This evening we are continuing our study of the gospel of Mark so I invite you now to turn to into your bibles to Mark chapter 4. It can be found on page 885 and 886 of the pew bibles. We find ourselves at verse 26 of chapter 4 where we will read and consider from verse 26 through verse 32, or verse 34. Concluding this short series of chapter four of these parables, and here we have the last two parables or analogies that our Lord gives in this chapter. So Mark four, beginning at verse 26. bottom of page 885, hear the word of our God. And he said, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground and should sleep by night and rise by day and the seed should sprout and grow. He himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. Then he said, to what shall we liken the kingdom of God, or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth. But when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade. And with many such parables, he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable, he did not speak to them, And when they were alone, he explained all things to his disciples. As far our reading of God's holy, inspired, infallible word, and may he had his blessing to the preaching of it. Well, congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Many of you know that King Solomon, back in Israel, was known and is known for his great wisdom, but also for the wealth that he had and the splendor of the kingdom that God had set him over, that he may rule over it. And he's not only known for that today, he was quite famous for that even during his own lifetime. 1 Kings chapter 10 tells us the story about the queen of Sheba who had heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord and so she went to go see these things for herself, to witness them. And so there she is getting a royal tour, so to speak, and she witnessed the wisdom of Solomon because she brought to him no question that Solomon couldn't answer. But then she also saw the opulence. the wealth of the kingdom, of his palace, of his house, the servants that were there, the temple, and everything else that perhaps was seen on this tour. But basically, at the end of it, she was left breathless, speechless. And here's what she said. Basically, all of what I had heard was true. Indeed, the half of it was not told me." In other words, the rumors, the fame that had spread about didn't even do half of the justice to what the reality was. And she goes to say, your wisdom and prosperity exceeded the fame of which I had heard, and therefore, happy are your men, and blessed be the Lord your God. And so we see that the kingdom of God here in this administration under Solomon was meant that the name of the Lord be blessed for his glory. Now Solomon was a son of David. Solomon was the heir to the throne of David. And in a lot of ways, Being such, he set the standard of the people's expectation of the kingdom of God for when the son of David would come and usher that in and restore it. And so here comes Jesus, who's called the Son of David and indeed is, and he is the heir to the throne forever and ever. And he asks in verse 30, to what shall we liken the kingdom of God? And he does not point us back. to 1 Kings chapter 10 and say, well, look at all of the gold that he had and the palaces and houses and servants and luxury that he had. It's going to be like that, but double it, triple it. No. Jesus compares it to something that's far more ordinary. Far more mundane. It does not have the kind of glory and splendor that we would normally see. Jesus likens it to seeds. Now being one that was in Israelite at this time with the expectation that was set up by Solomon, this would be probably more than anticlimactic. Probably a bit of a letdown. What do you mean this is what the kingdom is like? This is not very impressive. But that's so much of the point here. Jesus is the greater than Solomon. He is wisdom itself and has a wisdom that's far and above all earthly wisdom. It's the wisdom of God which chooses the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, chooses the weak things to put to shame the mighty. It upends our expectations. How we would normally see things and want things to be. That is how the kingdom of God is. And these two parables, these analogies, talas, something of that growth of the kingdom of God, and it is likewise contrary to our expectations, how we normally expect or desire things. And there are two basic things that describe this growth of the kingdom, which are our two points. The first is that the growth is mysterious. Cannot account for it. And the second thing is that the growth is profound. It's beyond what we could think of based upon what we see right now. And so it is mysterious and it is profound. And so first, we consider the growth of the kingdom is mysterious. And this comes from that first parable or analogy that's given in verses 26 through 29. And this parable that Jesus gives speaks of three categories of things. And each group, each category has three things within them. And so three groups of three. Three triplets here. And the first group has to do with seasons. There's a time for sowing, planting. There's a time for growing. And then there's a time for harvest. The second group has to do with certain activities that are done. There's the activity of the farmer. What he does is he sows, he plants, but then he also, well, he's got to sleep at night, but then there's the activity of the seed, which grows. and then the activity of the soil, which also grows the seed. And then the third group narrows down upon that activity of the seed and describes its growth in stages, three stages. You have the blade, the head, and then the full grain of this. And so what we see by these three groups of three is the whole process of growth. everything that is involved from beginning to end. And this is like the kingdom of God, and so it speaks to the growth of the kingdom of God. On one hand, the kingdom of God as a whole, broadly speaking, but also it can be applied to the individual's growth within the kingdom. One who is a citizen of heaven, their growth, or in other words, the kingdom coming further within our own hearts, in our own lives. And the first thing to note about this growth that we see in our text is, and this is what one of the things that makes it to be mysterious, is that it is independent of man's activity. Yes, there's descriptions about the farmer sowing, and there are descriptions about the harvest, but the emphasis here is upon that period of time in between. And what is mysterious about this is that the farmer, he does not know how it grows. He knows the planting because he plants, and that's what he does. He knows the harvesting because that's what the farmer does. And in our day, there's a host of other things that are involved, watering, fertilizing, and so forth. Yet, at the end of the day, of all his labors, he does not know how the seed grows. The reason being is because he's not the one who made it to grow. Doing all what he has done. He is not the one that makes it grow. Verse 28 says that the earth yields crops by itself. By itself. Now, this is where we get our word for automatic. Automatically it comes forth, meaning that it does not need any other thing. outside of itself in order to work. There's something within the soil and the seed that makes it to germinate, to sprout, and then to have its orderly growth. And so that is with the kingdom of God. The seed is scattered about. From the parable of the soils, we know that it is the Word of God going forth and it is the ultimate sower is Christ. And he now today uses men, uses instruments in the church to proclaim that. And so it has to do in particular with the preaching of the Word that goes out. But we can extend it to the Word being taught in catechism classes, in Sunday school. The Word being explained and applied in things like counseling or our private conversations with one another. The Word of God even being demonstrated and exemplified by our lives. The Word of God being instructed in the home or on the dinner table. Or maybe even as it is brought to bear upon the subjects of study at school. Many things are involved with this and yet amongst it all we are not the ones that make this have any effect. We don't. make that word take root within the heart? Although I'm sure there are times where that we wish that we could reach into an individual's heart and flip that switch, whatever it may be, to make them to believe or to understand or to see it in the way that you see it according to the word of God. But we're not the ones that make it take root. We are not the ones that make it grow in the continuing diligent work in this. We are not the ones that can somehow conjure up some fruit and to bring it out. Not within someone else and not even within ourselves. This is all something that comes by a thing, the working, the power of God in and of himself as he uses the Word by the Spirit to impress the truths of the Word upon the heart. The Apostle Paul picks up on this imagery in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 5 through 7. Just turn there with me. 1 Corinthians 3, verses 5 through 7. I'll give you a little background about the context of Corinthians. This is a church divided against itself. There were certain parties and factions. saying I am of Paul, I am of Paulus, I am of Cephas or Peter, aligning themselves with particular apostles and teachers and pastors that they liked for whatever reason, but Paul is seeking to correct that, and so under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, He sets things right and gives to us the principle that is taught here in our parable and using same imagery. Verse five, who then is Paul? Who is Apollos? But ministers, servants, through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. And so this is the explanation of how it is that the word of God grows, how the kingdom of God grows. It is not by the will of man. It's not by the work of man. It's not by the ingenuity of man. This is not some activity that we can accomplish by seeking to parse out a certain strategy or program or doing this, that, or the other thing. It's certainly not something that is grown by violence or revolution as many did back in the day. There were zealots who were revolutionaries seeking to usher in the kingdom of God, but the kingdom doesn't come in by our efforts, by our gimmicks, by our tricks, by our strategies. It's by God. He uses the simple, diligent, faithful, sowing of the Word. And it's not even our faithful, simple, diligent sowing of the Word that does that. It is God who does it, working in the lives of His people through the Word to ripen us for glory, to cause us to grow, This is what is mysterious about it. It's unseen. We can't figure out all the time as to why in the faithfulness and what we, by our consciences, according to the Word of God, and the diligent discharge of our stations and callings, if it's a parent to instruct our children, if it's an office bearer to do the things that the office bearers are called to do, Why there are some signs of growth here, some not over here. Well, does it mean that something else needs to be done? Not necessarily. Ultimately, it is God who gives the increase. You can't break this down. The Lord knows, the Lord works, and our calling is to be faithful with what we've been committed to, not to be effective. Now what adds to this mystery, or it's being unseen and not worked by us and being able to figure and strategize it out, is also the growth is gradual. The growth is gradual. We see here about a certain time frame, a time line that this seed grows, that there is a time of planting, there's that time of growing, and then finally the harvest. But in that time of growing, there's the blade, there is the bud, and then there is when it's ready for harvest. And those of you who know a farmer or are a farmer, you know just how patient sometimes you need to be in looking for that crop to come. Today is September 24. Harvest is right around the corner, depending on the crop. But planting time wasn't last week. You don't see farmers with a planter and then a combine immediately following it, because they know that it doesn't just spring up out of the ground the minute you plant the seed in the ground. It takes time and it's slow, and as such, you're not going to see it grow. until you wait a while, and then you'll see a little green blade popping out, and then a little bit longer yet, you see it grow taller, a little bit more time yet, you see the fruit, and then harvest. And so this is how it is with the kingdom of God. Certainly, this is something that we can see with the kingdom of God at large in terms of the growth of the kingdom. As we see the preservation of God's church through the ages, certain doctrinal issues and other matters came up and it caused God to raise up faithful men to dig into the word. And to answer those things and what we have is a refined understanding of certain principles and certain theological matters like the Trinity, like the nature of Christ and his human and his divine natures and all of these things. It took some time. Centuries. And yet, there's growth. And even through that span of time, you see that it was not only in the land of Judea and Jerusalem, but it kept going outward and outward and outward until the ends of the Roman Empire, and then further yet. And now here we are on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, just 2,000 years later. It's grown, but In many ways, it took some time. But I did mention that this is also something that is applicable for our own personal growth in the kingdom, as that kingdom comes further within us. One of the things that's certain is that there will be growth. Within those who have the seed of the Word planted within them by the Holy Spirit, there will be growth. And yet, we take the time to examine ourselves. And as we are called to do before the Lord's Supper, we examine Our walk, we examine our doctrine and we can be greatly distressed and challenged because sometimes we don't see much growth. Seems perhaps stagnant. And nevertheless, the ironic or the paradoxical thing that is so contrary to our expectations and what makes it to be so mysterious is that the more we grow, the more we do not see ourselves growing. Because the fact is that we see more of our own sin, we see more of our own unworthiness, we see more of our own smallness, and we see more and more then of the worthiness of Christ, the greatness of his person, And so this self-examination we see a shrinking, a diminishing, but of ourselves and of our sinful pride and sinful tendencies. Yet the more we depend upon the Lord, the more we think less of ourselves and the more sensible we are of sin, the more we rejoice in the grace and the forgiveness of Christ and fly to Him at every occasion and depend upon Him at every moment of the day. That's where we see growth. Because that is the growth. It's not us getting larger. It's us decreasing and the Lord increasing. There's the growth that we see and we see that happen over some time. Over some time, we see that there is a wisdom in granting to the children of God a gradual growth in that. You don't see very often one who has the seed of the word planted and take root within a sinner's heart, giving them that new life, and they are immediately fully mature. As though he planted the seed and it sprung up immediately and ripe. Remember that the word is like a light that shines in the darkness. You ever have that where you wake up in the middle of the night and you flip a light on? It'd be blinding. It'd be blinding to have the light shed upon just how sinful we really are and how holy in God really is. And we are taught these things by the word. little by little, growing in that, knowing that, seeing that. It's like a dimmer switch that will slowly bring that up that we, because our eyes have been so accustomed to the dark, need to adjust. And so there is that growth, and that growth can be a gradual thing, but ultimately, there it is, growing and growing and growing until it is ripe for harvest. And the fact needs to be, where there is growth, there is life. Where there is life or healthy life, there you will see growth, and so I would ask you, are you growing? You're growing in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and the excellencies of knowing Him, being found in Him. If a baby doesn't grow, there's something wrong. I have to take it in to the doctor and get it sorted out as to what's going on because children are meant to grow up into adults. And so babes in the faith need to grow into mature men and women of the faith. To move from spiritual milk to spiritual meat. How does that happen? There is a mystery indeed, but we know the means the Lord uses, and that is the seed of the word. The seed of the word. Attend to the means of grace. And keep attending to it, though you may not notice or see growth right away. It takes time. being fed and nourished by the word. There will be growth, for the Lord will grow his people. He loves to grow his people. He will grow you until the day he's ready to call you home unto himself. It'll be a personal harvest time, so to speak. where you will be gathered in and brought unto the great sower, unto himself. But everyone grows. Everyone must grow. Even hypocrites grow. They grow in their hypocrisy. Christians grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ, in Christ's likeness. So I'll ask again, are you growing? We need to ask ourselves that question. And we need to understand it correctly, though mysterious, understanding His means. This growing is seen by our growing smaller, our Lord growing larger, so to speak, Him increasing in terms of our desire, in terms of our perspective on here. And that brings us to our second point, that the growth of the kingdom is profound here. This is the second parable or analogy that's given. in verse 26 through 29. Verse 26 through 29, 30 rather, through 32. The parable here of the mustard seed. Jesus likens it to another seed and one that is in the smallest class of seeds here that seems very small and unassuming. It's easy to miss, insignificant. It doesn't seem like it's going to produce much, but then it does. The point here is that there is a great result that comes from a very small beginning, an insignificant start, and ends up into a magnificent end. This is one of contrasts. There's a large growth and the kingdom here, therefore, is established and it grows by this principle of small beginnings unto an unexpected and marvelous increase, totally out of proportion to those small beginnings. And what Jesus is talking about here, as we can draw out a couple of applications here, is at first that Jesus obviously speaking of himself here as the king of this kingdom. And he is one in his ministry that started off very unassuming, very small, very insignificant. You could easily pass it by. Because at the very beginning he came into this world as a very most insignificant among us, at least in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of the kingdoms. He came as a little baby. You don't expect a baby, while it's a baby, to do great things. They can't do anything, they're little babies. They need to have everything done for them. But that's how Jesus came. And then he came as a baby in a lowly and an insignificant place. Very humble beginnings in the eyes of man. His birth was announced to the humblest class of people, shepherds. And the world at large was mostly ignorant of it. The kingdoms and the kings of the earth, what was that to them? Herod sure was was nervous about it but by and large they probably didn't give him much of a second thought until after some years of not knowing, we don't read of anything of Christ, except until when he was about 12 years old, he was at the temple, and then now his ministry, where it started off small as some country preacher, and then there was opposition, he was despised, he was rejected by men, he was given a criminal's death upon the cross. His father in heaven, and even unleashed his own wrath upon him. And this, this is the seed upon which this kingdom will grow. To the Greeks, it was foolishness. To the Jews, it was a scandal, this cross, this shame of it all. But Jesus alludes to a similar thing in John chapter 12, verse 23 through 24. You don't need to turn there, but if you would mark it down too, if you would like. John 12, 23 and 24. Jesus answered saying, the hour has come. that the son of man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain. Here he was signifying what kind of death that he should die. He is like that seed and in many ways in the eyes of the world like a mustard seed and yet there he was planted in the grave. And when he sprung up from the grave in the resurrection and when he ascended into heaven, the kingdom of God, grew by leaps and bounds when he poured out his spirit at Pentecost. And these disciples here that were at the small beginnings themselves saw in one day 3,000 souls added to the kingdom. and that by the preaching of the word, and it goes on that the word was going forth from Judea to Samaria and to the ends of the earth to the known world, and the word of God triumphed everywhere it went. This is an infallible seed, and then it had touched every corner of the Roman Empire. And many have found shelter in this kingdom, in this great plant that has come up from this very small and insignificant seed. The wording here is, with these birds nesting, is that they actually nest. They're making their home. They're finding their shelter. They don't just perch up on a branch and fly away. They found this to be their home. Have you, as the gospel, gone forth, as the word triumphed, Have you found this to be your shelter, the gospel of Christ and of Christ himself? His glory will grow and grow and he is the only shelter amidst this. And the other thing that we can understand from this is that it speaks to the growth of the kingdom itself further. It's prophetic in the sense that it grows far beyond what people expected in the form that it appeared to them at the time. It was a following in Galilee and yet It was something that was despised and misunderstood even by many in this kingdom, is something that is contrary to every kind of expectation of the flesh. People expect that after some decades The fad will come and go. Some idea will be here and then be gone, but this has not been the case with the gospel. The gospel is powerful. The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing asunder both the joint and marrow, even to the division of soul and of heart. It's the living word of God and this kingdom has gone forth while every other kingdom has come and gone. This is the one that has persisted. It is the only one that will until the end of the ages. And so as the apostles saw for themselves this kingdom expand to the corners of the Roman Empire and it got the attention of the Roman Empire, it did not fail. It could not be cut down. Many have sought to destroy this kingdom Men like Saul of Tarsus, who persecuted the church, was then turned and used to be the most useful servant at the time for the growth of the kingdom of God. And God has shown time and again to break the bands of the fiercest opposition of his kingdom against his kingdom. It has grown exponentially. Even in the face of Roman persecution, it kept growing. Even amidst the darkness of the Middle Ages, as so much of the gospel was locked up in a works righteousness doctrine and teaching, God preserved a faithful few. and the gospel of grace was preserved and burst forth once again during the Reformation. Will that continue? It absolutely will continue. It will continue to grow, it will continue to expand. It's what we confess in Belgian Confession Article 27. This holy church, this kingdom of God is one that is preserved or supported by God against the rage of the whole world. Though she sometimes for a while appears very small and in the eyes of men to be reduced to nothing. as during the perilous reign of Ahab, the Lord reserved unto himself 7,000 men who had not bowed their knees to Baal. This is the encouragement that we have regarding the growth of the kingdom. The sower is the Lord Jesus Christ ultimately, and he is the perfect farmer. He is the perfect gardener, tending to his field, to his crop, and will ensure that things will come to their proper harvest, to their proper end. And again, regarding this coming of a kingdom personally, that we may be encouraged. We may be encouraged as a congregation that though it is mysterious, it is profound. And since it is the Lord, our labor is not in vain in the Lord. We need to press on as a church family. Press on in the good work of the gospel, whether that be at Sunday school, as a catechism teacher, as a parent, as an elder, as a deacon, as a pastor, whoever. We need to continue on in these things. We may look at our efforts as being so small and insignificant of this ever make a difference, ever do anything. That's the point. Our efforts are nothing. Our efforts aren't this so small and a mustard seed. Our calling is not to be effective in these things. Once again, it's to be faithful and it is the Lord who gives the increase. faithful what's in front of us. And we find time and again that our feeble attempts, so feeble as they are and so aware of it that we are, and yet the Lord is growing his kingdom. Somebody may come up to you and say, I remember when you told me this. And you wonder how in the world was anyone blessed by that. It's because it wasn't you, it was God. Your small effort, God can make into a great thing for His glory. God works and takes these most inconsequential things and works a great work that's way out of proportion. So don't despise the day of small things. Don't despise the times you'd see no growth. For if there is life, there is growth, though gradual and slow. God doesn't just use great people to do great things. God chooses the foolish things of this world. To put to shame the wise, the weak things, to put to shame the mighty. And so may we be blessed of God that he would cause us little insignificant mustard seeds, so to speak. Even this church, Bethany, to grow in faithfulness to him and be used for the expansion of his kingdom, for his name, for his glory. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious God and Father, we thank you for your promises, your faithfulness, your working in us, through us, in spite of us. We do pray that you would grant grace and mercy to our failures, our shortcomings. You give to us the strength to be faithful, but ultimately dependence upon you in all things. To be those that are constantly seeking after the glory of Jesus, our Savior, and that we would not boast in the things that we have done, but we would boast in the things that our Lord has done for us. And may our humility and our service and love to you, and may you give that increase. And may we then rejoice in the harvest, rejoicing unto the glory of our God, our Savior, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.