Now we're turning back to our
bookmark found in Matthew chapter 13. Another parable he put forth,
verse 31, saying, The kingdom of heaven, you see
that statement? The kingdom of heaven is likened
to a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. Now look down to verse 33. The
kingdom of heaven is likened to leaven which a woman took
and hid in three measures of meal. Now, these eight parables
that are found in this chapter, Matthew chapter 13, In each of those parables, that
statement is made, the kingdom of heaven. But in looking that
up, I found in the book of Matthew, it is used 32 times. 32 times he mentions the kingdom
of heaven. Mark, Luke, and John, they never
use that phrase, the kingdom of heaven. In the book of Luke,
I believe it's chapter 13, when the Lord gives the parable and
Luke writes it, there he says the kingdom of God. the kingdom
of God. Is there a difference between
the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God? I don't think
so. They're one and the same because there's just one God.
But the kingdom of heaven is light. That'll be the title of
the message. The title of the message. These
two phrases, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, is used
a total of 101 times. 101 times. It seems to be pretty
important as you read through the Gospel
of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And in each of these parables,
that statement is found. But we've seen that statement
before. If you turn back to Matthew chapter
3, we've seen that statement before, the Kingdom of Heaven.
In Matthew chapter 3 verse 1, In those days came John the Baptist,
preaching in the wilderness, saying, Repent ye, for the Kingdom
of Heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now turn to Matthew chapter 4,
when the Lord Jesus Christ came, it says in verse 17, from that
time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, that means a
change has to take place, for or because the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. So we see that again. In Matthew
chapter 5, look at verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Theirs is the kingdom
of salvation, those who are poor in spirit. I am poor and needy,
yet the Lord thinks upon me. So the kingdom of heaven, we've
seen that statement before, but the question I have is this.
What is this kingdom of heaven? Who is this Kingdom in Heaven? Who is this King of Heaven? Well,
the short answer is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What is the Kingdom
of Heaven spoken of here? It's Christ and the Gospel. It's
the Gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and His
Kingdom. Now, we can find an answer to that very important
question when we see who the King of Heaven is. Who is the
king of heaven? God is the king of all the earth. God is the king of all the earth.
He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven. and among
the inhabitants of this earth, and none can stay his hand or
say to him, Lord God Almighty, what doest thou? We kind of lose
a sense of what a king is. You go back centuries back, and
when there was a king in any kind of country, the king of
Spain or the king of England or whatever it may be, well,
when there was a king, his word was it. What he said went. So we've kind of lost the aspect
of what a king is. The Lord Jesus Christ is King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. In Psalm 44, we read, Thou art
my King, O God, David said, Thou art my King, O God, Command deliverances
for Zion. You remember Psalm 2, where God
said, I've set my king upon my holy hills, and he's talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in Psalm 74, verse 12,
we read, for God is my king of old, working salvation in the
midst of the earth. He's king in salvation. He's
king of all things. The wise men came, remember Matthew
chapter two, the wise men came when they saw the sign of the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah, and they came there
to Bethlehem and they said, where is he that born king? He was king when he got here.
He was born as king, he lived as king, and as we read a moment
ago, and they put that title and accusation of his crime that
was that they said that he committed,
he said that he was the king. No, he is the king, king of the
Jews. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the
king of the Jews. Now, he's not king by something
we do. We didn't vote on this. The Lord
Jesus Christ is not king by a democratic process. God made this same Jesus
whom you crucified, God had made him both King and the Christ. You remember from Revelation
19, our study there, out of his mouth goeth the sharp sword,
and with it he should smite the nation. He shall rule them with
a rod of iron. He treadeth the winepress of
the wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his vesture and on
his thigh a name written, King of kings, Lord of lords. He is the Lord and King of all
of salvation. He is Lord and King in salvation
in which he has established by his sovereign and eternal decrees. He said, my kingdom is not of
this world. He has an eternal kingdom, a
spiritual kingdom. He chose his people to be in
this kingdom. He chose the people to inhabit
this kingdom. this kingdom of grace, it's a
spiritual kingdom, and he chose them before the foundation of
the world. Our Lord said, you didn't choose me, I've chosen
you. We're bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God has chosen you unto salvation. So he chooses the people to be
in his kingdom, to inhabit his kingdom. Not only that, The king,
the Lord Jesus Christ, in time came and bought them with his
own blood. He told those elders at Ephesus
to feed the church of God, which Christ had purchased with his
own blood. In the fullness of time, he came
and he bought the church with his own blood. He bought us.
He established a kingdom. He chose people to inhabit the
kingdom. We call that the Bible doctrine
of election. He came in time and bought them
with his own blood, put away their sin, established righteousness
for them, and then he calls them by his grace. He calls them and
he brings them and delivers them out of the kingdom of darkness.
into the kingdom of God's dear son. He translated us out of
darkness into his light, the kingdom of light. The Lord said,
I am the light of the world. We show forth the praises of
him, Peter said, who called us out of darkness into his marvelous
light. He calls us into this kingdom. We don't put ourselves in this
kingdom. The good seed planted in the
good ground makes up the spiritual, makes up the citizens of the
spiritual kingdom, which is salvation by his grace. You remember what
he said there in verse 37, Matthew 13, verse 37 and 38. He that soweth the good seed
is the son of man. The field is the world, the good
seed, the children of God. So the Lord Jesus Christ plants
the Good seed in the good ground, and that makes us spiritual citizens
of the kingdom of God. By nature we're this. By nature
we're foreigners and strangers to the kingdom of God's grace.
But Ephesians 2, he says this, you're no more strangers and
foreigners, aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and
of the household of God. Every believer is a saint. Did
you know that? were sanctified in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now the message this morning
will be taken from those two parables that we read, given
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And like all scripture, gives
us and teaches us one great lesson, one great message, that is salvation
is of the Lord and salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son does
not have light. Now, look at verse 31 and verse
32 of Matthew 13. Another parable put he forth. Now remember, a parable is an
earthly story that tells us and teaches us a spiritual and eternal
lesson. The parable he put forth, the
kingdom of heaven is like. to a grain of mustard seed, which
a 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 the
herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and they
lodge in the branches of that tree." Now, you got the picture
on your mind? You're just a little itty bitty
little seed. The least of all seeds. Now I'm not sure exactly
what that mustard plant looked like. It's probably not the mustard
plant that I sow out here in the spring. Greens. But some
kind of a little seed that grows up into a large tree. So much
so that the birds find their nests there. The Lord takes his
earthly story of a very small seed, the least seed, And when
it is planted and blessed by the Lord, it will grow by His
purpose, by His grace, and it becomes great in the earth. So
much so that the birds of the air come and find their home
there. They make their home there. They
build their nest there. They lay their eggs there. They
raise their little ones there. They abide in that tree. They
abide in it. They lodge there is the word,
and we abide in Christ. He's our lodging. He is the tree
of life. Now, the spiritual lesson for us today, and right now,
for us to see and to learn about the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, is this. The gospel has a very small beginning,
but it has grown into a great kingdom of God. Our Lord told
the prophet Zechariah in his day, despised not the day of
small things." Small things. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ had a very small beginning. The seed of woman that would
crush a serpent's head. God called one idolater named
Abraham out of the air of the Chaldees. And from that one man,
Abraham, God has blessed a multitude of people through his seed, Christ. Born in Bethlehem, seed of woman. Born in Bethlehem, the Lord Jesus. Raised in Nazareth. Preached
the gospel to multitudes and died for the sins of his people.
He was raised to glory, having accomplished all our salvation,
seated there in the heavenlies to ever intercede for us right
now. But it had a very small beginning.
Think about it. Here's an infant born in a caltrop. of an insignificant family, Mary
and Joseph were nobodies. Although they were in line to
be king, they were nobodies. And here's this little infant
baby, born in a cow trough. No place, they didn't have any
place for him, for Mary and Joseph to stay. Out there in the barn,
but you see the very small beginnings and how it has grown. and groan
and groan. When he had by himself purged
our sin, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high,
who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, who being in the brightness of his glory,
the express image of his person upholding all things by the word
of his power, this is the one who died to put away our sin.
It's who he is, he gives power to what he did. The gospel of
Christ had a very small beginning, like this little mustard seed.
The Lord chose out 12 men, who for the most part, the Pharisees
said, they were unlearned and uneducated men, mostly fishermen. Unlearned and uneducated. But
the Lord called out these 12 men, made them apostles, gave
them special credentials, special gifts to preach the word, and
sent them with the gospel message, and in the book of Acts it said
these men turned the world upside down. Not with the force of an
army, but with the force of thus saith the Lord. The word of the
Lord is quick and powerful. sharper than any two-edged sword. They turned the world upside
down, and now we see the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ going
out from Jerusalem, small beginning, on a day of Pentecost when they
came together. There were how many believers,
disciples? You remember? 120 men. And through
persecution, God scattered them throughout all that part of the
world, and they went everywhere doing what? Preaching, preaching,
preaching the seed, the word of life. And that seed, when
it was planted, it grew and grew and grew, and it's still growing.
Now the gospel is preached all over the world. It's grown to
a large, vast spiritual kingdom of which no man can measure.
The infinite reaches of this kingdom has no boundaries, does
it? The kingdom is filled with sinners.
The kingdom of grace is filled with sinners saved by the grace
of God. Like these little helpless dirty birds made white and clean
through the blood of Christ. Those little birds lodging in
that tree, that's a picture of us. You remember what the Lord
said in Isaiah 1? Come now, let us reason together.
Say to the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses those dirty little birds from all their sins. Think about it. He bought us.
He redeemed us with his precious blood. And the birds of the air,
they come and lodge in the branches of this blessed tree. Sinners
saved by the grace of God, they flee to this tree for safety
and for life. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
what? The tree of life. the tree of life. You remember
Revelation 22, he said, in the midst of the street of it, on
either side of the river, was a tree of life, which bared twelve
manner of fruits, yielded her fruit every month. The leaves
of the tree were the healing of the nations. Believers are
compared to these little birds. Little birds are Weak? Little birds are defenseless.
Little birds are totally dependent upon their great God to provide
for them. Right? I was looking out the window
the other day as I was over here studying. I looked out this window
over here and in that yard next door there was a flock of little
birds. I mean they were just all over
that place. Hundreds of them. And then I
walked back in my study and looked out that back window and those
little birds were just all over the yard back there. And I thought
to myself, here's the thing that I thought about. God provides
for those little birds. They don't build a barn. They don't plant crops. They're
totally dependent upon the Lord to provide for them. He is called
Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. Isn't
that a picture of us? We are totally helpless, weak,
vile, guilty sinners, totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus
Christ to accomplish all our salvation. God's kingdom made
up of sinners, redeemed by the blood of Christ, by the blood
of the Lamb, out of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue under
heaven, who sing the praises unto the Lord, like those little
birds permanently lodging in Christ, who is the true vine. He's the true vine, we're the
branches. Next time, I like on Sunday morning, in the springtime
of the year, And usually on Sunday morning, I put my hearing aids
in. Most of the time, I don't wear my hearing aids, but I do
on Sunday morning. And when it warms up a little
bit, I put my hearing aids in. I go out and sit on the porch,
drink a little bit of coffee. And you know what I hear? I hear
them little birds. I can't hear them with my aids
in. But when I put them hearing aids
in, I hear them little birds, little birds. You know what you're
saying? Thank you, Lord. Praise the Lord. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. That's
what I hear when I hear them little birds singing. They're
singing praises to the Lord. And that's what believers do.
The little bird doesn't say, well, boy, look what I did. I
made that tree. That little bird, no, he knows
better. He's totally dependent upon God
Almighty to provide for him. to provide for him. I thought
of this scripture. If you want to turn with me,
you can, but I'll read it to you. He said in Matthew 6, verse
26, behold, the fowls of the air, they sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feedeth
them. Are ye not much better than they? The father takes care of them.
He's going to take care of his people. He sent his son to die
for us, put our sin away. Now the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ has grown into a great tree where his creatures find
rest and righteousness and refuge from the storm. As a matter of
fact, the believers are called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord. We're so connected with the true
vine that we are one with the vine. We are branches in the
vine, vitally connected in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. So
there's the first thing. I thought about bringing four
of these parables today, but I came to the conclusion that
I could just get two of them done. Now look at verse 33, Matthew
13, 33. Another parable. He spake unto
them, The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman
took. How many of you women here have
made bread? I mean, made bread from scratch. Yeah. And what do you add to that flour?
You add some leaven, don't you? You add a little bit of leaven
in that flour. And then what happens? You just stand back
and something happens in there. Do you know the chemical reaction
that happens in there? I don't really know much about
it, but I looked it up this morning and it says when you put that
yeast in that flour that it eats up the sugar and it causes gas,
CO. to bubble up thousands of little
bubbles, and that's what raises that dough up. That's what Christ
does in us. That's what He does in us. Now,
the kingdom of heaven is like unto a woman who put leaven into
ground up wheat, who hid the leaven in three measures of meal,
until the whole lump was leavened, raised up, and made to be useful. Now oftentimes we read in scripture
that leaven is used in a negative way. For example, when the Jews
observed the Passover, they were to take all the leaven and put
it out of the house for seven days, remember? And they even
had a feast called the Feast of Unleavened Days. So oftentimes
leaven is used in a type and picture of sin. The Lord said
to those Pharisees, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
Beware of the doctrine of the Pharisees. Beware of their corrupting
influence. And that's what leaven does to
a lump of flour. It has an influence, doesn't
it? A great influence. And the Lord said, beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees. They have a corrupting influence.
And then Paul, when he writes to the Galatians who were so
pestered by the Judaizers saying that you need to, Christ is okay,
but you need the law too. And Paul writes that we're justified
by the grace of God alone. And he said to those believers
there in Galatia, a little leaven leavens a whole lump. In other
words, he's saying your works in the scheme of salvation, when
you enter in any kind of human merit or work, you've corrupted
the whole message. But here the Lord uses it in
a very positive way. And he gives us here a homely
illustration, a homely illustration of a woman in her kitchen making
bread, who puts in, and I went to the store one time down here
when I read a recipe on how to make pretzels. I love those soft
pretzels. You know, when you go to some
kind of fair or something, they have them big soft pretzels.
I could eat those things till I just drop. I just love them. So I thought, well, I'm going
to try to make some. So I found a recipe, and it said
to use flour and leaven. And I said, well, where can I
get some leaven? I went down here to the market,
and they have some leaven called red star yeast. and it's leaven
in a little teeny package. I took it home and followed the
instructions, which I usually don't do, but I put that little
leaven in that flour, and they said if you put that leaven in
that little lump, it'll double in size. It just, that leaven
eats up the sugar, and the energy of that causes a CO gas, and
it just, thousands of little bubbles just, Now here's the thing you've got
to do though. You must put the leaven in ground
up wheat. It has to be ground up, doesn't
it? You can't put leaven in just wheat seed. It's not going to
work. Christ must grind us up, break
our hearts to make the gospel yeast to take effect. Our Lord
said, He's nigh them of a broken heart, save as such as be the
contrite spirit. The gospel of Christ is the power
of God unto salvation, and it has an all-consuming effect upon
the hearts of his people. When that leaven of the gospel
is sowed in your heart, when it's sowed in your affections,
your mind, your will, the word of the Lord, like leaven, the
gospel seed of the word, when the Lord plants it in the heart,
it takes It takes effect. The Word of God is effectual.
It has a positive effect. It has a lasting influence. It
has a glorious end, making us new creatures in Christ. We're
born again of that incorruptible seed of God, the Word of God,
which Paul calls it, is quick and powerful, sharper than any
two-edged sword. Now, little Evan, just a little
bit of Evan, I don't even know what it looks like. I can't remember,
but it's got to be just little. A little bit of leaven sprinkled
on that little bit of flour has a great effect. Yeah, I thought of something
else just now. You know what else you got to add? Water. Right? Christ is the water. Christ is
the wheat. Christ is everything. It has
a small beginning. Here's where I'm going with this.
The gospel when it's preached has a small beginning. A sermon
preached or a word spoken in due season, blessed by the power
of God the Holy Spirit, has a great influence, a great effect upon
those who receive the leaven of the gospel. It has a great
effect upon them. For the gospel comes not in word
only, but also in power. It has a big effect as an impact
upon the heart, our mind, our thinking, our will, our affection,
upon the whole creature to make us look to Christ for all of
our salvation. Once the work of grace is started
in our soul, with the word of truth in the hands of the Holy
Spirit, it will never stop to continue to grow and grow and
grow in the knowledge of truth, the growing grace in the Lord
Jesus Christ, like an unstoppable tsunami wave, a tidal wave. It has a great effect upon God's
people. God who had begun a good work
in you, he'll finish it. He'll finish it unto the glory
of God. The leavening effect of the gospel so works in our
heart to make us love that which we once hated. Now the Lord Jesus
Christ is altogether lovely. He makes us to love that which
we hated at one time. To you who believe, He is precious. The leavening of the gospel when
it's put in our heart by the power of God the Holy Spirit,
He causes us to believe that which we thought one time, preaching
Christ and Him crucified, was foolishness. Now it's the power
of God and the salvation. that gospel leaven when it's
put in our heart, the seed of the word of life. It causes us
to submit willingly to his word, to bow to his sovereign rule.
He makes us willing in the day of his power. You see, it has
an effect upon. May the Lord be pleased to work
the leaven of his word in each of our hearts, that it might
have a sweet lasting influence upon us. Then we'll believe and
love the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we'll repent toward
God and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll say with
the Apostle Paul, I count all things, but lost, dung, and ruined,
that I may win Christ and be found in him. I want you to turn and read this
with me. And I'm going to close with reading this scripture.
Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. First Corinthians chapter
one. Now I quote this scripture all
the time, but I want you to see this and mark it. First Corinthians
chapter one, look at verse 30. Verse 30. But of him, I love that word
B-U-T, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us. But of him are you in Christ,
okay? How'd you get in Christ? He chose
us, He called us, He put us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Christ is the elect, we're chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world, but of Him are you in Christ, Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom. Wisdom. He gives us wisdom. He makes us wise unto salvation,
seeing that in the Lord Jesus Christ is everything in our salvation. He makes us wise. Christ is our
wisdom alone. In him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. So Christ is our wisdom, the
wisdom. We see in Christ crucified the
wisdom and power of God. In that same chapter, 1 Corinthians
1, Verse 23 and 24, we preach Christ crucified and the Jews
a stumbling block under the Greeks foolishness, but under them which
are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, Christ
the wisdom of God. And we see how God can be just
and justify the ungodly. Now look at the text again, verse
30. But of him are you in Christ, Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us wisdom Righteousness. Now, how righteous do I need
to be to stand before God? I need to be as righteous as
God. Well, preacher, how can that be? In my flesh, the best
I have is nothing but filthy rags. Our righteousness are filthy
rags. God said there's none righteous,
no, not one. How can this sinner be found before God righteous? only in Christ, who is the Lord
our righteousness. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
imputeth righteousness without work. He is Jehovah Sid Canoe. Jehovah Sid Canoe. The Lord our
righteousness. He's the Lord our righteousness.
Blessed is that man whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without
work. And he is our sanctification.
Sanctification means we're set apart. We're set apart and regarded
by God in Christ as holy. We're holy in Christ. He presents
us before the Father, unblameable, unreprovable. He keeps us from
falling and presents us before the Father, faultless, and He
does so with exceeding joy. He is, Christ is our sanctification. We don't get any more justified
or sanctified than we are right now in Christ. There's no such
thing as progressive sanctification. That's a myth. We are either
completely sanctified or we're not. But I'm saying in Christ,
he is all our sanctification, just as much as he is all our
righteousness, all our wisdom. And then the last thing that
he mentions there, but of him, are you in Christ, who God has
made unto us redemption. Redemption. Redemption is deliverance. Deliverance. Deliverance from
our sin. Deliverance from the wrath of
God. He redeemed us with His own blood, in whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches
of His grace. He obtained for us, you remember
the high priest? who came the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't bring that typical
animal sacrifice. He said, I didn't bring the blood
of bulls and goats, but I have obtained eternal redemption for
you with my own blood. We are redeemed. That, see verse 31, according
as it is written, he that with glory let him glory in the Lord.
Now that comes, I think, the reference there to Jeremiah 9.23. Can we quote that? I don't know
if I can or not. I'll have you look it up. Jeremiah
9.23.