Let's turn back to Mark 4, verse 30. And he said, this is the Lord
Jesus speaking, where into shall we liken the kingdom of God. Or with what comparison shall
we compare it? And he gives us this comparison,
it's like a grain of mustard seed, which when it's sown in
the earth is less than the least of all the seeds that be in the
earth. But when it's sown, it grows up and becomes greater
than all the herbs and shooteth out great branches so that the
fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it." I've entitled
this message, The Parable of the Mustard Seed. Now, this is
one of 10 parables the Lord gives to illustrate to us what the
kingdom of heaven is like. And we need these because our
conceptions of the kingdom of heaven are wrong. you can just
write that down. Our conceptions of the kingdom
of heaven are wrong. The Lord said my kingdom is not
of this world, it's other. You'll find nothing like his
kingdom in this world and I love it when he said in Luke chapter
17 The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. It comes
not with visible signs where you can say, yeah, there's the
kingdom of God. I see it. I see it. The kingdom of God does not
come like that. Flesh cannot see it. But let me say this. The kingdom
of God, the kingdom of heaven is about the king. The king of
kings. The kingdom of heaven is about
the one whose will is always done. That's the king. And his jurisdiction is everybody,
everything, everywhere. He's everybody's king. Not everybody
knows it, but that doesn't make it not so. He's your king, whether
you know it or not. He's my king. He's everybody's
king and his jurisdiction controls all things. When the Lord taught us to pray,
what's the first thing he taught us to request? Thy kingdom come. First thing, this is to be very
real to the heart of every believer. Thy kingdom come. What is it that we're to seek
first? What did the Lord say? Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these
other things shall be added unto you. Now for us to have some
understanding of what faith is, we're going to have to have some
understanding as to what the kingdom is. Would you turn with
me to Luke chapter 23? I think that, would you agree
that the thief on the cross is somebody who probably had the
most elementary faith. He also had the most profound
faith. I wouldn't in any way take away from the profoundness
of his faith, but he had the most elementary faith. I mean,
he didn't know who Christ was until shortly before he died.
And all he heard was what he heard while he was hanging from
a tree. he had faith of, because the Lord said, this day, you'll
be with me in paradise. But let's look at this passage
of scripture together. Verse 39, one of the malefactors,
which were hanged, railed on him, saying, if thou be Christ,
save thyself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked
him, saying, Does not thou fear God? Now, I don't have any question
that he was talking about that one hanging on the tree. Does thou not fear God? Do you see who this is you're
daring to rebuke? How did he know he was God? Same
way you know he's God. God revealed it to him and he
knew who he was. Dost thou not fear God, seeing
thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds. This man believed he was
getting exactly what he deserved. And when God sent him to hell,
if God sent him to hell, he would be getting exactly what he deserved. But this man hath done nothing
amiss. He knew that Jesus Christ was
sinless, that he had done nothing amiss. Do you know that? Do you
know that he's God, the God-man? Do you know that If you're sent
to hell, you'll be getting exactly what you deserve, what you've
merited. The punishment fits the crime. Do you believe that
he never sinned? Verse 42, and he said unto Jesus,
Lord. Now, if there was any time somebody
didn't seem like they were Lord, it was then. He was nailed to
a cross. He was forsaken by his father.
He was forsaken. All of his disciples had left
him and fled. He was at the verge of death. He sure didn't seem
like Lord. But he was Lord absolutely in
control of everything that was taking place. The only reason
that he was nailed to that cross, it was his purpose for them to
do this to him. Lord. Remember me when you come
into your kingdom. You're not going to stay dead.
I know that. You're going to come back as
a mighty reigning king in your kingdom. Now the thief understood
this. He's the king of the kingdom. His will must be done. That's who he is. Remember me. The thief knew, if you just remember
me, everything's fine with me. Now that's faith, and that's
foundational to faith, some understanding of the kingdom. The thief had
this, remember me when you return in your kingdom. Now that's the
same kingdom Paul spoke of when he said in Romans chapter 14,
verse 17, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's not
rules and regulations. It's not if you eat this, you'll
be better, but if you don't eat this, you'll become worse. It's
not about that at all. The kingdom of God is not about
meat and drink. It is righteousness. Absolute, perfect righteousness. If you're a believer, you are
perfectly righteous. in God's sight, and if that's
in God's sight, that means you really are perfectly righteous.
Having his righteousness as your personal righteousness before
God. What comes from that? Peace. The kingdom of God is
not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace. Everything that God
requires of me, I have. Peace. I'm not afraid to stand
before God on Judgment Day. Peace, because I have perfect
righteousness, and the joy in the Holy Ghost that comes from
that. Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 4.20, the kingdom of God is not
in word, but in power. Now, when the Lord gave the Beatitudes
on the Sermon on the Mount, you remember there's eight Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor. Blessed
are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed
are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart.
Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are they that are persecuted
for righteousness' sake. Now, the first one and the last
one, the poor and the persecuted for righteousness' sake, the
Lord says, theirs is the kingdom of heaven, if you're poor. Now,
what's that mean? If you're poor, you don't have
anything to bring to the table. You have nothing to recommend
you. All you have is Christ. The Lord says, yours is the kingdom
of heaven. And that one who's persecuted
for righteousness sake. Now, I understand that doesn't
mean you're persecuted because you gave a lot or you helped
people or you did some kind of good works. You get your name
put in the paper for that. They'll brag about you. You're
persecuted because you really believe the righteousness of
Jesus Christ is the only righteousness there is. Folks get upset with
that. Theirs is. the kingdom of heaven. When the
Lord speaks of entering the kingdom of heaven, he says, except your
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. He says, except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You
have to have the new birth, born of the spirit to have any idea
what's being said right now. You can't see it. It's a mystery
to you. You have no idea unless God gives you a new nature to
see and to believe. And except a man be born of water
and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. The Lord
said, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father,
which is in heaven. What's that will? Believing the
gospel. And then we read where the Lord
said to his disciples, except ye be converted and become as
little children. Oh, the capacity of a child to
believe what his parents tell them. They just believe. Except
you be converted and become as little children. You shall not
enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, the Lord, as I said previously,
gave 10 parables that tell what the kingdom of heaven is like.
Like I said, it's spiritual. It's not of this world, but let
me give you these parables. I'm not going to say preach on
them. I'm just going to tell you what they are, and you can
draw what you can out of it. First of all, there's the parable
of the wheat and tares. The kingdom of heaven is like
a man that sowed good seed in his field. Good seed being the
word of God. I know this will be a blessing
to you. You know, I've been getting a letter from somebody for several
years. And somehow down in Louisiana, one of our CDs just popped up
in his house. He has no idea how it got there.
And the Lord revealed himself to that man through that. He
gets our tapes every month. His brother has called me. The
seed goes out. Who knows what's going to happen?
The seed is the word of God. The good seed. God reveals himself
through his gospel to some people. But wherever there's good seed,
you know who's going to be right behind? The devil sowing the
tares. In a visible church, there are
always wheat and tares. And when the servant said, you
want us to pull up the tares? The Lord said, no, you won't
know the difference between the tares and the wheat. They look
just alike. You'll end up tearing out the wheat, not the tares.
So somebody says, we need to get the unbelievers out of our
church. You're not smart enough and I'm
not smart enough to figure out who they are. Do you believe
that? It's so. And then there's the
parable of the leaven spreading its way through the dough until
it was all leavened. And then there's the parable
of the kingdom of heaven's like a treasure hidden afield, the
gospel hidden in the word of God. But when somebody finds
it, For joy he goes and sells all he has to have that, buys
that field so he has that treasure. Then we have the kingdom of heaven
being likened to the pearl of great price. There's a merchant
seeking goodly pearls, but when he's found the one pearl of great
price, he loses all interest in all those other pearls. And
he sells all he has to have that one pearl of great price. And then the kingdom of heaven
is likened into a net cast into the sea. And when it's brought
in, they keep the good and they throw away the bad. Now, I love
this analogy of gospel preaching. It's not fishing like baiting
the hook and throwing it in and trying to fool the fish and deceive
the fish so the fish bites it and he doesn't know what he's
getting. That's the way a lot of preaching is, is trying to
deceive people, covering it up and trying to get a bite. That's
not gospel fishing. It's throwing out the net. throwing
out there, nothing deceptive about it. Not trying to cover
anything up. Throw out the net. Bring in the
fish. The good ones are brought in.
The bad ones are thrown away. And I love this. The kingdom
of heaven is likened to a householder that got out and got the different
men at different times in the day. One worked 12 hours. One worked one hour. He said,
this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. And two things are true
about those fellows who worked. Number one, they were all given
the same thing. The ones that worked 12 hours,
the ones that worked one hour. They were all given the same
thing. And something that's pointed out, they were all given that
which was right. They were all given that which
was right. That's the way the gospel is.
We all get the same thing. We're saved by Christ, and we're
given what's right because of justification. There's the parable of the king
that gave a wedding for his son. That's why God does everything,
for the glory of his son. And the only people who could
come into that wedding are the people who had the wedding garment,
the very righteousness and merits of Jesus Christ. And then in
Matthew chapter 25, we have the three parables of the end times.
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto. And he gives
the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, the man giving an account,
having his servants give an account for the talent they had, and
then the look at Judgment Day, where the sheep are separated
from the goats. And we considered the one in
our text in Mark chapter 4 last week about the parable of the
seed, and then the one before us in Mark chapter 4, the parable of the mustard seed. In this parable of the mustard
seed, number one, we have Christ himself. Number two, we have the church. Number three, we have the individual
believer. And number four, we have faith.
And I think you'll see that as we consider each of these things,
because the Lord uses this. to describe himself, this little
mustard seed. It's the smallest of all seeds.
You'd think it's the most insignificant. And it's thrown into the ground,
and it germinates, and it becomes a great tree that even the fowls
of the air can lodge in it, find a place of safety, and find a
home, and are sheltered by the shade and protected by the shade
of that tree. Think of this mustard seed as
Christ himself. What a small beginning in his
mother's womb. He was just a seed. The eternal
God was the least of all seeds. And what is interesting, do you
know in that seed, in the mustard seed, is all that tree would
be. It's all in the mustard seed
before the tree came out. All that God is is in that seed. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Now, when he was born, he appeared
so small. Born in a cow stable with the
smell of manure in the air. Born in poverty, he had no wealth. He had no influence. He had no
education. He had no political clout. He
didn't have armies or governments backing him. A root out of dry
ground, Isaiah 53 says. No form, nor comeliness, nor
beauty that we should desire him. What a small beginning. I think
of his doctrine, his words. You know, they were calculated
to draw out the enmity of men, not bring them in. Let me give
you one example, and I think this example says everything.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, 22, and 23, we preach Christ
crucified. That's our message, a very narrow
message. If Christ crucified is not preached,
the gospel is not preached. Christ crucified must be preached
every time a preacher preaches, or he doesn't have any business
preaching. We preach Christ crucified. Jesus, the son of God, nailed
to a cross according to God's purpose, for God's glory, accomplishing
all that God intended for him to accomplish. He by himself
purged our sins. We preach Christ crucified. Now, unto the Jews, that's a
stumbling block. That's a scandal. Why, that's
scandalous. You mean to tell me that good
works don't count for anything? You mean to tell me that there's
nothing I can do to earn God's acceptance? There's nothing I
can do to get His favor? Why, that's not giving me a motive
for obedience. That's not giving me a motive
to do well. Why, that'll lead people to sin.
How many times have you heard that? Why, if I believed that,
I'd sin all I want to. You're saying it all you want
to now anyway. No use saying something like that. But men
are offended by that message. And then to the Greeks, the educated
fellows, the fellows of culture and learning, they hear the gospel
and they say, well, that's foolishness. That's ridiculous. The universal
hiss of all mankind is we will not have this man to reign over
us. when he was nailed to a cross,
forsaken by God and man, how small and weak he appeared. God had forsaken him. His disciples
had forsaken him. I wonder how many people snickered
and laughed when they heard that thief say, Lord, remember me
when you come into your kingdom. What? Does he really believe
something that ridiculous? This man nailed to a cross is
the Lord? And he's going to come back as
a mighty king? Well, he died. The seed sown into the ground,
he died. That's representing his death. And what comes out of that seed
sown in the ground? This mighty tree. What fruit came from his death?
Number one, he glorified every attribute of God. He magnified
and made known every attribute of God. Number two, he saved
everybody he died for. Beloved, if you're a believer,
you know when you were saved? when he died and was raised from
the dead. Your salvation was accomplished. I mean, it's finished. It's done. That's what he did. He doesn't offer people salvation.
He saves. That's exactly what he did. And
oh, how he made his precious bride to be cleansed, sanctified,
washed, unblameable, holy, unreprovable. in his sight. Now you think of
what he accomplished by that death. The birds find lodging there. Believers find a home in Christ.
You know there's one place I'm at home in Christ. It's the only place I feel comfortable.
I'm at home. I'm free in Christ. Now, you put me in any other
environment, I'm not at home. I'm nervous. I don't feel like
it's mine. You know, kind of like if you
go into somebody else's house, you don't feel the liberty to
open up the doors and look in the closet. You might do it,
but you ought not. But there's one place you do
feel totally comfortable, no limit, your own home. And the
only place a believer feels comfortable is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
where all God sees is Jesus Christ. That's a lodging place, isn't
it? That's a place you can feel comfortable. And the shadows
were protected from the scorching sun. That's a place of protection,
lodging and protection. The seed sown in the ground and
turning into the tree is Christ's death and the fruit of his death,
the full manifestation of God's glory, the salvation of the church. Better is the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof. And how we see that so clearly
in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, secondly, the mustard
seed represents the church. You know, there's always been
a church. Somebody said, didn't the church start in the New Testament?
Oh, no, no. We read in the scriptures of
the church in the wilderness, don't we? That was way before
the New Testament. As a matter of fact, you know
who I think the charter members of the church were? Adam and Eve. I think they
were the first members of this church. I know Abel was. Cain
wasn't, but Abel was. And you can go on down the line
with Noah and Moses and David and Solomon and Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob. These were all members of this
glorious church that the Lord The New Testament church is the
eternal church. After the death of the Lord,
how small and weak the church appeared, how frightened the
church appeared. They were hiding in a room, scared
to come out. You know, her first preachers
were ignorant fishermen. and publicans, notorious. I love it when Peter and John
are preaching and it says, when they saw the boldness of Peter
and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men,
they took knowledge of them that they'd been with Jesus. You see,
that is the only credential needed to preach the gospel, to be with
the Lord Jesus Christ, but all of humanity, was united together
against the church. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
in opposition to the church to do whatsoever God's hand and
counsel determined before to be done. They called it a sect
everywhere spoken against, but this tiny seed became a mighty
tree. The church of the living God. Made of 10,000 times 10,000 and
thousands and thousands, all with the same song. Worthy is
the lamb that was slain. Can you join in that song? If
you can, you're a member of this church. This is the church the
Lord built. He said, upon this rock will
I build my church. Aren't you thankful that the
Lord's the builder of the church? It's not mere you, it's the Lord.
And what rock? This confession of me, whom say
ye that I am, thou art the Christ. Now, that means something. You're
God's prophet. You're the word of God. You're
God's priest, the priest of God's providing. If he brings me into
your presence, I'm saved. You're God's king, the one whose
will is always done. Thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah.
Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you. But my Father which
is in heaven, thou art Peter, upon this rock is confession
of me. I'll build my church. It's a living organism, the body
of Christ that cannot be defeated. Man's attempt at stopping the
spread of the gospel are as fruitless as man's attempt at stopping
the rising of the sun. It isn't going to happen because
this is the Lord's work. This tiny seed becomes this great
tree. Now this mustard seed being so
small and becoming a tree also represents the individual believer
and his growth. Now there is such a thing if
you have life you will grow. Grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you have life you
will grow. Living things grow. And this growth is like the growth
of a tree. You know that mustard seed that
turned into a big tree? You know what else became big? Its roots growing downward. The first mark of growth is growing
downward. In your own thoughts about yourself,
seeing your own sinfulness, seeing your own inability, seeing your
need of the Lord Jesus Christ. The closer you are to the truth,
the farther down you'll see yourself. That is growth. I love what Paul
said. He said, concerning himself,
I am, not I was. You hear religious people They'll
talk about how bad they were and how much they've grown, how
good they've become. You don't hear Paul talking like
that. He said, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
of whom I, what's the next word? Am, not was, am the chief. That's growing down, growing
down. And then that, mustard seed tree,
its branches went out. You grow out towards other people.
What's that mean? Well, because you're growing
down in yourself, you start assuming them as better than yourself.
You really know they are, and you really believe they are.
And you love them. You love anybody that loves Christ.
Somebody that loves Christ, you love. You grow out toward them. You want them. You love them.
You want them to have the same thing you have. You want them to know
the Lord. You want them to experience what it is, the joy and peace
of believing. You want them to know the glory
of having Christ's righteousness as their righteousness before
God. You want them to experience that. That's loving somebody.
You grow toward them. and you grow up in your love
to God, you see him more glorious, you love his attributes, you
love everything about him you love, and you wouldn't change
it. You love him just the way he is, and you know he can't
be improved, and you love him that way. You love all his attributes.
You love his sovereignty. You love his holiness. You love
his power. You love his justice. You love his grace. There's growth,
downward, outward, and upward. You know, we grow in the fruit
of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. We grow in the Beatitudes. We
become more poor. We become to where we really
do mourn of our sin more than we did at first. We become meek,
more meek. more hungry and thirsting. That's
the growth that every believer experiences, not the kind of
growth that you look at yourself and say, I'm getting really good.
I must be growing. No, that's not growth in grace. It's growth in self-righteousness.
That's all that is. But may the Lord give us this
growth of the mustard seed. And finally, faith is compared
to a mustard seed. Matthew chapter 17, verse 20,
if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed. That's the smallest. If you have faith as a grain
of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, this mountain
of unbelief, remove hence to yonder place and nothing shall
be impossible to you. Now, a couple of things I'd like
to say about that. He talked about faith as a grain
of mustard seed. That means real small faith. Real weak faith. Do you know the person who has
small faith is just as secure, just as saved as the man who
has the greatest, strongest faith in the world? Why is that? Because it's not the faith that
saves. It's the object of the faith that saves. Christ saves. Faith believes that. And the Lord said, if you have
faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain,
Now, look at the mountain of sin that is removed through faith. Looking to Christ, what are you
in of yourself? You're nothing but sin. You look
to Christ and that's the gift of his grace. If you look to
Christ as all that's needed to make you perfect, the mountain
of sin has been removed. And you stand before God without
guilt. Be it known unto you that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin. And all that believe are justified. Now, what does justification
mean? What does it mean if you're justified?
It means you didn't, you're not guilty. It means you didn't sin.
It doesn't mean your sins are merely forgiven. It means that
you stand before God having never sinned. Nothing to feel guilty
about. Nothing to fear. Justified. By him all that believe are justified
from all things which you could not be justified by the law of
Moses. He says by faith nothing shall
be impossible for you. This seed of faith grows. Didn't the disciples say increase
our faith? They sure did. Lord, increase our faith. I would
like my faith to go from the mustard seed to the tree that
the birds find shelter in. The kingdom of God is like this
tiny mustard seed that grows into the great tree. The mustard
seed is Christ. The tree is the fruit of his
death. The mustard seed is the church. The mustard seed is the
individual believer. And the mustard seed is faith. The kingdom of God likened unto
a mustard seed. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the gospel of your son becoming
a tiny seed in a womb in answer to your purpose of
being the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And
how we thank you for the achievements of his death. How we thank you that the church,
weak as it is in itself, is to become this great tree. How we
thank you for the believer growing downward, outward, and upward.
Lord, we ask that that would indeed happen with us. And how
we thank you for the faith, the gift of your grace that causes
us to look to your son and causes all sin to be put away. Lord, bless this message for
your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.