Well, this morning we are looking at two more parables. They are found in Mark's Gospel, Chapter 4. So let me invite you to take your Bible and turn to Mark, Chapter 4. The first parable is found in verses 26 through 29, and it's only found here in the Gospel of Mark. The second one is found in verses 30 through 34, but it also occurs in Matthew and in Luke. As we look at this first parable, we will see that this first parable is the parable of the growing seed. The second parable is that of the mustard seed. Both parables give us more information on the parable of the soils that we looked at in verses 1 through 20. So listen as I read them, beginning at verse 26. And he was saying, the kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil. And he goes to bed at night and he gets up day by day and the seed sprouts and grows. How? He himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. And he said, how shall we picture the kingdom of God or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade. With many such parables, he was speaking the word to them so far as they were able to hear it. And he did not speak to them without a parable, but he was explaining everything privately to his own disciples. When we studied the parable of the soils, we learned that understanding this parable is key to understanding all the parables. And that may be why we don't hear Jesus explaining these two parables. We do see, as we just read in verse 34, where he was explaining everything privately to his disciples. Now, both of these parables mention seed and they mention soil, just like the parable of the soils. And we said that in the parable of the soils, that the seed fell on different types of soil. And those were pictures of different types of hearts that the gospel falls on. But only one type of soil produced a crop. The same is true here. But the emphasis is not on the soil, but the seed and the mystery behind its growth. But I want you to notice as we began reading this, both of these parables are about the same thing. They're about the kingdom of God. Mark records Jesus' reference to the kingdom of God 14 times. Matthew does it 31 times, while Luke does it 32 times. And if you include the kingdom of heaven, that phrase, together he talks about them 79 times. So Jesus says here in verse 26, the kingdom of God is like, and then he describes it with the parable of the growing seed. He asked in verse 30, how shall we picture the kingdom of God or by what parable shall we present it? And then he compares it to the mustard seed. Now understand about these two parables. The first parable is emphasizing the sovereign and the mysterious work of God and the growth of his kingdom as illustrated in the growing seed. The second parable signifies the small and humble beginnings of the kingdom of God, starting with Jesus and his few disciples, then growing immensely. and having a significant impact as illustrated in the mustard seed. So let's begin to look at these two parables. The first one is found in verses 26 through 29, the parable of the growing seed. Now notice that Jesus says in verse 26 that a man casts seed upon the soil. This is the farmer. And just like in the parable of the soils, he uses that broadcast method as he is casting seed on the plowed soil. Isaiah 28, 24, and 25 gives us a little hint of what they would do when it says that the farmer plow continually to plant seed. Does he continually turn and hallow its ground? Does he not level its surface and sow dill and scatter cumin and plant wheats and rose, barley in its place and rye within its area? And if you remember when we looked at the parable of the soils, that they would do this right after the latter rains. And so it says in verse 27, after he's done, what does he do? He goes to bed. And in verse 27, he gets up day by day, and he waits for the seed to grow. I believe that this is the most patient man on the earth that would go through all of this work And then his work is done until the harvest, and he has to wait. Now, if you like fishing, there's a similar waiting process. And some people don't like to wait for anything, but you have to wait. He understands that growth takes time, and it can't be rushed. And he waits, and really in faith, hoping that the seed would grow. And then in verse 27, it says, the seed sprouts and grows, but then you have this statement, but he does not know how this happens. Do you know how this happens? We have a garden. My wife goes out there every morning and picks things out of the garden and has fresh strawberries for Samuel to eat and his drinks and all. And I mean, she goes through the process just like the farmer. But does she know how it grows? All we know is that God grows it. And something else that we can learn by this mysterious process is that the farmer has no direct intervention. In fact, in the words of 1 Corinthians 3, 7, it's God who causes the growth. The soil produces the crop by itself. Notice he says there, first the blade, then the head, and then the mature grain in the head. The New International Version says it this way, all by itself the soil produces grain, first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. So in other words, after the seed is planted, you have the initial sprout or the shoot that emerges from the soil. And this represents the first visible sign of growth. And as the plant continues to grow, it forms a more complex structure, developing leaves and stems to prepare for the next stage. And then finally, the plant matures. And that's when it produces the grain or it produces the fruit. And now it's time for harvest. This is called seed germination. In more technical terms, you have water absorption, you have activation, you have root emergence, you have shoot growth, leaf development, seeding, growth, all those things that I still don't understand. But as soon as the grain is ripe, what's he do? He puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. Now you can buy a sickle today. If you don't know what a sickle is, it's a farming tool. It's got a curved blade on it, very sharp. I was trying to show that to my boys one day when we were in the hardware store because I wanted to pick up a sling. And a sling is like a sickle except for it's got a a couple bars across it, and you need to go into a sling fashion. And I wanted to use that on our driveway, which our driveway is about 1,000 feet, and we get vegetation that grows into the driveway. And I don't like driving down it, and I feel like I'm coming out of the bat cave, you know, like Batman, hitting everything on the way out. And so I found out that I was the only one that used it. But it works, and talk about getting some exercise. But that was used, in my case, for taking down weeds and so forth. But the sickle, they would use that for the harvesting of grain or cutting the crops. And really, by mentioning the sickle, he's speaking of harvest time when everything is ripe. It's time to enjoy the fruit of your labors. Though again, the growth that took place was not on you. It was God who gave the growth. Now, the mention of the sickle is very significant in scripture. In fact, sometimes it's associated with judgment or the final gathering. I'll give you two passages. One is Joel 3.13. It says, Send in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. Two truths you see right there. One is speaking of judgment. The other one is speaking of harvest. It's ripe, just like the coming of Christ, it's ripe. And then Revelation 14, 14 and following says, then I looked and behold a white cloud and sitting on the cloud was one like the son of man having a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the sanctuary crying out with a loud voice to him who sits on the cloud, put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come because the harvest of the earth is ripe. And then he who sits on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth and the earth was reaped. So big significance here of the sickle. And a lot of significance here of this parable. And as I said, the kingdom of God is what's in view here. So what does he mean by this comparative analogy? You remember we said parables, the word itself parabolic means to compare And Jesus would take earthly things and compare them with spiritual truth. So what's the meaning here? Well, if you back up to the sower, the sower is the evangelist. An evangelist, of course, is someone who proclaims the gospel to the lost. Really, in short, in New Testament times, he was a church planter. It wasn't what we have today where an evangelist will go to churches that have saved people and preach the gospel in revivals. No, a church evangelist or an evangelist was someone who went into locations where there were no churches and would preach the gospel. God would raise up believers and he would stay there long enough until a pastor would rise up and then he would leave and go and repeat the process. He would plant churches. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4-5 to do the work of an evangelist. Now, he wasn't an evangelist, he was a pastor, but he told him to do the work. And you know, that's really something that does fall into every pastor's lap, that not only are we shepherding the people, but we also have to evangelize the lost. And it doesn't mean that when you become a pastor, you stop evangelizing. That should be part of your life every day. And that should be part of your life every day, whether you are a pastor. All of us have been given the commission to make disciples. Now, what is that work? Well, you know what that work is. It's to preach the good news of the word. It's to preach Christ. And I'm getting that from Acts 8, Acts 8, 4 and 5 says, therefore those who had been scattered went about proclaiming the good news of the word. And then it mentions Philip who went down to the city of Samaria and he began preaching Christ to them. See, you haven't preached the gospel unless you preach Christ. If you say nothing about Christ, you haven't preached the gospel. Even sharing your testimony is not the gospel. It's your response to the gospel. It's where God found you when you heard the gospel and He brought about a harvest of your heart. Preaching the gospel is not even inviting people to church. Some people believe that, well, if I invite people to church, then I preach the gospel. No, you invited them to church. Most cases, you said nothing about the gospel. My hope and prayer is that you did say something about Jesus. And I'll tell you, as times continue to get worse in this crazy world we're living in, they're gonna stop you from doing that. And they've already begun to do that. Recently at a graduation, a young man, valedictorian, stood up there, he shared his testimony, and he preached Christ. You know what they did in response to that? They withheld his diploma. They will not give him his diploma because he did that. And that's not the only thing that takes place. Now, the postal service people are being required to work on Sundays, and there's a lawsuit that's been going on for some time now about that, because one postal carrier said, you know, church means a lot to me, and church is essential, in a day in which it's not essential to anybody else, but it's essential to me, and that's what I do on Sunday, and I'm not working on Sunday, I'm gonna be in church. You know, there was a day in time when things did not occur on Sunday other than church, right? I mean, I remember in my short little life of 59 years of growing up and seeing stores closed and restaurants closed, but you know, I think we Christians are just as much of the problem as anybody else because what do we do on Sunday? You know what I'm gonna do when I leave here? I'm going to pick up an order from Bono's. You go, really? I probably shouldn't announce that. So you're going to sit there and growl the whole time and wonder, well, is he going to invite me? But, you know, we contribute to them being open by patronizing them. And so we can't complain. We look around and we see that Sunday in our world is no different than Saturday or the rest of the days of the week. But this evangelist, he is one who preaches the gospel. Now, if you look at verse 14, the seed is called the Word of God. In Acts 8, verse 4, it says that they were proclaiming the good news of the Word. Now, we know exactly what he's talking about because of context and because of Jesus's ministry. He's preaching the gospel. That's why when we read in Romans 10, 13, when it talks about faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, the term word is not the word logos, it's the word rhema. Rhema was a short hand-to-hand combat dagger. It wasn't the large four-foot broad sword. And so what the verse is speaking about is something specific. When you're fighting in hand-to-hand combat, I mean, just like Peter, when they came to take Jesus there in the garden, what did he do? He pulls out his sword and he cuts off the ear. And listen, I'm sure he was going for the head and he got the ear. You know, close confrontational conflict would require something in your hand to use that would be effective. And when that verse is talking about faith coming by hearing the word, it's talking about a specific speech about Christ. And what's that specific speech? It's the gospel. You know, just having a conversation with someone there in the line at Walmart or Publix or wherever you're at, and you begin to bring up the word of God, and you're talking about everything but the gospel. You have not shared the gospel. Be specific. Use that dagger. Now, you're not in a physical hand-to-hand combat, but you're in a spiritual hand-to-hand combat with Satan, because we found out in the parable of the soils that once the word goes forth, that if it's not acted upon, then what does Satan do? He comes and snatches it away. And that's why I believe that you should be preaching the gospel constantly, and especially to the same people. You don't just go to one person, preach the gospel to them and say, OK, I've done that and then move on to somebody else. I mean, yes, do the broadcast method of casting seed and preach to everyone. Don't be like that's become part of our churches today where you keep hearing this little question. What is your target? Who is your target ministry? Well, in the broadcast method, you are scattering seed and you're hitting all the ground. Of course, it's going to fall on ground that's going to be fertile enough to bring forth Fruit. But you don't know that. And like when we were looking at the parable of the soils, we quickly came to understand why people do not receive the gospel. Because it all has to do with the condition of the heart. And the gospel falls on different types of hearts. And there's only one heart that it falls on that produces. It's that good soil. And of course, as we're learning today, God is the one who gives the increase. So the seed is the gospel, and it's called the word in verse 14. It's called imperishable seed, the living and enduring word in 1 Peter 1.23, when it says, for you have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible. That is through the living and enduring word of God. See, the power is in the word. The power is not in the evangelist. That should be encouraging to all of us. Because sometimes we get that feeling, and maybe we get the feeling from other believers or even other pastors, you know, that seem to lay the responsibility heavily on the sower. Now, we are to be obedient. We're to be obedient to make disciples. We're obedient to sow the seed of the gospel. But we're not responsible for the increase. We're not responsible to save anybody. And if you think you are, you've stepped out of your element here. You've stepped out of your responsibility and you've taken on a responsibility that is not yours. And I wouldn't want that responsibility. I mean, I would live in guilt every single day of a person that did not respond. Or I would be like Charles Finney, and I'd have to manipulate people's emotions to get them to come. Because that's what he did. And that's where the whole invitational system came from. If I could just manipulate your emotions, sing 15 stanzas of Just As I Am, get you to walk an aisle. You know, Billy Graham did the same thing in his crusades. He'd get people to come forward. I'm not against giving anybody an invitation to come to Christ. In fact, the invitation began a long time ago, not waiting till the sermon started or waiting till the end of the sermon. As long as you have life and breath, the invitation's right there. And that call goes out to everybody. But we know it's only effective for a few. This parable again is showing us that the power is in the gospel. Paul said it this way in Romans 1 16, that he was not ashamed of the gospel for in it the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. He says that power is in the gospel there. He wasn't ashamed of that. It's the power of God. Over in 1 Corinthians 1 18, He said about the foolishness of the cross to those who are perishing is foolishness, but to us who are being saved, what is it? It's the power of God. And you know, he even gives a lot more detail in 1 Thessalonians 1.5. When he talks about how the Thessalonians had received the gospel, he says, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. And with full assurance, just as you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake. And I do believe, too, what he says at the end of that passage, our life should match that gospel that we're proclaiming. Or don't proclaim it. Because what's gonna lose in the end is gonna be the gospel itself, not you. But your life should not undermine it, your life should be in support of it. You should be living the gospel. Not only speaking it, but living it. Even over in 2 Corinthians 4, 7, Paul says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. Power's not in us. Power's not in the evangelist. The power's not in the farmer. The power's not in the one who is sowing seed. It's not in you. It's not in me. It's in God and His gospel, His word. So as 1 Corinthians 3, 7 says, the evangelist plants and waters, but it is God who causes the growth. And the verse reads this way. So then neither the one who plants No, the one who waters is anything. You get that? Quit thinking that you're something special because you were obedient to share the gospel. Glory in the fact that you were obedient. Don't glory in anything else but that. But it's God who causes the growth. Now, I believe that's illustrated in verses 27 and 28. Here's how it's illustrated. What does the farmer do? He goes to bed at night. He gets up day by day. and the seed sprouts and grows, and he doesn't know how. You give out the gospel. You can go to bed at night because you're not the one who's gonna cause that seed that you plowed up in that heart to grow. It's God's responsibility to open the heart. It's God's responsibility to open up the understanding. How many times did you hear the gospel before it finally clicked? It's because God opened your heart. And let me show you that. Acts 16 and verse 14 says, And a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, she was a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God. She was very religious. She was listening. That day in Philippi, when Paul was there, he was preaching the gospel. And it says she was listening. It says whose heart the Lord opened to pay attention to the things spoken by Paul. The Lord opened her heart. This was a fulfillment of Ezekiel 36, 26, which says this, moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to do my judgments. Who is doing all this? God is. So we don't save anybody. We give them the gospel in order for them to be saved, but it's God who causes the growth, not us. So we don't have to worry. Now, when I lay down at night, I'm not thinking of worrying over whether I saved somebody or not, because again, it's not my responsibility, but I do lay there with a heavy heart, begging God to save them. You know, Spurgeon said that We are either missionaries or we're imposters. Every child of God has a desire to see lost people saved. And if you don't have that desire to see anybody saved, then you need to go back and check out whether you are saved. Because see, before I was saved and before everyone I know, before they were saved, they didn't have a desire. for God. They didn't have a desire for anybody else to know God. They didn't have a desire for spiritual things. What happened when they got saved? That changed. Radically changed. I've told you about my testimony. The night I got saved, we took off to a mall, bought some tracts, bought a Bible, stood outside one of the bars I used to go to, and we passed out tracts and tried to share with our friends that were going in and coming out. we were planting seed. And my prayer is that someone came along and watered that seed. My prayer is that God gave the increase to that seed. And I can think back of three people that did get saved that were part of my life back then. One's now a missionary in France. One is now with the Lord. And, uh, We just gotta keep our mind right there. If you really love people, you'll tell them the truth, no matter how difficult it is to convey it to them. And that means you'll talk about hell, and you won't just talk about heaven. I mean, the gospel is referred to as good news, and it makes no sense unless you talk about the bad news. And when you talk about the bad news of judgment, the wrath of God, that coming wrath, and every lost person is under the wrath of God, and then you start talking about Christ and what He did, that's good news! This is the sovereign work of God, who births eternal life into an unregenerate soul. John 3, seven says, do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. And then it says in verse eight, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who has been born of the spirit. Now, doesn't that kind of sound like what he's saying here? The farmer goes to bed at night, he gets up by day, the seed sprouts and it grows and how he himself doesn't know. Do you understand that? I mean, think about even the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, Luke 24, 45. The whole time that they were with Jesus, they didn't know it was Jesus. He had withheld from their minds, their understanding, their eyes were veiled to see that it was Him until they saw Him in the breaking of bread. And then it says, He opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Who opened whose minds? Because the whole time, these men were talking about Jesus and what had happened. And they were surprised that this stranger hadn't heard. He opened their minds to understand the scriptures. That's in the parable of the soils. That was the last one. They had some 30, some 60, some 100-fold. So how the seed grows is beyond finding out, but it's God who does it. And let me give you two verses that even give more to this. Ecclesiastes chapter eight, verse 17. Solomon says, and I saw every work of God. I concluded that man cannot find out the work which has been done under the sun, even though man should seek laborously. He will not find it out, and though the wise man should say, I know, he cannot find it out. And then in chapter 11 in verse 5 of Ecclesiastes, he says, just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of God who works all things. All we know is that God is the one who causes his kingdom to grow. He is the one who causes the new birth. He is the one who opens the heart and causes it to bring forth new life. In the words of Ephesians 2, 4, and 5, it's God who made us alive together with Christ. Even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, we couldn't make ourselves alive. He had to do that. Dead men can't make themselves come to life. So the kingdom of God is like growing seed. Notice the second parable he mentions here, it's in verse 30. It's the parable of the mustard seed. And it says, and he was saying, how shall we compare the kingdom of God? By what parable shall we present it? So again, this is talking again about the kingdom of God. It's like a mustard seed, which when sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up, becomes the largest of all the garden plants, and forms large branches so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade. So this parable now is signifying the small and the humble beginnings of the kingdom of God. Jesus says the kingdom is like a mustard seed. Now there are different types of mustard seed. There's the black mustard, There's the brown mustard plant. Then you have the white, yellow mustard plant. Here he's talking about the common black mustard plant. The leaves were used as vegetables. The seeds were used as a condiment. They also had medicinal purposes. The seed is very small. You know how small it is? About the size of a grain of sand. That's small. He says it's the smallest of all the seeds. Now he says the smallest, referring to the smallest that was used and that they were used to using in their agricultural farming there in Palestine. This would also be a hyperbole, which would be a device that's used in literature for emphasis. Even in Hebrew, this is an idiom common for the Jews to refer to mustard seed as the smallest because it was superlatively small. You would have small and smaller and smallest and the mustard seed was in that category of superlatively small. Well, Jesus says it grows up, it becomes largest of all the garden plants, it forms large branches so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade. This tiny seed, the size of a grain of sand, can grow as high as 15 feet. And though it's not a tree in really the truest sense of a tree, because it's a plant, but it has all the properties of a tree. It has branches large enough for birds to nest in. R.C. Sproul says, God can use the smallest words that we speak, the smallest service that we give, and bring a kingdom out of it. This points not to the greatness of the mustard seed, but the greatness of God who works every day to bring about his plan for the ages. Now, by comparing the kingdom of God to a mustard seed, Jesus is saying the kingdom of God, starting with him and his few disciples, would continue to grow immensely. It would start small, But then it would grow beyond all comparison. And we have an example of that in the historical New Testament book called the Acts of the Apostles. This is the history of the church. Let me just begin by reading a few of these verses in the book of Acts and see if you can hear the common theme. Acts 2.41. So then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3,000 souls. Acts 4.4, but many of those who had heard the message believe in the number of the men came to be about 4,000. Acts 5.14, and more than ever, believers in the Lord were added to their number multitudes of men and women. Now you can't count them. Acts 1121, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. Acts 1224, but the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied. Acts 1421, after they had proclaimed the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. Acts 16.5, so the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were abounding in number daily. Acts 17.4, and some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas along with a great multitude of the God-fearing Greeks and not a few of the leading women. Acts 17.6, and when they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brothers before the city authority, shouting, these men have upset the world, have come here also. Acts 19.20, so the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. Acts 21.20, and when they had heard When they had heard it, they began glorifying God, and they said to Him, You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law? Did you hear that now? We started out with a number in two of the passages, and then it just began growing so much that you couldn't count. That's the kingdom of God compared to a mustard seed, starting small, and then exploding with growth and still exploding with growth today. One writer takes all of that that I just shared with you and he says this. He says, on the day of Pentecost, some 3,000 souls were ushered into the kingdom of God, and subsequently, day by day, others were added to that number. Soon the number, the men, was 5,000, and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. The apostles were presently charged with having filled Jerusalem with the gospel, so the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly, with even a great company of priests obeying the faith. Before long, persecution came and the disciples were scattered abroad, but they went about preaching the word so that the gospel went into Samaria, where great multitudes gave heed to its precepts. In Acts 8, the saving word was dispatched to Ethiopia in Africa by means of the conversion of the eunuch. And in Acts 9, in connection with Saul's conversion, we discover that Christianity had already been planted in Damascus, Syria. In Acts 9.31, there's evidence that the church had spread throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria. The Gentiles are introduced to the Christian message in Acts 10, and in the latter part of chapter 11, the word goes into Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, which is Syria, with a great number turning to the Lord. Again, in Acts 12.24, the word of God grew and multiplied. The missionary endeavors of Paul commenced in Acts 13. He and Barnabas take the gospel to Cyprus and then on to Asia Minor, where many converts were made. On the second missionary campaign, Paul again forged westward along with Silas and later Luke and Timothy, where in Asia Minor, churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily. In Acts 16, the kingdom spreads into Europe, and the Christian system burns like a fire out of control. Great multitudes are led to the truth, and presently the disciples are accused of having turned the world upside down. See, it just keeps exploding with growth, and you see how the direction that it was taking? Look, we're here hearing the gospel. It's all over the world. As much as our current administration wants to erase Jesus out of your life, and as much as false religions want to do the same thing because they want you to embrace their religion, you will never rid Jesus out of our society. Never. They've already tried to do that with renaming things. I was out in California a few years ago, and just about every street in California has some kind of religious name. God is at work. He's building his kingdom. And he's not doing it with entertainment. He's not doing it with flash or with all the pizzazz that we try to conjure up, but he's doing it with obedience to his word. And that's attended by his spirit so that the kingdom grows and grows until the day when the Lord of the harvest comes for its fruit. Now, it's possible to know the true numbers, but there's always somebody out there counting that, isn't there? There's an estimate as of 2024, there are approximately 2.6 billion Christians in the world. Now, when I read something like that, my first question is, what was the criteria by which they are Christians? What criteria did they use? But we do know that there are so many. Now, you remember when we were in Matthew 7? What did you think of? What number did you think of when you heard, few enter the narrow gate? Did you think two or three? It's still few. Even though it's billions, it's still few compared to the many who are on the wide road that leads to destruction. The many that will go to hell. Every day, though, God is saving someone from their sin and from his wrath. Psalm 79 and verse 9 says, Help us, O God, of our salvation for the glory of your name and deliver us and atone for our sins for your name's sake. That's what he does. Now before we close, I want us to mention these last two verses, these final thoughts that Mark gives in verses 34 and 35, which begins with, and with many such parables. He was speaking the word to them as they were able to hear it. And he was not speaking to them without a parable, but he was explaining everything privately to his own disciples. And after this, Mark records no more parables until Passion Week. But we know from verse 33 that Jesus spoke other parables that are not recorded. Now, I've shared with you he spoke somewhere between 30 and 40 parables. We know that those parables fit that number just simply because of the use of the Greek word parabolae occurring 46 times. You say, well, then why don't you say 46 parables? Well, sometimes the word will occur twice in the same verse. So you can't count that as two parables. That would be one. And you know, that's really the same when you think about all the signs he performed. Now there's a verse over in John 20 and verse 30 that talks about him doing many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. And that would be like him doing the many other parables, like they're in verse 33, that are not recorded. They're not written. But it just tells us that he did that. And of course, with the many other signs that he did, it says that these have been written, the ones we do have, the ones that we can see and study. Same with the signs. They have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ or the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Mark also tells us in verse 33 that when he spoke in parables, they were able to hear it, but not understand it. Look at verse 33. With many other such parables, he was speaking the word to them as they were able to hear it. In other words, Jesus had carefully fitted his message to the condition of his audience, intuitively reading their hearts to see what they could receive. Linsky explains that by them being able to hear, the word that he uses for hear, equine, it's not to be understood in the intensive sense of understanding like we had looked at previously, but it's talking about the ordinary sense of hearing, and even possibly remembering. They could remember the parable, but they could not understand what the parable meant. Albert Barnes says that they were able to hear it as they could comprehend it. They were like children, he says. Now, we know parables either enlighten or they obscure, right? Or to the one who doesn't understand it, what is it? It's a riddle. But those who can hear it and understand it, it's revelation. So hearing determines whether one is an insider or an outsider. You say, what in the world are you talking about, insider, outsider? Well, go back to verse 11. It says that he was saying to them, to you it has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven. So for outsiders, that is those outside the kingdom, they get everything in parables. Those that are in the kingdom, inside the kingdom, they get it explained. Big difference. And with some 30 to 40 parables, and as I pointed out to you a couple weeks ago, Did the disciples get the parables? They didn't get much of anything half the time, and so he had to explain it to them. I want you to notice, too, in the text, it says, with many such parables, he was speaking to them. So far as they were able to hear it, he did not speak to them without a parable. Who is the them and they? Well, that's, Those who are outside the kingdom, that's unbelievers. And if you remember, coming from chapter three, that when the religious leaders said that Jesus is doing all these miracles and driving out demons by the prince of demons, essentially saying he's doing all this by the power of Satan, that they had blasphemed the Holy Spirit, and it was right after that Jesus started speaking in parables. Why? Because they had rejected the gospel. The crowd got everything in parables, but the disciples got everything explained. Because the kingdom was given to them. Just like you and me, the kingdom's given to us. Why? Because we believe. We have embraced Jesus. We confess him as Lord. We believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead. The Bible says you'll be saved. The Bible says whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. We received him. We didn't reject him. Now, prior to that we did, but now we receive him. So do you understand? Are you inside the kingdom or are you outside the kingdom? Is God growing your heart toward Him for salvation? If so, I'm praying for harvest. And if He's growing you in that direction, there's gonna be a harvest. We just don't know when. So keep preaching. I read something this week from R.C. Sproul. It was really encouraging because it was talking about the fact that we really don't need to understand the extent of anything that we do for the kingdom of God. Quit focusing on all of that. When somebody asks you how was church today, you don't have to answer with three people got saved, unless they did, right? What did you do at church today? Well, we're never asked that question because what do we do 99% of the time when we come to church? We sit and we listen. But I hope you do more than that because we have spiritual gifts and we're to minister to each other, right? So if you're here today and you're outside the kingdom, I pray that you will repent and flee the wrath that is to come. But don't run away from God, run to God. Don't be like Adam. When his eyes were open after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what did he do? He hid from God, something he had never done before. Because he used to walk with God in the garden in the cool of the day. He had sweet fellowship with God. But then once him and Eve took of that forbidden fruit, disobeyed the Lord, their eyes were opened. Now they had shame and guilt. And so they hid. They were afraid. And listen, unless you come to Christ, you have every reason to be afraid. because the future is not good. Heavenly Father, we just praise you and give you praise for this morning. We pray for those that may be in here this morning that are outside the kingdom. We ask that you would birth spiritual life into them, that you would give them the new birth, just as we have seen in the seed that you caused to grow. Pray that you would cause the gospel to grow in their hearts. And that they would embrace Christ and Christ alone. We thank you for this time we've had together, Heavenly Father. We pray that in Jesus name. Amen.