Now let us turn for a little time to verse 32. Luke 12 and verse 32. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Now these words could apply very easily to the whole church in the world, really in more or less any age. Because the church in the world, the flock of God, the true flock of God, relatively speaking, compared to the rest of the world, compared to the masses of the world are a small flock, yet despite their smallness they are precious in the eyes of God. Now although this verse is true in that way, yet at the same time surely they have a particular application to the small local congregations, very much like ourselves. Because there are certain fears that are peculiar to them simply because of their smallness. And I think that to them particularly and especially, that Jesus says, fear not, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And it is impossible not to detect in these worlds some sense of the Lord's special affection for the little flock. as if he is singling them out as those for whom he himself cares specially and particularly, and for whom he has a very special affection and place in his heart, and has an understanding of the kind of fears and the kind of problems that they have. Now we might say first of all that the little flock fears extinction, especially in the day in which we live. That fear is always hanging over the small flock. It's a constant thing because it makes the loss of even one or two people to make a big difference to the congregation. And it is also true that many of the small congregations are made up mainly of one or two or three families. And if one family is lost, it just has a devastating effect upon the congregation. But we must realise that God is in it all, and that he sometimes actively reduces a congregation. The reduction of a congregation is always looked upon as a measure of failure in the day we live. We must look on these things all from the viewpoint of God. But God, in his own perfect wisdom, will sometimes reduce a congregation. Now we might say, well, why? Why would he ever do that? Well, there is one simple and clear reason why God might do that, and that is to make that congregation more dependent upon Him, and in their dependence to be crying more to Him, and to be very much more in prayer, that God would preserve them, that God would keep the witness going, and that God, if it pleased Him, would actually replenish them. So it is almost like a call from God, come to my throne of grace. As we looked at in the song of Solomon, not all that long ago, where the Lord says to the believer, let me hear your voice. And the suggestion of the context there is that others are hearing the believer's voice. She is very active in fellowship and she talks much with her fellow believers in fellowship. But in the process she is maybe just slightly forgetting the very great importance, the overwhelming importance of prayer in the sacred place of letting the Lord hear her voice and to hear it for him. And he says to her, let me hear thy voice. So that is sometimes what the Lord's called is when he reduces a congregation. There is surely no big congregation. that is as dependent upon God as a small congregation is. And he says to them, as well as let me hear thy voice, he is saying to them at the same time, fear not, I have produced your number to make you more dependent upon me so that I might hear your voice. And he says to them, fear not, fear not this reduction in number. It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. And secondly, God has a special promise for the little flock. And it is nothing less than the great promise to give them the kingdom. It is your father's good pleasure give you the kingdom. Now what does that mean? Now in verses 22 forwards Jesus exhorts those he is speaking to not to be concerned about the supply of worldly things. very, very easy, even for Christians, to become over-concerned about the supply of worldly things. Jesus says to them in these verses that they are not to be over-concerned about these things, and to depend upon God for the supply of basic needs, like food and clothing and shelter. In verse 30 he says, For all these things do the nations of the world seek after. And your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. Yes, the nations of the world, the masses out there, they are concerned about these things. but they don't have a father as you have. I am your father, and your father knoweth that ye have need of these things. So, this leads now then into verse 31, that overwhelmingly important verse. But rather, seek ye the kingdom of God. and all these things shall be added unto you. What is he saying to them? He is saying to them, get your priorities right. Once you get them right, things will fit together. If you get your priorities wrong, if you upend them, then things just will not fit together for you. The priorities must be seeking first kingdom of God, and then these other things, they will be added unto you. But to the little flock, he says in verse 32, fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. This is the special promise. Of course, He will give the kingdom to all his people. But here is a special promise to the little flock. Why? Because they are a little flock. Because they need something from God, promises from God, and blessings from God, more than the larger flock. Just to encourage them. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom, not just to take you into the Kingdom, but to give it to you. Does this mean that they will receive the Kingdom without seeking, just by His giving? No, but in ready response to prayer, to their prayer. What is he promising to give them? It is simply to be the happy subjects of his kingdom. To be the happy subjects in the kingdom of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. To be the happy subjects in the greatest kingdom that there is. kingdoms of the world rise and fall, great nations rise and fall, but the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ will never fall and will never fail, and He is promising them in ready response to their prayer, in readiness. We pray the promise, we pray using the promise, and the answer will be ready that the Father will give us the Kingdom. To become such, to become and to enter into and to become the possessor of this Kingdom by His own bestowal upon us of spiritual life, During this life, he bestows upon his beloved people, his beloved little flock, bestows upon them the great gift of spiritual life. They have it in this world, enabling them to do so many things. to engage in so many things, to be involved in so many things that the world knows nothing about, to be involved in communication with God Himself, to be enjoying God and to be enabled to love God and to enjoy His benevolent rule over them throughout their lives. These are wonderful privileges. which God gives to his own people with a special promise to a little flock. With the wonderful gifts which are promised to us. We have mentioned the giving of spiritual life. In this life we are given spiritual life. Then there are great gifts given to us blessings in this life beyond that, blessings of justification and adoption and sanctification. That's what the Catechism says, the blessings that flow from effectual calling in this life are justification, adoption and sanctification. and that in this life, and in the life to come, there is the promise of glorification. No mights, but it is quite certain, as it says in Romans, in chapter 8, that those whom he has called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Thirdly, this giving is out of sovereign love. What do we mean by sovereign love? Well, when it says, it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom, when he says that to his little flock, he is saying it in sovereign love. that it is not a debt he owes to them, that it is not out of obligation to them that he is doing it, that it is not out of any pressure upon him from anything at all in the universe, but purely out of himself, originating in himself, stimulated from within himself, with nothing from outside, Outgoing from him is this sovereign love, purely, as we say, of his own free and sovereign grace. Let us be clear, let us make sure we have an understanding of sovereign grace, clear in our minds what it says, it speaks about. something which flows just from God Himself, not flowing into Him from anywhere and then out of Him towards us, but simply originating and springing up from within God Himself, unpressured, unobligated, unindulgent, and just simply bestowing these things, sovereignly, graciously bestowing blessings upon them. That's what I mean by sovereign grace. So, it is also out of love. All these things are included in the phrase, His good pleasure. It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He does it simply because it pleases him well to do so. There is no reluctance in his giving. There is no reserve in his giving. He gives generously, and He gives freely. So, even in a hostile world, which we have to cope with, and in our own country, an increasingly hostile world towards the Gospel, it is true that this promise of God should banish all fear from us. The promise of God is that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. Not that the gates of hell will not thrive, they will thrive and they are thriving, the promises that they will not prevail against his church. Fear not, he says, it is his father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. The fact that it is his good pleasure, that he is pleased to do it, and that it is utterly in accordance with his own will, there are no catches, there are no spots, there are no hiccups. What God plans, he will execute to the very final last detail, and that should help us to be confident in God, that even although we may be a little flock, that we can have confidence in God. Now we must not think that any of these things is going to make us popular. The only way for us to be popular in the world is to court the world and to be like the world. And many churches, many congregations fall into that trap. They think this is the way to do God's work. That's not the way to do God's work. That's not what God requires of His church. God requires of His church to be His and exclusively His and to be a holy church. It won't make us popular, neither will it ease our circumstances, but it should make us happy. Yes, texts like this should be stored away in our minds in such a way that we can touch And every time we touch them we should be thrilled to realize that God has made this promise. And we should go on our way rejoicing no matter what comes our way. And you never know, perhaps God will use these things. And it's no doubt at all that the mightiest instrument for evangelism in this world is a holy church or a holy congregation. It is not the case that the priority must be evangelism. Evangelism is of great importance, but we make a big mistake if we put evangelism as a priority higher than holiness. Because if the Lord is pleased with us, then he will pour his blessing upon us. He will bless our lives, he will bless our goodness. And he will do so out of his own good pleasure. People might, just by seeing us, by watching us, by observing us, realise something else. Balaam, the wicked Balaam even realised, when he looked down on the children of Israel and he said, there is a shout of a king among them. Wouldn't it be wonderful if people would say, well, these people must have a king. They must have a great king. because they are such happy subjects in the kingdom of which they are members. Would that the hostility of the world, and the hostility of these communities around us, would be changed by the Spirit of God into envy and desire. looking upon the people of God with envy rather than hostility. God can do that. It is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Our gracious God, we thank Thee for this wonderful promise given to us in these words. And we thank Thee that there is such a special promise made by Thee to the little flock. And we do earnestly pray that Thou would encourage us in these days of increasing darkness covering the earth, and gross darkness the people. O Lord, cause the light to shine upon us, that we may be lights in this world, lights to our communities. Bless us and keep us now, Lord. Watch over us as we continue together, and forgive our sins, in Jesus' name. Amen.