Christ. See, our faith is Christ. My
faith's not in my abilities to believe. See, that's what most
people talk about today. When you hear preachers talking
about faith today, they're talking about you gotta have something
that you're doing. No, our faith is Christ. We can't go anywhere else but
here. He's that rock, that altar of stones that Brother Al was
speaking about. He is that one who is that place
that we come and remember that it is he and he alone that is
our deliverer. It's been good to be here. Trust
that the Lord might give us a mind and heart to seek it after him. I thought as we sang one of those
songs there a moment ago. And, you know, we're called upon
to do what we cannot do. The Lord calls us to do what
we cannot do. He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And we can't do it. You can't do it. I can't do it. But you see, He alone can give
a man that faith, that understanding, that eye to look to Christ, cast
ourselves at His feet. That is faith. May the Lord give
us that.