When you turn back to Luke chapter
13, I've entitled this message, The Mustard Seed. And this is one of the parables
the Lord gives when he tells us what the kingdom of God is
like. Now don't you find that interesting
when the Son of God tells us what the kingdom of God is like? Now, before we get into this
parable of the mustard seed, I first want to ask the question,
what is meant by the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven? He says, how can I liken the
kingdom of heaven? What can I resemble it to? Well,
what is the kingdom of heaven? that he speaks of. Do you know
it's mentioned 142 times in the New Testament? It gives us some
idea of the importance of this concept and when our Lord's first
public words come out we read in Mark chapter 1 verses 14 and
15, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of
God and saying that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom
of God is at hand. Repeat ye and believe the gospel. The kingdom of God is the jurisdiction
of the great king. Christ is the king of the kingdom
and he is the king of kings. And He's the Lord of Lords. Don't
you love to hear that? He's the King of Kings. He's
the Lord of Lords. And the scripture says in Daniel
4, 34 and 35, His dominion, His rule is an everlasting dominion
and His kingdom from generation to generation. This is an eternal
kingdom. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What
doest thou? His kingdom is everywhere and
everything and everybody. That's the jurisdiction of his
kingdom. And he is the king of it, His
subjects are His people. We read in Revelation chapter
17 verse 14 once again that He's called the King of kings and
the Lord of lords and they that are with Him. That's who I want
to be with, don't you? I want to be with Him. I want
to be in Him. I want to be with Him. I want
that to be my claim to fame. I'm with Him. They that are with
Him, He says, are called. chosen and faithful. Every subject of His kingdom,
every one of them, they're called, called by His grace. They're
chosen by Him. And by the grace of God, every
single one of them without exception is faithful. Those are the subjects
of His kingdom. And then in the kingdom, In any
kind of kingdom, there are always laws. There are rules in every
kingdom. And no one is granted diplomatic
immunity from these rules and these laws. Every one of the
subjects of his kingdom keep these laws that he says are written
in the heart. And if you look in the New Testament,
this is so significant, you'll find six different laws of the
kingdom. We read, first of all, in Romans
chapter 9 of the Law of Righteousness. You know, no believer can ever
be satisfied with anything sort of perfect righteousness, a righteousness
that God will accept, a righteousness of which I have nothing to be
ashamed of. I can't be satisfied with anything but perfect righteousness. And that righteousness, you know,
is the righteousness of Jesus Christ the Lord. The only righteousness
there is. And we can't find satisfaction.
We can't find peace. We can't find comfort in anything
but His righteousness. Now, that's a law in our hearts.
We can't get away from that. You know, the scripture says,
I'll write my laws. their hearts, in their minds
I write them. And then the second law we read
of, and this is the law of His kingdom, we read of the law of
sin in Romans chapter 7 verse 23. The law of sin. Now I find this at all times.
I find at all times I'm a sinner. I can't escape that. I can't
make myself better. I can't remove myself from that
as much as I'd like to. I find at all times, and this
is a law in every believer, I find a law, Paul said, that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. He talked about the
law of sin, which is in my members. This is something that I can't
escape from. One of these days I will. But right now, as I stand
before you, I have this law of sin in my members. It's always
there. And then we read in Romans 3
27 of the law of faith. And these are the laws of the
kingdom. Everybody in the kingdom, every subject of the great king,
everyone who is called and chosen and faithful, every one of them
believe the gospel. And they cannot not believe. I can appeal to every believer.
I realize that you always have unbelief in you because you always
have an old nature. You cry out, I believe, help
my unbelief, but you cannot not believe the gospel. You hear
the gospel and you say, I believe. And then we read in James chapter
one of the law of liberty. A believer must have liberty,
freedom. I cannot be in bondage. I must have the freedom of knowing
that all my debts are paid and that I don't owe anything. And
serving Christ is the most liberating thing there is. The law of liberty. And then we also read in James
2 of the royal law of love. Now, these are the laws of His
kingdom. If He has done something for me, I love Him. I love God. I love every attribute of God.
I love His Son. I love His way of salvation.
I love His Spirit. I love His people. And I love
men. I want them to hear the gospel. I want to be a fisher
of men, don't you? The Lord said, follow me, and
I will make you fishers of men. And if you're following the Lord
Jesus Christ, that's your great desire to be a fisher of men.
You love men. You want them to hear the gospel.
And then we read in Galatians 6, 1 and 2 of the law of Christ. If any man be overtaken in a
fault, and you can understand how anybody can be overtaken
in a fault, can't you? If any man be overtaken in a
fault, overtaken in some sin, He which is spiritual, let him
restore him in the spirit of meekness. Considering yourself,
lest you also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. Now these are the laws of the
kingdom. This is what the kingdom of God is. It's the jurisdiction
of Christ. He's the king. He's the king
of kings. His subjects are His people,
and every one of them are called, and chosen, and faithful, and
they're laws of this kingdom that every single one of His
people keep. They keep the law of righteousness,
and the law of sin, and the law of faith, and the law of liberty,
and the law of love, and the law of Christ. Now that is the
kingdom of God. That's the kingdom I want to
be in. The kingdom of God. Now, the
Lord tells us that the kingdom of God can be compared to a mustard
seed. And we read in the other place
where this is written, that's the least of all the seeds. It's the smallest seed there
was. Seemingly very insignificant. Less than all the seeds of the
earth. And it has a large ending. It becomes a tree. that even
the fowls of the air lodge in." Now this picture is Christ himself. This picture is the church. This
picture is the individual believer. And this picture is faith. This
grain of mustard seed that is cast into the garden, into the
ground, seemingly small and insignificant, and it grows to be a mighty tree
that even the fowls of the air find lodging in. That's the picture. And our Lord says that's what
the kingdom of God is like. Now first, Christ himself is
the grain of mustard seed. And you think about what small
beginnings he had. How small he was when he was
a seed in his mother's womb. This is God we're speaking of.
And he became a seed in his mother's womb. Now I think this is glorious
to think about. In a seed, all that's in the
tree is in the seed. All that's in God, in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. God's in this seed. All that God is, is in this seed. But how insignificant this seed
at first appeared. He was born in a barn. He was born in poverty. He had no wealth. He had no influence. He had nothing that this world
would call desirable. He had no political clout. And
his doctrine, his words, the things that he said, they weren't
exactly drawing people. They caused people's enmity. They caused people's anger. They
said, we don't like these harsh sayings. His doctrine was calculated
by him to draw out the enmity of the natural man. We preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block, a scandal,
unto the Greeks, foolishness. but unto them which are thee
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and Christ
the wisdom of God. Now, you think about when he
was nailed to a cross. You want to talk about seeming
small and weak and powerless. Forsaken by God, Forsaken by
men, how weak he appeared to be. I like to think of that thief
looking at him and saying, Lord, remember me when you come into
your kingdom. You reckon anybody laughed when
the thief said that? You calling this man a king?
You think he's coming back as a mighty reigning king into a
kingdom? Why, you're crazy. But he saw
something that nobody else did, didn't he? Lord. He knew this was the Lord. Remember
me when you come into your kingdom. Now this is that corn of wheat
that died and was buried and from that death in the ground
it brought forth much fruit. Our Lord because of his death
when he died He became so big that the fowls of the air both
lodged in it and found rest in its shadows. That's what Matthew
says in Matthew's account. They found rest in its shadows.
Now you think of the lodging of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
so big that 10,000 times 10,000 and
thousands and thousands, even all of God's elect find in Him
their dwelling place. He's where I live. He's my hiding
place. He's my dwelling place. He's
my home. Every believer, their only desire is to abide in Him,
to lodge in Him, to dwell in Him. And you think of the comfort
we receive being under the shadow of His wing. Oh, the comfort
of knowing that everything that God requires of me, He looks
to His Son for. Oh, that brings such peace and
joy. Oh, to lodge in Him. What comes from Him being cast
into the ground? Two things. Number one, the full
manifestation of the glory of God. Can you see that? All of God's
attributes, every single one of them are on display in the
death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. God is glorified and
all of God's people are saved and secure. Right now, I'm saved
and I am secure. dwelling in the branches of this
great tree. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
mustard seed who began small in the world's eyes, but oh,
the largeness of Christ, the security of all who lodge in
him. Now this mustard seed being cast
into the ground and becoming a mighty tree also resembles
the church. the kingdom of God, the church.
Now, there has always been a New Testament church. Even in the
Old Testament, there was a New Testament church. You remember
how Stephen spoke in Acts chapter 7 of the church that was in the
wilderness. Now, this is before New Testament
times, but this was still God's church. Now, it's always been
and represented as a remnant and as a minority. After the
death of her head, after the death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
how many people were dwelling? 120. 120. Not very many people. It began very small, tiny, weak,
and insignificant. A very small number and hiding
for fear of their lives. His first preachers were fishermen
and publicans with no worldly influence. All of humanity was
united in their opposition to the church. Herod, Pontius, Pilate,
the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Indeed, the church, you think
of the death of Christ, 120 disciples. But how? The church grew. I love to think about this. The
progress of the gospel after the seed was thrown into the
ground was great, steady, and continuous. When the gospel seed
is sown, when the gospel is preached, the Lord does something with
it. and the grain of the mustard seed became a mighty tree. In
spite of persecution, in spite of violence, in spite of opposition,
it continued to spread. You see, the church must grow. She's a living organism. that cannot be defeated. And
men's attempt to stop the spread of the gospel is about as fruitless
as the attempt to stop the rising of the sun. It can't be done. The church started out so weak
and so insignificant. It has grown into a mighty tree,
and it's the apple of God's eyes. the apple of God's eye. It's
the bride of Christ. It's truly the greatest among
the herbs. However big Christ is, that's
how big the church is because she is his body. That's mysterious,
isn't it? But that's how big the church
is. I mean, Church is huge. The church is as big as however
the body of Christ is. That is the church. I love what
our Lord said. He said, Whom? He said to Peter,
He said, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they
said, Well, they say some good things. Some say you're Jeremiah,
one of the prophets, Elijah. They put him in some high cotton.
He said, But whom say ye that I am? What if the Lord said that
to you tonight? Who do you say that I am? And Peter answered, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. Would you say that? Thou art the Christ. You're the Word of God. You're
God's prophet. You're God's priest. You're the priest of God's providing.
That if you represent me, I must be saved. You're God's king.
And I need you as God's king to rule and reign in me and cause
me to do your will. I need you as a mighty reigning
king to cause me to believe, to cause me to repent, to cause
me to love. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. And the Lord said, Blessed art
thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to thee. but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto
you, thou art Peter, and upon this rock, this confession of
me, I'll build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. Now the church is this grain
of mustard seed that begins so small, and how it grows. I couldn't help but think of
the beginning of this little part of the Lord's Church. It
started with a bunch of kids. Children, basically. And how
the Lord has blessed us. The mustard seed can also represent
the individual believer. We see how it represents Christ
himself. We see how it represents the
church. But the mustard seed also speaks of the growth of
the believer. Now, the work of grace in a believer's
heart begins very small. It always begins small. Perhaps
just a thought God placed in your mind. A scripture that spoke
to you. a sermon that you heard, the
rebuke of a friend that let you know all was not well, an act
of kindness received from a Christian. One of my favorite all-time experiences
in going somewhere and preaching and asking somebody how they
started coming to that church. The first time I preached in
Iowa, and I was talking to a fellow by the name of Al Baker, and
I said, what in the world made you start coming to this church?
He said, the way Herm Roseboom loved me. I thought, isn't that
beautiful? The way he worked for this man,
Herm Roseboom was his employer, and the way Herm Roseboom loved
me is what made me come to this church. Boy, I want to be that
person, don't you? The kingdom of heaven beginning
so small. Grace begins small, but it grows. Living thing grows. Where there's
life, there's growth. And we grow because the Lord
gives the increase. Now understand this. This growth
that I'm speaking of, every believer grows. It's a growth in grace. Grow in grace and the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now why do I say that?
Why do I make an emphasis on the fact that the Bible makes
an emphasis that it's a growth in grace? Because most people,
when they think of growth, most religious people, they think,
well, I'm becoming, I'm growing, I'm becoming more and more holy,
and I'm becoming less and less sinful. That's what most people
mean when they speak of growth in grace, or what they call progressive
sanctification. I'm becoming more holy, and I'm
becoming less sinful. Now, my dear friend, that's not
growth in grace. That's growth in self-righteousness.
That's all it is. It's not growth in grace. Well,
what is this thing of growth in grace, the child of God beginning
small and growing? Well, growth in grace is very
much like the growth of a tree. As I understand it, however high
a tree is, that's how far down its roots go. Growth, Christian
growth, growth and grace, first of all, and this is so important,
growth and grace is growth downward. If I grow, I see myself as more
and more sinful, more and more in need of His grace. And you
know what? I don't know how long I've been
a believer. I don't know, I can't tell you exactly how long, but
I do know this, and I'm not proud of this, but I see myself to be more sinful
and more weak and more in need of His grace than I ever have
in my life. And that's how I see. And if
I grow, that's how I'm going to view myself. If I don't grow
in humility, If I don't grow in a just view of myself, I'm
not growing. It's not growth. Have you grown
to see yourself as more sinful? Somebody says, no. Well, you
haven't grown in grace then. Because if you've grown in grace,
first of all, you grow downward. But you also grow upward. You grow in your love to Christ
as He is. Now, here's what you do. Who
He is. You love how He is. You love
how He saves. You love His holiness. Now, if
you love Christ, that means you love His holiness. You love His
justice. You love His obedience to His
Father. You love His power. You love His sovereignty. You
love everything about Him if you love Him. I'm not asking
you right now to examine how much you love Him. Just quit
thinking about your love and think about Him. Do you love
Him? Do you see Him as altogether
lovely and beautiful? Now that's what you do when you
grow. You grow in a lower view of yourself, but you grow in
a higher view of Him. You can't view Him high enough. You can't see Him glorious enough. You can't value Him enough. You really see His righteousness
as the only righteousness there is. This is what growth is. You
grow in your love for Him. And a tree grows outward too,
doesn't it? You grow in your love to his
people. You grow in your love to men. You want them to hear, see, and
believe the gospel. Now, growth in grace is connected
with growth in knowledge. Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter
3. I want you to see this. And by knowledge, I'm not just
talking about giving assent to some facts, but the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Look in verse 18, the last verse of 2 Peter chapter
3. But grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory,
both now and forever. Amen. Peter also said, desire
the sincere or the pure milk of the word that you may grow
thereby. Now the more heart understanding
I have of the gospel. Now what do I mean by heart understanding?
I want to make that distinction. You can flawlessly understand
doctrines without ever really believing them. You can give
the perfect definition of depravity, and unconditional election, limited
atonement, and irresistible grace, and so on. You can give the meanings
of all those and be very accurate. But that's not necessarily the
love of the truth. It's not necessarily even believing
them at all. Now if you really believe grace,
you believe grace. But here's the point. We grow
in an understanding of the gospel. Now the more you understand the
more you will grow. You'll grow in love to Him. You'll
grow in humility. You'll grow in faith. You'll
grow in peace. These are things that grow from
understanding the gospel more clearly. Now, the more clearly
I see that Christ is all in my salvation, that He's all, the more joy I have in Him. the more peace I feel in knowing
that He is my salvation. This is growth in knowledge and
understanding of the gospel. We grow in the fruit of the Spirit
through the knowledge of Christ. We grow in love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Now, others, as I grow, Others
will be shaded by me and lodge in my branches. Now truly this
growth spoken of is picturing the growth of a believer. He
starts out small and he grows and he grows and he grows. Now it's a downward growth. Remember that about growth. It's
a downward growth. The way up in the kingdom of
God is down, always. It's an upward growth to the
Lord himself. And it's an outward growth to
his people. Now, there's different levels
of growth throughout the New Testament. You think of where
Paul said to the Corinthians, you're carnal. You walk as men. And he was talking to people
he believed were believers. And in 1 John 2, he talked about
children, young men, and fathers in Christ Jesus. No doubt there
are different levels of growth. By the grace of God, I want to
grow, don't you? The individual believer is like
a mustard seed. He grows by the grace of God.
And finally, faith is compared to a mustard seed. In Matthew
17, verse 20, the Lord said, If you have faith as a grain
of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, this mountain,
and I believe that mountain is unbelief, you shall say to this
mountain, Remove, hence, to yonder place, and it shall remove, and
nothing shall be impossible to you." Now, I love to think of
this faith as being... Do you feel like you've got big
faith? Surely not. Surely not. But if
you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, nothing will be
impossible to you. Now, how is that so? I want you to think for just
a moment about the mountains of sin that had been removed
through faith. If you believe the gospel, all
your sin is gone. In Acts chapter 13,
Paul said, Be it known unto you that through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him All that believe are
justified from all things which you could
not have been justified by the law of Moses. Beloved, if you
rely on Jesus Christ, right now the only claim you have is Him. You look nowhere else. Scripture
says you're justified. That means you have no sin. That
means you have no guilt. That means you have nothing to
feel guilty about. You're perfect before God. Now what a mighty
thing faith is. You think of the mountains of
sins that are removed through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And what mountains of opposition are broken through faith? The
Lord said, nothing shall be impossible to you. Nothing. You know, Paul
said, I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Oh, may God give us grace to
get a hold of that. And you know, this thing of faith
grows like a mustard seed. You know, the disciples did say,
Lord, increase our faith. Would you turn with me to Luke
chapter 17? Then said he unto his disciples,
Luke chapter 17 verse 1, It's impossible, but that offenses
will come, but woe unto him through whom they come. It were better
for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he
cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these
little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother trespass against
thee, rebuke him, and if he repent, Forgive him. And if he trespass
against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day, again,
turn to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. And I
love what the apostle said then. And the apostle said unto the
Lord, increase our faith. That's just above us and beyond
us. Increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had
faith as a grain of mustard seed, You might say unto this sycamine
tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in
the sea, and it should obey you. Now when your faith is increased,
but which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will
say unto him, By and by, when he is come from the field, go
and sit down to meet? And will not rather say unto
him, Make ready wherewith I may supper? Sup, and gird thyself,
and serve me, till I have eaten and drinking, and afterward thou
shalt eat and drink. Doth he thank the servant, because
he did the things that were commanded him? I think not, I trove not. You know, you ought to believe,
shouldn't you? Has the Lord given us any reason
not to believe? Do you congratulate yourself for your faith? I think
not. So likewise, when you shall have done all those things which
are commanded you. Say, we are unprofitable servants
and we've done that which is commanded us. Now isn't this
a beautiful illustration the Lord gives of what the kingdom
of God is like? It's like a mustard seed. Our Lord appeared smaller
than a mustard seed when he became incarnate and took on flesh. And look how huge He is. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. And all of God's people find
lodging in Him. They find a place where they're
comfortable. You know, I'm comfortable in
my own home. If I go into somebody else's home, I'm glad to be there,
I'm thankful to be there, but I don't have the liberty to Open
up the medicine cabinet and look around and open up the drawers
and see what all is there. I'm not supposed to do that if
I'm in somebody else's home. But oh, in my home, I have complete
liberty and freedom. What freedom we have in Christ.
We lodge there and how comforting is his shade. And we see the
beauty of the church. It starts out so insignificant. But oh, it becomes so large. You know, the Lord saves a lot
of people. Church is big, big as Christ himself. We see in
this mustard seed the growth of a believer. And we see in
this mustard seed the growth of faith. May the Lord plant
this mustard seed in the heart of everybody in this room. Let's
pray together. Lord, how we thank you for your
gospel. Lord, how we thank you that you
planted the seed that is so small in the world's eyes. And yet. It grows and brings forth fruit.
And causes us to believe on your son. Lord, we pray that we might
be enabled to see thy son as the mustard seed that's become
our lodging place. And that we find comfort in the
shadow of his branches. Lord, we pray for your growth
in the church. Lord, we ask that you would cause
us to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. And Lord, we ask that you would cause our faith to
grow exceedingly. Lord, all these things we're
asking are above our ability, but we ask that you would do
these things for us and in us, for Christ's sake. In his blessed
name, we pray. Amen. You got, Dwayne? Good. Church is one foundation
of Jesus Christ our Lord. What page? 186. 186. Stand and
sing. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word.