This morning, if you care to
open your Bibles with me to Matthew 13. Continue our study in Matthew 13 this
morning. Before we begin, let's go to
our Lord in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is Your matchless name. Father, we've gathered
here this morning who gather together to worship your matchless
name, to praise your name, to worship and adore your darling
son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you would
enable us this morning to have a day of true worship. Father, speak to our hearts by
your word and give each one here a believing heart that would
believe the things our Lord Jesus Christ that we here preach this
morning. Father, what a blessed privilege this is that you've
given us a place that we can hear Christ the Savior preached.
Father, I pray you'd preserve it, that you would protect it.
Thank you for the many, many years that it's been preached,
and Father, I pray that you would continue it, that this might
continue to be a place where poor, wretched, and vile sinners
could come and hear the Savior. where your people could come
and be comforted and fed and edified and instructed by your
word. Father, how we thank you. Fathers, I pray that you'd bless
our class here this morning. I pray you'd bless our children's
classes, that this might be a time where you would plant the seeds
of faith in the hearts of our young ones. And Father, for those
who are sick and in great trial and affliction, Father, we pray
for them. We pray you to undertake in their behalf to heal, to comfort,
to lead and guide. Until such time as you see fit
to provide a way out, Father, we pray you give them a fulfillment
of your word, that you give grace that's sufficient, that you never
leave nor forsake your people. Father, again, we pray that you
bless us as we look into your word. Enable us to see, reveal
to us the glory of Christ our Savior. For in his precious name,
we pray and give thanks. All right, Matthew chapter 13,
titled our lesson this morning, Don't Despise Humble Beginnings. Our text is found in verse 31. Another parable he put forth
unto them, saying the kingdom of heaven is likened to a grain
of mustard seed, which man took and sowed in his field, which
indeed is the least of all seeds. But when it is grown, it is the
greatest among herbs and becometh a tree. so that the birds of
the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. 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 leavened. Hold your finger there and look
back at Zachariah next to the last book of the Old Testament,
Zachariah chapter four. Now these two parables both teach
us the same lesson. Don't despise humble beginnings. Don't ever despise the day of
small things. Zechariah chapter four, verse
10. For who hath despised the day
of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall
see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. With those seven,
they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through
the whole earth. Who hath despised the day of
small things, the prophet asked. Well, those people who have despised,
who didn't put much stock into the day of small things, are
gonna be amazed. When God in his time, his time
come, and he is pleased to accomplish his purpose for his people, those
people who despise the day of small things, they didn't think
this is much of anything, they're gonna see a great work. And you
know, great things often happen from small beginnings, don't
they? In our parable, the mustard seed is the smallest of all the
seeds of the different herbs. But when that thing is grown,
it grows into a tree that supports the weight of birds. Birds can
come and rest in it safely. Maybe they find food in it, I
don't know. But that great tree came from a very small beginning,
the smallest of all the herb seeds. And this is a good thing
for us to remember. God's ways are not our ways.
You know, you and I, if we're going to begin a work, we would
have that work start out with a bang. I mean, we'd have it
start out big, and then it would grow from there. That's the way
we would do things, isn't it? But that's not how God works.
And God begins things in a small way, what would seem to the natural
man almost insignificant, and has it grow from there for this
reason, so that we'll stay dependent upon him, so that we'll know
that the work is the Lord's, that the growth of it depends
upon the Lord. If you're still there in Zechariah 4, look up
at verse 6. Then he answered and spake unto
me, saying, this is the word of the Lord, indisrubable, saying,
not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord
of hosts. That's how God accomplishes his
work. That's how he causes it to grow and be established. It's
by the Lord's power. It's by the Lord's spirit. It's
not by man's might, not by man's powers, not by the strength of
the arm of the flesh. It's by the spirit of God. So
don't ever despise humble beginnings. The Lord almost always, almost
always, begins a great work from humble beginnings. And I have
three points, three illustrations of this, that the Lord almost
always begins a great work from humble beginnings. Number one
is this, and don't despise humble beginnings. The kingdom of God,
I mean, you think how great is the kingdom of God? Started out
from small, small beginnings. The kingdom of God began in the
mind and purpose of God when absolutely nothing existed but
God. That's where the kingdom of God
started. And since its inception, that church of God, since its
inception, foundation in time, that church of God, that kingdom
of God has always been dependent upon the Lord. The nation Israel
in the Old Testament is a picture of that. It's a picture of how
God deals with his people, spiritual Israel. During the reigns of
David and Solomon, Israel was a world power, wasn't it? What
a glorious, mighty kingdom that they ruled. But now that great
nation, when it was at its zenith, had very, very humble beginnings. The nation Israel at one time
didn't exist. And the nation Israel began with
a man named Abram. Abram was an idolater, and God
called him out of idolatry. And Abram took his wife, Sarai,
His nephew Lot took a few servants, took whatever cattle, you know,
that he had. And he left his father's house
and he led that little parade out into the wilderness, out
into the desert, not knowing where he was going. He did it
because he believed God. God said, I'll show you where
you're going. And people must have thought Abram was insane.
I mean, at that time, safety was found living with your family,
you know, a commune, a bunch of people, you know, there's
safety in numbers. They thought Abram was insane. going out there
with nobody to protect him. They thought, where's he going?
How's he going to survive out there in the wilderness? The
nation Israel began right there in humble beginnings. People
saw Abraham walk out there in that desert. They thought, I'm
never going to see him again. He's going to die out there. And then when
Abraham and Sarah were old, they were far too old to have any
children. God promised them a son. Abraham was too old to father
a child. Sarah's womb was dead. Now it's hard to get more hopeless
than that isn't it? More humble than that. That a nation is going
to come from these two old people that are too old to have any
children? But God gave them a son, Isaac. And that whole nation
came through that promised son. And what's more, the Messiah
came through that promised son. The Savior of God's people, spiritually
it's true, came through that son. And Isaac shall thy seed
be called. Isaac who is born by the power
of God, not the strength of the flesh. And now, from that time
till now, naturally speaking, Israel, the Jews, there's been
more people in that nation than we could count. And spiritually
speaking, that nation has more people in it than the stars in
the sky, just exactly like God promised Abraham. A great and
a mighty nation came from very humble beginnings, didn't it?
One old man and one old woman who were both too old to bear
any children. A mighty nation came through this. And that nation
was born, and that nation was created. But you know, that nation
nearly died out a couple of times. How many times has somebody determined
in their mind they're going to wipe out the Jews? They're going
to stamp them out from God's creation? I'll tell you just
a couple of times. Now, they about were wiped out. That nation, Israel, almost died
out when they starved to death, when Jacob was an old man. And
finally, when all their resources were gone, Jacob took about 70
of his descendants down into Egypt, where his son Joseph,
shockingly, miraculously, was still alive. And Joseph fed them.
Joseph kept them. They had died without Joseph
feeding them. And there they thrived in the land of Goshen
for a while. But when there arose a pharaoh who knew not Joseph,
the children of Israel were enslaved. They stayed enslaved for roughly
400 years. That's about four generations.
of slaves, slaves begatting slaves, people who never knew anything
but slavery. They just, that nation by that
time had the mentality of a slave. They had no freedom of choice.
They had no power. They had no influence, nothing
that they could use to set themselves free. They didn't know anything
but being a slave. They didn't even, the thought
never dawned on them to think for themselves. Just do what
you're told or you're going to die. That was their life. And
one day, if that wasn't bad enough, Pharaoh sent his soldiers and
killed all their boy babies, took all their boy babies and
threw them in the Nile River and drowned them. Pharaoh almost
wiped out a whole nation, a whole generation of that. And he killed
all those boy babies and he missed the one he was after. The one
he was after ended up being raised in his palace, in his courts
by his daughter. Isn't that something? That nation was mighty low. And
then God brought them out of Egypt. The deliverer, God promised
them a deliverer. They said, this baby's the deliverer.
And that baby went back out into the desert, just like Abraham.
They thought, we're not going to see him again. The deliverer's gone.
How are we ever going to be set free? And then when all hope
was lost, God brought the deliverer back. And he led that people
out of Egypt with a strong hand and a mighty arm. And they left
strong and enriched. They got mighty low. mighty low.
It's a humble, humble beginning. But God made a great nation out
of them. God did what he promised he would do. He delivered them.
He brought them to the promised land. As low as they got, as
small as they got, as insignificant as they got, God never once deserted
them. Never once. And then history
repeated itself. Israel had come into the promised
land and took the land, but now they're crushed. An invading
army came in, took them over, and just crushed them. just took
all their crops and wiped them out. They were impoverished at
a time of a man named Gideon. At that time, they didn't have
any army. They didn't have any weapons. It was against the law
for them to have any of those things. And Gideon was a nobody. He was just a dirt farmer, the
son of a dirt farmer. He was nobody. Gideon was not
trying to be a hero. He wasn't thinking about going
and delivering Israel from this. He was just trying to hide and
thresh a little bit of corn, a little bit of wheat, a little
bit of grain, whatever it was he was threshing. just so he and his
family have something to eat. He was trying to hide out and
not be seen by anybody. He wasn't trying to be a hero.
And God used that man Gideon to crush that great army and
set Israel free. Later on, Israel did have an
army. They had an army, they had weapons.
But you know, that army was absolutely worthless. That army is full
of a bunch of cowards. They were hiding in shame from
one Philistine man named Goliath. Goliath was coming out every
day, defying Israel's army and defying Israel's God. And that
whole army was hiding in chain, just pretending like they didn't
see him and didn't hear him. Just a bunch of cowards. And
a teenage shepherd showed up to visit his brothers, a little
fellow named David. He came to visit his brothers
and he saw this going on. He saw this giant Goliath out
there defying Israel's army, defying Israel's God. And this
teenager said to all these trained soldiers, is there not a cause?
Where am I going to let this stand? Is there not a cause?
And that army, a bunch of cowards, sent a teenager out there. He's untrained. He was unarmed,
he had no armor, he had no sword, he didn't have any weapon at
all except a sling. And on his way out to meet that giant, he
had to stop by the brook to pick up five stones. He didn't even
start out with any stones. And they sent that kid out there
to meet a nine foot tall killing machine covered in metal. Now
there's just no hope in that situation. No hope whatsoever.
Goliath is just gonna crush this kid without even thinking. That
boy's crazy. and a bunch of cowards sent him
out there. And God used that shepherd boy to kill that giant,
to deliver Israel, to destroy the Philistine army and become
the king of a powerful nation that was blessed by God. Boy,
it started with humble beginnings, didn't it? You never thought
that would have happened. You saw that little teenager going out
to meet that giant. You never thought all that was
gonna happen. God did that. It's by his spirit that all that
happened. Then the New Testament church. The New Testament church
started the exact same way, didn't it? Humble beginnings. You think
about where the New Testament church started. There's 11 men
and a few women hiding behind locked doors in absolute fear
for their lives. Their Lord, their master had
been crucified. And you know what? They were
afraid the same thing was gonna happen to them. They were so
afraid. And before he died, the Lord told him what was going
to happen. Their master told them, now I'm going to die. I'm
going to be taken by the scribes and the Pharisees and the Romans,
and they're going to kill me, put me to death. But I'll rise
again the third day. I'll see you again. And the third
day they heard he'd risen. And they couldn't believe it.
They just had no faith. They couldn't believe it. And
the Lord used that bunch full of weak faith uneducated, ragtag
bunch to turn the world absolutely upside down and to spread their
gospel across the whole world. We still have some of their writings
today. You know why that happened? Because the power was of the
Lord. It wasn't by their might. It wasn't by their arm. It wasn't
by their strength. It was by God's spirit. Their
power was their Lord. Their power was in their message. And we preach the same message
today. We use, I talked to Brother Eric before he went down to Danville,
he's preaching this morning. I'm not sure what text he decided
on, but he was looking at a message that Peter preached. He said,
I feel pretty good taking an outline that Peter preached and
re-preaching it. We still have some of their preaching
today. We preach the same message that those men preach. A natural
man, don't put much stock in that. A natural man thinks our
message of sovereign grace They think it's mighty humble. They
think it's not going to attract a big crowd and it's not going
to excite a bunch of people. It just doesn't impress the natural
man. But the apostles, that's the message that they preached.
The message that they preached, this message of sovereign grace,
this message of Christ, the risen savior, crucified, risen savior,
their power was the savior that they preached. Their boldness
was the savior that they preached. The whole church of God was redeemed. from mighty humble beginning,
redeemed by one homeless man who'd been abandoned by the few
friends that he had left. He was hung there on the cross
completely alone, abandoned by both men and his father. He was
so badly beaten, his visage was marred more than any other man.
You couldn't even tell it was a man hanging there on that center
cross. He was completely abandoned by God and men, punished by God
and men. But that one man, by his one
sacrifice, made untold millions righteous by his obedience unto
death. He made untold millions justified,
sinless, having no sin, made them holy by the blood that he
shed on that cross as a sacrifice for their sin, to atone for their
sin. One man, one man did all of that
all by himself. It's hard to think of anything
that has more humble beginnings than that, the death of one man
in it. But that's how God redeemed his
whole church. And you look at history, the
church on earth almost always grows slow and steady. Now, occasionally there's a great
revival in there. Occasionally there's a The Lord
just works in a powerful, miraculous way, and there's a great revival,
but not often. I mean, we remember all those
revivals because there's so few of them. Usually, the church
grows slowly and steadily. This work, this local church,
began mighty humble beginnings. It began with less than 20 people
meeting in a funeral parlor. That's how it began. And twice
since then, we've almost been homeless without a place to meet.
But the Lord has blessed his word. The Lord has blessed his
word richly. The Lord, during that time, has
saved his people. The Lord's given his people a
growth in grace. He's comforted, he's edified
the hearts of his people through the preaching of the gospel.
That first Sunday, two messages were preached, heard by less
than 20 people. They're lost to history. They
weren't recorded. Less than 20 people heard those
two messages. Last month, over 900 messages
from this pulpit, just in one month, over 900 messages from
this pulpit were heard on Sermon Audio in 34 states and 23 different
countries from just this little old place. We couldn't accomplish
that if we tried. That first Sunday, nobody would
have been thinking about anything at all like that, were they?
We're just wondering, can we meet again next Sunday? This
is the Lord's work. He blessed his people. He glorified
his name. And it began with humble beginnings.
And that's the story of the whole kingdom of God. Began with humble
beginnings. So don't despise humble beginnings.
All right, here's the second thing. The faith of every believer
has very humble beginnings. Faith in a person's heart begins
when a sinner hears the gospel. It's a normal weekly service.
They may have been there hundreds of times before, doesn't seem
like anything out of the ordinary, but the Holy Spirit silently
moves and plants the seed of faith in the heart. And that
planting almost always, not always, sometimes there's somebody hears
the gospel the first time and they believe it, they know they
believe it. But usually, almost always, that planting of the
seed of faith by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of one of God's
people goes completely unnoticed. The sinner doesn't even know
it happened. Certainly nobody around knows it happened. And
it takes a while, it takes a while. But eventually, somebody starts
to realize something's happened. Something has changed, but we
don't know it until that seed begins to grow. That seed of
faith begins to grow. That seed grows because God the
Holy Spirit has given life and it grows. He's given faith and
it shows itself. Now that sinner is justified. They have eternal life and they're
going to grow. And before you know it, you find
a babe in Christ and you get a young man in Christ. Then you get an old man in Christ.
That's the way life starts. That's the way spiritual life
starts. And really, that's the way human life starts too, isn't
it? There's been an egg fertilized, but nobody knows it. Nobody knows
it. But before long, everybody knows
it. There's a baby growing in the
womb. You can't deny it. You know that it's happened.
You see it. You see the evidence of it. And before long, we get
a baby. A baby holding our arms. And
that baby grows to be a toddler. Then it grows to be a child.
Then it grows to be a teenager. And Charlie, then it grows to
be a full-grown adult. We don't know what happened. We were talking about
that earlier. These kids, we remember, they're parents now.
They're grown. Someone got gray hair. Charlie
and I know children that got gray hair now. That means we're
old. There got to be an old man. All that started with the fertilization
of an egg. Nobody knew it happened. An embryo
that was microscopic. Nobody could see it with the
naked eye. That's the way human life starts,
natural life. That's the way spiritual life
starts to humble beginnings. Nobody even knew it happened.
And after God does give faith, it does give life. It's in our
personal lives. We can identify with the nation
Israel. God made them strong. They made themselves. We thought
they were going to get wiped out. Thought they were so humble
and so low. Now there's not going to be anything left. Often, often
the believer gets discouraged. And we think I have so little
faith. Why is my faith so weak? Why is my faith so little? Sometimes
I don't even know that it's there. Why haven't I seen more growth?
I ought to have more growth in grace. I ought to have more growth
in knowledge of the Lord. There's so little faith, there's
so little growth, and we get discouraged. But remember this
now, don't despise the day of small things. It doesn't take
great faith to save. It takes a great Savior. It takes
a great Savior to save, and it takes faith in Him. And our confidence
is not in the strength of our faith. If we start looking to
our faith, trying to find some confidence of salvation, we're
gonna be discouraged every single time. Our confidence is not in
the strength of our faith. Our confidence is in the strength
of the Savior. Look over at Matthew chapter
17. I tell you this often, there's
no excuse for weak or small faith, because we have such a great
Savior. But now weak faith saves, as long as it's faith in a great
Savior. Matthew 17, verse 19. Then came the disciples to Jesus
apart and said, why could not we cast him out? There was a
devil they could not cast out, but the Lord cast him out. And
verse 20, Jesus said unto them, Oh my, because of your unbelief.
Preferably I say unto you, if ye have faith as the grain of
a mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence
to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be
impossible unto you. With just faith the size of the
grain of a mustard seed, mountains will be moved. The mountains
of our sin, the mountains of our doubt, the mountains of our
failure will be removed. Not because of the strength of
our faith, because with our God, with our Savior, all things are
possible. Don't despise now humble beginnings.
God's going to bring something great out of it. If it's his
work, he will. All right, here's the third thing. The man who
will appear in glory has very humble beginnings. Look back
in our text, Matthew 13. Verse 33, another parable spake
unto them. The kingdom of heaven is like
unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of
meal till the whole was leavened. Now in first reading, you probably
think this leaven that the Lord is talking about here is talking
about sin poisoning the whole man. That's what I thought when
I first read it. And we think that because leaven
in scripture is almost always a picture of sin. That's why
during the Passover, they got leaven out of the house. It's
a picture of sin. But here the Lord's not talking
about sin. He's talking about the kingdom of God. He's talking
about the church as people. He said the kingdom of heaven,
the church is like under leaven mixed in the meal. So he's not
talking here about sin. The Lord's talking about a believer. And the lesson he's teaching
us is this. The gospel works in the heart of a believer slowly. Slowly. We grow in grace slowly. And I don't know about you, I
just don't like doing much of anything slowly. I want to get
it done. I mean, I just want this to get
done quickly. But growth in grace happens slowly. In the parable
the Lord teaches us here, the meal represents a regenerate
heart. God the Holy Spirit has given
a new heart, a new nature. And that heart is not like that
old heart of stone that we have when we're born after Adam's
seed. This heart is soft. It's pliable. It's teachable.
It believes Christ. It's soft. It's alive. It has
life in it. So it's not hard. It's soft and
pliable. It's not hard grain. This meal's
been made from grain, but now it's not the grain that grows
on the plant that's so hard. It's not even grain after they've
taken it to the mill and ground it. It means ground, but it's
still mighty hard, isn't it? This has been made soft. It's
been made into dough. And it's soft and it's pliable. And the woman hides just a little
bit of yeast in that meal. Before you know it, that yeast
goes all the way through it, through the whole ball of dough.
And this is what the parable's teaching us here. The gospel
goes into the heart slowly. God the Holy Spirit hides it
in the heart. And eventually, that gospel grows,
the gospel of Christ. Christ our savior has been planted
in the heart and it grows and it grows until it affects the
whole man. Just like sin, you know, yeast
in a dough goes all through. That's how sin defiles the whole
man in him. It's in our heart. It defiles
the whole man. Christ the savior and the gospel
is planted in the heart and it goes through and affects the
whole man. You're the life of a believer.
If you believe Christ, the life that you have right now is the
same life you'll have in glory. Now, you'll be dragging around
the carcass of this dead old man with you, but it's the same
life. The life that the new man has
is the same life you're going to have in glory. The life of
a believer begins with eternal life right here on earth. God
gives his people eternal life. Now, we're still in this flesh,
this flesh is still going to die, this flesh is still sinful,
but that new man is going to leave this flesh behind and go
be with the Lord. And that life began here on earth,
eternal life that God gives His people. The believer has life
and the believer is a child of God. But there's very humble
beginnings in this body of flesh. That's been hidden in this body
of flesh. We don't look much at all like we're children of
God, like we're holy, like we're righteous when somebody looks
at us in this flesh, does it? I tell you, it does not yet appear
what we shall be. You just wait. Grace in the heart
will eventually produce a believer in glory who has a perfect body
and a perfect soul. And you know why that'll happen?
It's not by our power. It's not by the strength of our
faith or by our power to resist and our determination to grow.
We're dependent on the Lord. He that hath begun a good work
in you, he'll finish it. He'll perfect it. That small
seed of faith planted in the heart will eventually produce
the perfect man in glory. And that's something so glorious.
It's something so magnificent that the angels, the angels who
are around the throne of God, they desire to look into this,
to see how God plants the seed of faith in the heart of a sinner
and causes it to grow to a perfect man in glory. The angels wonder
and they desire to look into how the Son of God could be made
flesh and suffer and die and make all these millions and millions
and millions of people righteous and ultimately perfect them in
glory. That is something so amazing that the angels desire to look
into it. So don't despise a day of humble
beginnings. It'll be humble. All the beginnings
will be small. They'll be humble. But you just
wait. You wait and see what God's going
to make. If it's God's work, you wait and see what God's going
to make of it. And understanding that, hopefully, will make you
and me more patient. More patient with ourselves.
More patient with others. I hate to use the words I hear
from false religion, but sometimes you look at one another, you
look at me, you get a snapshot of the flesh. Well, don't write
me off too quick. Don't write me off too quick.
God's just not finished yet. He's just not finished yet. Oh,
maybe that'll make us more patient with ourselves and with others
and help us wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. He will. perfect his work of grace. He
will. Now let's wait on him to do it.
Wait on him to do it. All right. I hope the Lord bless
that to you.