We're turning now in our Bible,
and I would encourage all of you to always bring your Bible
or have access to one. Luke chapter 13, Luke chapter
13. The title of the message here
is quite obvious. The title of the message is,
What is the Kingdom? What is the kingdom of God like? What is the kingdom of God like? The kingdom of God. Verse 18,
then said he unto, then he said he, that is the Lord, unto what
is the kingdom of God like? And where unto shall I resemble
or liken it? It is like a grain of mustard
seed, which a man took cast into his ground, into his garden,
and it grew and waxed a great tree. And the fowls of the air
lodged in the branches thereof. The birds found refuge in that
great tree provided by God." And then he gives another reference,
verse 20, again he said, "'Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of
God? It's like It is like leaven, leaven which a woman took and
hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. And he went through the cities
and villages teaching, journeying toward Jerusalem. Why was He headed to Jerusalem?
He set His face like a flint to put away our sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. Now, the Lord gives these two
parables to give us a good description of what the Kingdom of God... Now, we're talking about the
Kingdom of God, what it is like. Remember, I've told you in the
past, and will remind you again, A parable is an earthly story
that describes a spiritual truth. The Lord often taught in parables
using simple illustrations as we read in Matthew chapter 13. I would encourage you to go back
and read that chapter. Now the kingdom of God and the
kingdom of heaven sometimes are used interchangeably, the Kingdom
of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are mentioned in the New Testament
101 times. 101 times we read about the Kingdom
of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. It is therefore a subject that
deserves our attention, something that we should pay attention
unto. In Mark chapter 1, we read this,
after that John, speaking of John the Baptist, after he was
put in prison, the Lord Jesus Christ came into Galilee preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus Christ and
John came preaching the gospel, the gospel of God, the gospel
of the kingdom of God, saying the time was fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel." Now,
this repentance and believing the gospel, we know that both
faith and repentance are the sovereign gifts of God. The kingdom
of God, which is a spiritual kingdom remember our Lord said
my kingdom is not of this earth not of this world the kingdom
of God is a spiritual kingdom and it has an eternal and almighty
King you know his name the name of the king in this kingdom the
kingdom of God the name of this king in this kingdom is none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation 19 he is called
King of kings, and he is called Lord of lords. And then we're
going to study in a few months over in Romans chapter 14, the
Apostle Paul said this, The kingdom of God is not, not meat and drink,
but rather righteousness, peace, and joy, in God the Holy Spirit. We have righteousness in Christ,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we
always find joy and rejoicing in Christ our King. Even when the Lord Jesus Christ
as our King came and lived among men as a real man in the flesh,
He never At one time, one moment ceased to be God our King. The Lord Jesus Christ is none
other than God manifest in the flesh. The Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. You remember the wise men came
from the East country. They came to Jerusalem. They
came seeking Him and they said when they saw this one A little
child laying in a cow trough, they said this, where is he that
is born king? He was king when he got here.
He is not waiting someday to be lord and king. He is king
right now. And the wise men said, we have
seen his star in the east and we have come to worship him. Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ
is not God, if we fall down and worship Him, we are idolaters.
But since He is the true and living God, it is always right
to fall down and worship Him. And then I love this psalm. Psalm 47, verse 7, says, God
is King in all the earth. Is there any place where He is
not King in heaven or on earth, in all places? He is Lord of
Lord and He is King of King. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
only the appointed King and Lord, By the unchanging decree of God,
He is also the only appointed Savior, Son of God. So we often,
as the Scriptures do, refer to the Lord Jesus Christ as God,
our Savior. He is our God, He is our King,
our Lord, and He is our Savior. Not by something we have done,
but something that He has done. He came as King, and He came
to save His people from their sin. Remember when we were back
in Luke chapter 2. Don't turn, let me just read
this to you. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold,
I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of David according to the flesh. In the
city of David, Bethlehem, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. So
He is King, He is our God, He is our Savior, He is the Savior
and Redeemer of His people. The Lord Jesus Christ as God
our King, as the Lord our Christ, He is God our Savior who's come
to seek and to save those who were lost. He is the Savior that
saves all His people from all their sins when He died. That's
why His name came from heaven by the messenger of God called
His name Jesus. You know what that means? Savior. He shall save His people from
their sin. He is the Savior that really
saves. His people He doesn't attempt
to save or try to save. He justifies all for whom He
died. He is the Redeemer that redeemed
all His elect when He shed His blood. I had on the radio program
this morning, I trust that you listened to it, a very, very
Christ-centered message. It's all about Christ, His person,
His work, His great priesthood. How He obtained for us eternal
redemption with His own blood. That's our message. Christ and
Him crucified. He is the Redeemer that redeemed
and obtained for us eternal redemption with His own blood. He is the
King. You see, if you're going to have
a kingdom, you've got to have a King. Right? He is the King. in His Kingdom. Not only is He
King and Lord and Savior, He is also the appointed and sent
Messiah. When the Messiah has come, He'll
tell us all things. And the Lord said, I'm it. I'm the Messiah. Now what does
the word Messiah mean? It means that He is the Christ,
the Christ of God, the Christ, the Messiah. And that means that
He is the anointed Savior. He is the anointed Lord. He is
anointed in all of His office as Prophet, Priest, and King. Peter said, that same Jesus whom
you have crucified, He is both Lord and He is the Christ. Remember the Lord asked Peter
and the apostles that day, whom do you say that I am? And Peter
confessed, Thou art the Christ, the Christ, the Christ of God,
the one sin of God. As the Christ of God, the Savior,
the Redeemer, the Lord, the King, our God, He's anointed in all
His office, His office as prophet to reveal God unto us. He's hid these things from the
wise and prudent and revealed them unto God. He is the priest
of God. What does a priest do? What's
the difference between a prophet and a priest? Well, a prophet
represents God to the people. The priest represents us under
God. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Great High Priest. And He is the priest that represents
us. But not only that, He is the
priest who redeemed us, not with the blood of bulls and goats,
but with his own blood. Now that's what gives efficacy,
power, weight, and eternal glory to his redeeming blood. It's
who this man is, the God-man mediator. So he's a prophet to
reveal, a priest to represent and to redeem us, and then what
does a king do? A king is not like a president.
Now a president sometimes maybe will act like he's a king, but
a president is not a king. A king in his kingdom is the
absolute. Whatever he says is done. The
Lord Jesus Christ, God said, I've set my king upon my holy
hill, Zion, and whatever he says, whatever the king says is true. This king cannot lie. Whatever
the king says will be done. Whatever the king has written
down and decreed, it shall be accomplished. This king, God's
king, cannot fail. It says that in Isaiah 42. He shall not fail. He shall not
be discouraged. By the Lord's sovereign grace,
He has chosen to elect a people unto salvation from the beginning,
before the foundation of the world, before the entrance of
sin into this creation. God has chosen by His good and
sovereign pleasure to choose a people to receive His special
blessings and to be included in His kingdom. To be made a
son of God, an heir of God, a joint heir with the Lord Jesus Christ.
To be adopted into His family, to be born into His family, to
be included in His kingdom. I want to be included in that
kingdom. And it's by His sovereign will, by His sovereign choice. Remember back a few pages, turn
to Luke chapter 12. Look at verse 31, Luke 12, 31.
But rather, seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things
will be added unto you. You remember Matthew 6, 33, it
says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added unto you. Now read on.
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure,
it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Now it's by whose good pleasure?
His good pleasure. His good pleasure is an eternal
pleasure. It's a sovereign purpose. Our
Lord in these verses today then, that brings us to these two parables,
gives us some true and vital information about this Kingdom
of God. Two things are given here. The
Kingdom of God, first of all, is like a grain of mustard seed
which grows into a great tree. It's planted by God, watered
by God, fertilized by God, and what happens? It grows. It grows. You remember Paul said,
I planted, Paul watered, but God gives the increase. And then
the Lord says, secondly, that the kingdom of God is like a
woman that takes this leaven, and puts it in three measures
of wheat, of meal, till the whole is leavened. Now both of these
parables show us and teach us not to despise small things. Now mustard seed, as we read
over Matthew 13, is the least of all the seeds, a very small
thing. But when it's planted and blessed
of God, It grows and it blooms. And then also about putting this
leaven into the dough, it appears to be a very small thing but
it has big results. We read in Zechariah chapter
4 verse 10 where it says, despise not the day of small things. The day of small things. You
see, it's God's day. Nothing with God is insignificant,
weak. Now, what is the kingdom of God
like? First of all, it's like a small grain of mustard seed
which has a very small beginning and grows up to be very great. Now, this is a picture of the
gospel of Christ and the overwhelming effect of Christ and Him crucified
in this world. The grain of mustard seed of
the Lord's Gospel Church had a very small, meager beginning,
did it not? God sent forth His Son in the
fullness of time. God sent forth His Son made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. God incarnate, think about it. God who inhabits eternity,
inhabited a body of a man, born of a virgin woman, born in a
Caltroth, in a stable, in an obscure town of Bethlehem of
Judea, but raised up by the power of God to be the greatest man
The greatest King, the greatest Savior, the only Savior, the
only King that ever lived among men who absolutely did the will
of God Almighty. He is the God-Man Mediator, our
Advocate, our Savior, and our King. We read about Him in Isaiah
9. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, the government shall be upon his shoulders,
his name shall be called Wonderful, The Counselor, the Mighty God,
the Everlasting Father, He is the Prince of Peace. He's called
in Scripture the King of Peace, the King of Righteousness, the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. Born into a very poor family,
root out of dry ground, Isaiah said. Joseph and Mary were both
of the house of David, but both were impoverished. They had nothing
in this life. He was born into a poor family,
raised in a despised city of... What was that city? Nazareth.
Someone said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Oh, come
and see. Come and see this one. Born in a desolate place. raised in a despised city, lived
a life of persecution, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ,
God manifest in the flesh, lived a life of persecution. He said
the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head. The birds of the
air, they have their nests. The foxes have their hove. But
the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head. He was a homeless
man. You know that? lived a life of persecution at
the hands of the established religious crowd, the Jews of
that day. They hated him. They said to
him, he's a wine-bebber, he's a drunk, he's a homeless drunk,
he's possessed with a demon, he's a prince of Beelzebub. And anything good come out of
this man? Oh, come and see. Suffered the cruel treatment
of the Romans, who hated all the Jews, but especially they
hated this man. Pilate said, What about your
king? They said, away with him. Crucify
him. We have no king but Caesar. Died the death reserved for the
worst criminals. Crucifixion between two thieves.
Was buried in a borrowed tomb. Well, that's the end of him.
That's the end of that. We won't hear any more about
him anymore. Oh, my friend, that mustard seed
sown in the ground grows, grows. The third day, He came out of
that tomb. In His humanity, looking at His
life, His death, as low as humanity can be. But out of that day of
small beginnings, the Lord raised up a mighty, triumphant King,
a mighty and triumphant, victorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in the Revelation of
Him, He said, I am He that liveth and was dead. Behold, I am alive
forevermore. I have the keys of hell and death."
That means he has the power. You have the keys, you have the
ownership, you have power of hell and death. He was delivered
for our offenses, raised again for our justification. You remember
from our study in the book of John, John chapter 12, remember
this verse, verse 24, "...verily, verily, I say unto you, except
a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone,
but if it die, It bringeth forth much fruit. There is much fruit
that came out of His crucifixion and death and His glorious resurrection. He ever lives to make intercession
for us. The Lord, by His life of obedience
unto God, honoring the law of God in every detail, was working
out for us a perfect, justifying righteousness before God, which
He freely gives to His people by His grace, justified freely
by His grace through the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed is that man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without
works. The Lord not only by His life,
but the Lord by His sacrificial death of Himself for us put away
the sin of His people once forever. When He had by Himself purged
our sin, He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He
appeared once in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Now he ever lives, right now,
this moment, right now, to intercede for us as our mediator, as our
advocate, to reconcile us unto God. Despise not the day of small
things. The grain of mustard seed. See how the Lord has caused His
gospel church to grow and flourish in this world through the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Think about this small beginning
too. The Lord called twelve simple men to go and preach the gospel. Publicans and fishermen to go
and preach the gospel to men who by nature hate God and who
are dead in sin. And yet the Lord has ordained
the preaching of the gospel to call out His people. How could
this gospel message have such great success and influence in
this world? It appeared to be a very small
insignificant thing of sinful men standing up and declaring
the gospel truth of how God saves sinners in Christ. It seemed
like a very small insignificant thing. Yet it pleased God by
the preaching of the gospel to call out His people. How could
this gospel message have such success in the world? It's because
it's His message. He sends His servants out to
preach this gospel and He blesses His word. In Acts 17, we read
about the men who were sent of God And it says of them, these
are the men that turned the world upside down. How could twelve
simple men turn the world upside down? Because they were sent
of God with His message and blessed of God with His message. The
Lord instructed these men to go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. He would bless it to the hearts
of His church, His sheep, His elect. He said, my sheep, they'll
hear my voice, and I'll call them. And he calls them through
the preaching of the gospel. Now think about this. The early
church apostles were hated, persecuted, and were murdered. Well, that's
the end of that. Oh, no. Oh, no. The more the
gospel is persecuted, the more it grows. But rather, that persecution
and those apostles being all murdered for the gospel was a
springboard that caused it to grow and flourish in this world. And then, one day the Lord raised
up a bunch of men known as the Reformers. Remember? Despise
not the day of small things, my friend. The Lord raised up
the Reformers, like Martin Luther. like John Knox, like John Calvin. And the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ was spread all over Europe, in England, and then in this
country. Men like George Whitefield came
back in the early 1700s and preached this gospel of God's grace, sovereign
grace, sovereign mercy, back in 1730. And there was that first
great revival that spread over this country in that day in the
New England states. Men like Whitefield and men like
Ashley Middleton, a hundred years later, again used that man, raised
up that man for a special day in the early 1800s, and blessed
that message of the gospel of Christ. And then men like Jonathan
Edwards, Whitefield, Middleton, and Edwards in this country,
preaching the gospel. Preaching the same gospel message
of salvation by Christ alone. accomplished by Christ alone,
by grace alone, by the Word of God alone, by faith alone, to
the glory of God alone. And then one day, the Reformers
died off, the early church fathers, they all died off, and God kept
raising up men and sent them to preach the gospel, and He's
still doing that today. Sending men to preach the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the power of God into salvation.
I think about men like in 1950, Brother Ralph Barnard was sent
to Ashland, Kentucky to preach the Gospel. And there was a young
preacher there, 29 years old. who didn't know the Gospel, sitting
right there on the front row. And one day the Lord was pleased
through that old service to teach Pastor Henry Mahan the Gospel,
how God saves sinners by His purpose and by His grace. And then men like, not only Rothbard,
but men like A.D. Muse out of Louisville, who was
a preacher of the Gospel. And then the Lord raised up men
like Scott Richardson, men like Henry Mahan, and sent them out
to preach the gospel of God's grace. You know, this ministry
right here was established through Brother Mahan's TV ministry.
Did you know that? That's how this ministry all
came about. This was just a swamp here. One man in Pike County
heard the gospel of God's saving grace, Paul Thacker, and got
acquainted with Brother Henry. and told Brother Henry, he said,
if I buy a piece of property and build this building, we're
sitting in right now, would you send somebody up here to preach
that gospel that's the power of God and salvation? Pastor
Mahan said, certainly, certainly. I brought him up here that first
time when this building was done in spring of 1986, 31 years ago. And he stood in this very pulpit
and preached the gospel of God's grace. And we're still here. You see, someone would say, well,
that was a very small thing. One man over here in Sydney,
Kentucky heard the gospel preaching and it has flourished. He's blessed
his message here and in other places. Now, the church of our
Lord Jesus Christ, I'm not talking about a local assembly, but universally
the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has grown into a great
tree. where His creatures find rest, righteousness, and refuge
from the storm in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called in Isaiah
61.3, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that He may be glorified in Him. And that's where it is. We're glorified in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, I have just a few minutes
left. And we'll look at this second part of this in verse 20, Luke 13 verse 20. Where unto shall I liken the
kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman
took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Again, we have that same principle.
A very small insignificant thing that's put inside of something
and then it grows. It grows to be a blessing. It
grows to be a benefit to many people. Now, often and many times,
leaven is used in the Scripture in a negative way. A negative
way. That is, for example, on the
day of Passover, that we read about in Exodus chapter 12, leaven
was to be put out of the house, remember? Leaven, many times
in Scripture, is used as a type of sin. So the leaven was to
be put out of the house. They were to eat unleavened bread.
Even today, when we observe the Lord's table, when He said, take
this bread and eat, we do so with unleavened bread. That's
why it tastes so good. Tastes to see that the Lord is
gracious. And then in Luke chapter 12,
you remember over there in Luke chapter 12 verse 1, he said,
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Beware of
the leaven, beware of their corrupting influence of their doctrine.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. So oftentimes
it's used in a negative way. And then in Galatians 5 verse
9, we read this, a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. And
Paul there is talking about adding your human works, your human
goodness in the scheme of salvation, and you've corrupted the whole
thing. So oftentimes, leaven is used in a negative way, but
here it's used in a very positive light. Here the Lord gives us
a homely illustration of a woman in her kitchen making bread. And I actually did this on Friday. I went down to the store, bought
me two packs of red star yeast, mixed it up in water, in the
flour, and kneaded it, pounded it for five minutes, and then
put it in a bowl. And they said, wait an hour and
something will happen. And I wanted to experience that
so I could preach this sermon to you. And it did. That leaven that I put in that
three and a half cup of flour, it did add a little bit of water
with it, a little bit of oil, and it did exactly what the Lord
said it would do. It doubled in size. The gospel
that's the power of God and the salvation has an all-consuming
effect upon the hearts of His people." Now this is a picture
of God taking the leaven, which is the seed, the Word, and putting
it in your heart, pounding it in there, and then we stand back
and watch the marvelous effect the Word of God has on the hearts
and minds of His people. The word of the Lord, like leaven,
the gospel is a seed. The word of the Lord, when planted
in the heart of a sinner, has a lasting influence and a glorious
end. The word of God is quick and
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It has a small beginning,
a sermon preached, a word spoken in due season, but when blessed
by the power of God, It has a great influence, does it not? It has
a big impact upon your heart, upon your mind, upon your thinking,
upon your will, upon your affection, upon your soul, upon the whole
lump, upon the whole man. It gets inside of you and it
works in you. God who has begun a good work
in you, He will finish it. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of God's power. Once the work of grace has started
in our soul with the Word of Truth, in the hands of God the
Holy Spirit, it will never stop, but will continue to grow in
grace and in the knowledge of Christ like a tidal wave. Stand up there and try to stop
a tidal wave. It'll just roll right over you.
And that's what the Gospel does. You cannot stop the influence
of the Gospel to the hearts of God's elect. If any man be in
Christ, he is a new creation. Who does that? We are His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus. When He plants that seed in that
lump of clay and makes us a new man, a new creation, a new creature
in Christ, it has a lasting and eternal effect upon all of us,
does it not? When God does the work. Now,
that's why we preach the gospel and leave folks alone. We don't
browbeat people and buttonhole people and badger people to do
this and do that and do the other. We preach the gospel like that
woman took that leaven, put it in that meal, and then she left
it alone. And the leaven works. And God
works in the hearts of His people. The leavening effect of the gospel
of Christ so works in us to make us love what we once hated. Now
the Lord Jesus Christ to the believer is no longer enmity
toward him. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, he's
altogether lovely. Now to you who once did not believe
the gospel, to you who believe the Lord Jesus Christ, he is
precious to you now. We submit willingly to His Word,
the Word of the Lord, and bow to the sovereign rule of our
King. And we do so willingly, lovingly. We bow to Christ. We hug up to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we sweetly bow to His sovereign
rule. May the Lord be pleased to work
the leaven of His Word, the grace of His Word, the power of His
Word into our hearts. that it might have a sweet influence
upon us unto His glory, then we'll believe the gospel, then
we'll love the gospel, then we will repent, then we'll look
to God, then we'll rest in Christ alone and say with pause, but
of Him are you in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Then we will
bow to Him and confess that He is Lord, King to the glory of
God Almighty, and do so willingly, lovingly, bowing to the sovereign
rule of our King. That's the Kingdom of God. He
is King in His Kingdom.