So thankful for Covenant of Peace Church here in Gulfport in the years of faithfulness and also for our common fellowship as churches in FIRE, the Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals. What a great privilege it is to walk alongside of you. It's not a concern of mine to have your pastor back more than once. He preaches the Word. We preach the Word at Audubon Drive Bible Church. And it's a great privilege. In fact, our people love his preaching. And always ask me, well, I know you're going away pastor this year to these places here. Will Brother Blair be coming? I said, we're going to work it out. We're going to work it out. They're not frightened by this brother. They're blessed and encouraged. But I will say this from my own experience and knowing what he's been through. Our type of preaching frightens people. Because we're committed to the Scriptures. It frightens people that are pew-sitters and have no desire to come and have a spiritual surgery performed on them by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, which is normative in the Kingdom of God. So yes, I know. In fact, I have people come to my church and visit on a regular basis. And it's usually only those who've been listening to my sermons on the internet for two or three months that end up visiting finally and then staying. But the people that come for the first time are in shock. It's sad because we love the Lord, and it's just a sad condition of the church in our own day. Well, when Brother Blair asked me to come speak, one of the great truths dear to my heart is the kingdom of God. I love to speak about the kingdom of God because what I don't want to do in a sermon like this is get into eschatological categories and intramural debate. I'm willing to do that in the right context, but I just want the scriptures to speak about who our King is, as Rhys already read this morning. And His present reign as King. And how He is putting all of His enemies under His feet. And going forth and taking real estate to the ends of the earth. He must reign until all of His enemies are under His feet. So I want to talk about the Kingdom of God. And particularly, one of my favorite parables. They're all wonderful, all of our Lord's parables. But I want to begin in Matthew 13. I want to read the context. And that would begin in verses 1-17. But just to bring you up to a highlight before I pray and read Scripture, I want to just remind you that at this point, our Lord Jesus Christ is facing great opposition to his ministry. He's been accused in chapter 12 by the ruling party of religious leaders, the Pharisees, as being basically of the devil. Let me just read, in fact, Matthew 12, verses 28 and 29. He's been casting out demons. He's been accused of casting out demons by Satan. And then he says in response in verse 28 of Matthew 12, But if by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. What I take that to mean is that Christ has come into the strongman's house, this world, and in converting lost sinners, delivering them from demons, casting out demons, the kingdom of God has come in power, and He has bound the strongman so that he may no longer deceive the nations in the way he did under the old covenant. And therefore, we go forward and His kingdom is a conquering kingdom. Well, let's pray then and ask God to bless our time. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for who You are. Thank You for this church, faithful body of believers. Lord, I pray that they would be encouraged today and that they would continue, if they're not already, they would continue then to see and embrace a biblical optimism that will move them in prayer, with boldness, and in Gospel, evangelization of this area, and in world mission. Lord, we desire more than anything, Lord, to assert Your crown rights and to proclaim Your name both here throughout Mississippi and beyond for Your honor and glory alone. Amen. Matthew 13, 1-17. That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea, and great crowds gathered about Him, so that He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the beach. And He told them many things in parables, saying, A sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, And the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on the rocky ground where they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Verse 10, Then the disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables? And He answered them and said, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, You will indeed hear, but never understand. And you will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's hearts has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear. And their eyes, they have closed, and thus they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. That latter part is really our great privilege as those who know Christ under the new covenant. We are privy, we have access to the great mysteries of God's kingdom. He's unveiled these things to us. I've been saved now 38 years. I still sit back and think often of the amazing work God has done in my life. It's only explainable by the fact that there's an invisible God, the only God, who exists and who fulfills his word and raises up his people from the spiritual graveyard and breathes new life into them. I'm amazed continually. I'm amazed that I have access to these great truths like you do, to these great truths in the Gospel. The Kingdom of God. What is the Kingdom of God? This would be a good time just to share with you how I understand it from Scripture. The Kingdom of God is the rule of God through the Word of God. So the King has come. He's reigning, but He's reigning and ruling through the Word of God. The proclamation of the Scriptures. The Word of God is exposing, right? Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the Word of Christ. Preach the Word in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction. So the preaching of the Word asserts the crown rights of King Jesus and calls the lost to bow their knee, as you guys have right here on your text. You've made a sign there. To bow their knee before King Jesus. So that if Jesus isn't everything to you, He's nothing to you. He's either everything or He's nothing to you. And this is so important to grasp. We don't make Him Lord. He is Lord. We simply bow before Him and worship Him as Lord of lords. King of kings and Lord of lords. So I want to talk to you about the Kingdom of God and then particularly some of the most encouraging, optimistic truths about this amazing kingdom that He rules through the Word. In fact, let me show you one passage just to encourage you about this idea of how God works through us. 2 Corinthians 5. Notice this in verse 1. 17 and following, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry. Each believer has this ministry. You may not be sure what ministry you should be serving in this church. You're looking to find where your gifts fit. That's fine. But I want to remind you, you already have one ministry. And that is the ministry of reconciliation. And what is that? Verse 19. That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So it's important for us to see God is entreating through us and we're begging men. God is begging through us and pleading with them to come to Christ. Now, I want to talk about the reality, though, of what we are faced with in our day and age. Because while we acknowledge the existence of the Kingdom of God, and while we observe on a regular basis the fruit of that Kingdom, not only in the conversion of the lost, but also in the maturation of God's people from glory to glory as we mature in Christ, grow in Christ, and seek first his kingdom each and every day, we are to be, again, amazed that God is doing a great work. And even though we believe this, there are many who attend churches, maybe this church particularly today, who are, for the most part, pessimistic about the future of God's kingdom and the present activity. You know, sometimes I look at my church, and we're there, and we're in a town of 18,200 plus churches, and in that town, and in our efforts to reach the hardness of the religious people in our town, as we beat our heads against the wall and pray and confess, proclaim Christ, we are amazed how He'll take What we can't do locally, and all of our challenges, he'll use the internet to bring people, and you'll go, how did you find our church? Well, I've been listening to sermons for months. Where do you live? Hour and a half away. I'm in awe of these people. They come and they want the word of God. Some of them have people that go, why are you going to church in Laurel? You passed 2,000 churches on the way to Laurel. What's wrong with you? And it's funny to hear all the different things they're trying to explain. They just want the Word of God. They just want to grow in Christlikeness. And yet it's seen as Swahili to the religious context. And so as God reminds me, then we have part of the things that play into professing believers. I believe a lot of true believers struggle with being biblically optimistic because they've been trained. I won't use labels here, but you'll get the idea. They've been trained by an eschatology that in essence, if it's consistently looked at, in essence says, why polish brass on a sinking ship? It's all going down the tubes anyway. Heaven's our home. Well, heaven is our home. In fact, there's nothing I could do to change that because He has saved me and heaven awaits me. It awaits every true believer right now. That's it. So what should I be aiming for? Seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to us. So He wants us to be focused there, but nevertheless, there are many things attacking us. First of all, there's a false optimism out there. This is the most extreme case, but Joel Osteen. He'll hold up his Bible and say, you are beautiful, you're victorious, and all these different things. It's positive confession stuff. And then not give him the word. But talk as optimistic as he can, as positive as he can. People are being drawn by the optimism, but there's no, content into what he's saying. It's false optimism. A lot of people see that, and they say they can see that, and even tell us more. We're in a mess. This whole place is going to end up in a fireball anyway. So let's just gather our holy cluster of people and our little church, and you know what? It's all going to end up in a mess anyway. Thank goodness Jesus is coming. Oh, Jesus is coming. He's coming back at the end of the age. But how should we view then, how then should we live and see our churches and our individual lives and our families, how should we view our present existence on this earth as believers? Well, here's what I want us to see. I want us to see that it's sin to not live with biblical optimism. Jesus said, I will build my church. Notice it's his church, not our church. I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Years ago, someone asked me what my view of the end times was. I said, oh, I could give you one verse. Matthew 16, 18. And the guy looked at me and said, he's a pastor, and he said, can you give me something else? I go, wait a minute. I will build my church, Christ says, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I said, why are you having difficulty in seeing this? He goes, well, when I look out at the world around me, yes, I know that the kingdom of God is going forward and all that, but I said, what, it's a beat up, slapped around entity that's kind of limping along, and band-aids put on each member, and we barely slide into heaven with half smiles on our face. He goes, well, yeah, I guess that's probably it. I said, but what I want you to see is this. Our view of the kingdom of God should be one of absolute optimism. Absolute ostomy. We walk by faith and not by sight. Robert E. Lee said, the great Confederate general, he said, we should not live our lives walking with the naked eye, but with the bird's eye over history. So we want to walk with the biblical eye, the bird's eye, seeing the big picture, not with the naked eye. We want to walk by faith. What's faith? Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And without faith, it's impossible to please God. So we walk by faith and not by sight. I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He wants us to grasp these truths, because if we forget that, we begin to live amongst all the depression in our day and age that's also crept into the church. For example, I was preaching recently in Spain during the family conference, and they, at one point, as I was drawing to a close, I said, do you want to make Spain great again? And, you know, it's through translation, so people started kind of laughing, like, thought I was gonna come up with Donald Trump next, right? And they go, I said, do you want to make Spain great? And they went, yeah, that's okay. And I said, well, then why don't you live godly lives? Why don't you love your wife? Why don't you raise your kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? It's wonderful to have this church in Spain where I was in Barcelona area. And you want to have your fellowship and keep deepening and cultivating the fellowship. I said, but why don't you make a decision that you're going to live for Christ and be salt and light in Spain? Well, in our day and age, here's where we are. You know, I was at Books a Million the other day in Hattiesburg. And, you know, I like to fiddle around the latest books out there and see which ones are selling like hotcakes. There's so much anti-Trump stuff. There's so much anti-president administration. It's overwhelming, the negativity. And then, when I was in England recently, overwhelming hatred for Trump and the whole thing. And you're just going, with all that negativity, and then within Christendom, all the anti, stuff against what he's promoting. And all this there, you're going, well, I could get down and out. But I have to fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. He who began the good work in you will perfect you until the day of Christ. So what I want us to see from this great parable is that we have great reason to live with biblical optimism. Look what it says here again in Matthew 13, 31-33. He put another parable before them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed than a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. He told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leaven. Now this is where we want to focus our time then, because between Matthew 16, 18, and these two tiny parables, what we have is Jesus's theology of encouraging his people who would live in the kingdom, that's us, to live with absolute joyful optimism about the future. I'm fixing to start preaching through Ecclesiastes in my church in a couple weeks as I finish Galatians next week. But one of the things I'm going to be reminding them is this. One of the great freedoms we have is realizing that we're going to die someday. Ecclesiastes tells us we're going to die. We're a vanishing vapor. Our lives are just moments. And then we're gone into eternity. And so as we look at that, As we keep that perspective, and we're humbled by that, to be more joyful in the present, and not that things get you down because your eyes are fixed on Jesus, you're living in reality. Therefore, now, I can walk in joy. I can walk in biblical optimism. I can believe the promises of God. Let me give you some of this optimism from the Old Testament. Go with me to Genesis. Now, get your Bibles ready now. This will be a good old-fashioned I guess it was a sword drill, is that what you call it? I didn't grow up, I didn't hear the gospel until I was 22, so I didn't grow up with all that kind of stuff. Genesis 12, verse 3. I will bless those who bless you, Abraham, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now when's that going to happen? Well, it's happening And it will continue to happen. And how much of this globe? All the globe will be impacted. He says in Revelation 5-9, He's purchased men out of every kindred, tribe, people, and nation. Now here's a question. Is there a guaranteed harvest out there? course it's guaranteed it awaits reaping what are we to do go make disciples of all nations as you're going there in the Greek it means as you're going make disciples that's every one of us we all have the ministry of reconciliation you might say well I'm not an extrovert I don't really I'm not good at talking to people one-on-one don't worry about it go forth open your mouth and he'll use your testimony to call others to Christ. How about this? Psalm 22. Psalm 22. How's this for biblical optimism? And we could make excuses, but here's what it says. Psalm 22, verse 27. All The ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. Is there anything in there you're confused about? All the ends of the earth. How about this? Psalm 2. And by the way, Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 are the most quoted psalms in the New Testament. Psalm 110 more, as it talks about Christ's priestly and kingly authority. But in Psalm 2, look what he says here. Now this is Jesus. is being spoken to by his father. The problem with our world that makes everybody kind of discouraged and not optimistic. Look at it says verse 1. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? OK, then they're setting themselves against the Lord and against his anointed. We see that that was quoted, by the way, in the book of Acts. And then in v. 6, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. This is God the Father speaking. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. Now, here's the question. Did the Son take up the Father and say, okay, well, then I'm going to ask you. Give me the nations. So how do we know that that question was asked? Because Jesus's final words are, go make disciples of all nations. Now, why would he tell us to go out to all the nations if he hadn't already asked the Father for the nations? And the Father says, ask me. The Son asked. He says, now I've given you the nations. And I've purchased out of that every kindred, tribe, people, and nation with my own blood, Jesus says, men in this realm. The nations await the salvation of our God. Psalm 96. Psalm 96. Notice verse 1 and following. O sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord. Bless His name. Tell of His salvation, how often? From day to day, declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples. Now again, this might seem hard to believe. Our vantage point in lower Mississippi and here on the edge of Gold Park. And you might say, but look at the news, look at the internet, look at the wickedness, look at all the craziness that's going on. Well, you're walking by sight. And also, if you do believe the scriptures, you're not acting Pollyanna-ish. That kind of gives away my age. Pollyanna, anybody know Pollyanna? Always optimistic to a fault, Pollyanna. A lot of people when they hear me talk about this kind of passage, they go, he's Pollyanna-ish. He's not living in reality. Look at the world around you. Wait a minute. I'm going to share in a minute all the amazing things going on right now that if I didn't share them with you, you probably would never have known about these things I'm going to share. Of all that God's doing right now, even as I speak. But how about this? Isaiah 2. Isaiah. I'm just giving you a smattering of a few passages just to kind of give you a taste to help fuel biblical optimism. Isaiah 2. Verses 2-3, "...and it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills. And all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go the law and the word of the Lord." Jerusalem. You see, fundamental to our being so pessimistic today about what God has certainly promised to come to pass is that we allow too much unbiblical information, too much negativity from those who are not trusting in the promises of God to infiltrate our thinking. That's the problem. But what should we do? We should plead the promises of God. Go with me to Isaiah 62. In Isaiah 62, this is one of the most profound, because we know this hasn't taken place, and yet it tells us how we're to function on our knees to not forget this in our prayers. Isaiah 62-67, on your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen all the day and all the night. They shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. Some people say, well, that's referring to spiritual Jerusalem. No, it's not. the Jerusalem in the Middle East. In other words, don't stop praying and asking God to fulfill His promises to His old covenant people who are the elect, the true Israel out of that, and converting them, Romans 9, 10, and 11. But also, what he's saying is don't stop until Jerusalem is the praise of the whole earth. We come to Mount Zion, yes, Hebrews 12, 22, and 23, but this is so much bigger. He's talking about geography here, as well as the spiritual implications of that. If we don't think in the Matthew 16, 18, and all these texts that remind us of biblical optimism, then we end up ignoring passages like this. Zechariah 4.10, I'll just refer to it, where it says, he could change a nation in one day. So as bleak as America may look, or other nations and their godlessness, he could turn everything around in one moment. One moment. Don't forget that. One moment. God can turn everything around. Adoniram Judson, the great missionary to Burma, who didn't see his first convert like William Carey did in India until about seven years after being there amongst all the Buddhists. And Judson. Said at one point, he was asked, why don't you just give up and go home? And he said, because our future is as bright as the promises of God. How bright is our future? As bright as the promises of God. He must reign until all of his enemies are under his feet. This is so important for us to understand. Biblical optimism is simply part and parcel of normative Christianity. When we're walking with gloomy faces, we're ready to give up. In fact, the great evangelist George Whitefield in the 18th century awakenings, at one point, you know, because he was preaching against unconverted preachers, and he was preaching against the godless in the pew, and calling for awakening, and he was exhausted, riding tremendous amount of miles on his horse. He crossed the Atlantic 13 times. This last trip I was in Europe, it was my 14th trip, and I thought, I've made 14 trips in luxury on a plane. Whitfield did that on a, and a horrible schooner with seasickness and horrible, I mean, unbelievable. Anyway, so he was tired and exhausted near the end of his life, and all these ministers were all saying, you know, it's tough serving the Lord, isn't it? Wouldn't it be great if Jesus came back tonight and got us off this messy place? took us home to heaven. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And of course, it's wonderful to think about heaven. We should meditate on that reality. Yes, but it was a pessimistic meeting and the men were disturbed because they were looking at Whitfield and he wasn't making one comment. And finally they said to him, Mr. Whitfield, don't you believe the way we believe? We're all exhausted. We're tired of fighting the devil. We're not seeing much fruit, as we did, say, months ago in this part of the colonies. Don't you agree? He goes, I don't agree. Don't you just want to go to heaven now? He goes, no. Heaven is my home. It awaits me. But I have every bit as much need today to stay right here and continue to proclaim His name and He'll take me home when He's ready. That should be our attitudes. Four things, then, stand out in this section in chapter 13. The first one is the kingdom's parabolic expression. I've already covered that. Basically, chapter 12, where Jesus was accused of being of Beelzebul, of course, terrible. But what he wants us to see, and what I want us to see in verses 10 to 17, which I already mentioned, the privilege that's ours to know these great truths. Our eyes are blessed to see them. What I want us to see here is that he has told us of the breadth or the width of the kingdom. It's going to be amazing in its final visual of what finally, when it's all brought together, the kingdom's expression will be global as never before. Amazing. advance to the ends of the earth. But we also know from the parable of the soils, which I read earlier, there'll be much opposition. I mean, just notice this one part in verses 18 and following, verses 18 and 19 of Matthew 13, the parable of the soil, which I read earlier. But now here's the interpretation. I'll read just verses 18 and 19. Here then, the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in the heart. This is what was sown along the path. So in the midst of all this great encouragement and optimism, what's happening is, is the devil's working against it all. Priory darts, Ephesians 6, 16, are coming at us. Our own flesh is weak, right? The world system is seducing us. And so with these three opponents attacking us, it's very easy that if we don't feel our thinking about biblical optimism, it's not an optimism to the fault where we don't understand the world, the flesh, and the devil against us. I can't share some of the things our church has been through, because we haven't even addressed them in our members meeting yet, we will soon, of some very, very disappointing things that have happened. Some people, very godly people, have made some foolish decisions in their lives, and the result is some horrendous things that we have to address. We have done privately. So these kind of things come and they wear on you, right? As you're trying to be optimistic and evangelize and win your neighbors to Christ and all that, the devil's working overtime. God's allowing him to do that, right? He's not beating up God's kingdom. God's allowing him to beat up on his people. He's in control. Remember Jesus said to Peter, Simon, Simon, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but behold, I have prayed for you that when it's all done, you'll turn around and strengthen your brother. Jesus didn't say, but Satan, but notice Peter, what I'm going to do, I'm going to stop that devil. No, he said, I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to allow that devil. to beat up on you. I'll allow him to be the instrument of buffeting you, like he did to Job. Why? Why? Because if you're going to play games in the kingdom, and you're not going to open your Bible and get on your knees and seek God, and you're a true child of God, he's a perfect father. I was an imperfect father. I am an imperfect father. Seven kids, two grandchildren. God's been merciful to me, but very imperfect. God's a perfect Father. He will discipline His people. Not just if they misinterpret their own flippant heart in taking the Lord's Supper like we read this morning, but if we are going to continue to dabble in things and not have heart dealings and repentance and all that, He's going to allow the whip and stick to bring us into subjection and repentance. So in other words, you have to have in your thinking of your optimism, contamination. A contaminant environment where God's people are being assaulted from the world, the flesh, and the devil. And it's gotta be in your thinking. Biblical optimism doesn't ignore that. Biblical optimism said God is gonna triumph in the midst of all that. He's gonna triumph in the midst. That's where prayer comes in. Pouring your heart out before God. Blessing God. Thanking Him in all circumstances. Praying without ceasing. Weeping with those who weep. All those great truths are there and so he wants us in this section here to understand there's going to be opposition to this kind of thinking. Someone sent me recently some church planning podcasts, telling me how much they've been learning. And I've been listening. I listened to the first one the other day. He sent me some more. And all I could say is, you know, I wouldn't have done things like that, these guys, but obviously there's been some success in what they've done. And now I have this podcast. But I reminded the guy I was with, talking about this, encouraging as though some of those stories were amazing stories, actually. I said, the church where I pastor, was started by a few men, to this day, who are still elders in our church, who didn't take one class in church planning. Didn't take a class. All they knew is this, they weren't gonna stand for, again, another preacher being chewed up and spit out at their Southern Baptist church. And they said, that's it. Now, out of a church of 450 in attendance, 20 people, men and women, under 30, and 10 over 70, all said, see ya, and went and had a Bible study, didn't know what they were doing, asking God to do something. And here we are 38 years later, and God's greatly blessed our church. We were a mustard seed of a few people. God's allowed our church to do amazing things for a small church, a couple hundred people. Small, small beginnings, expansive endings for every church. Think about your church, think of your church history, how this church started. what you're able to do as your church. No, we're not out there into a numbers game, a budget game, but my point is this. Minuscule beginnings is the principle of the kingdom of God. Beginnings. Look at the second point, the kingdom's expansion. kingdom's future expansion. That's the first parable, verse 31, 32. He put another parable before them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. Now, the mustard seed, the liberals have tried to attack and say, well, that's not the smallest seed. The smallest seed is an orchid seed. Well, that's true in botanical studies, that's true. But in this part of the world, even to this day, the mustard seed is still the smallest seed. Orchids are not native to Israel. So his whole point was, I'm teaching you an object lesson. The lesson is this. A shepherd, Jesus, with 11 frightened men, after the shepherd is struck and they're scattered, from those 11 frightened men, here we are eight time zones away saying, hey, Jesus saved me. The rabbi who walked 2,000 years ago, the earth has saved me. I was in Israel years ago preaching Northern Israel, and I had to drive from near Haifa down to the Galilee region. And I remember just being amazed, here I am, see the Sea of Galilee from a distance, I'm driving, and I was going down and down and down into a valley, and then I see these kind of interesting, I see Bedouins, camels coming down certain pathways on each side. And I get there and I said, I'm amazed, where would Jesus with his disciples would have walked in this region? Where would they have walked? And I said, would it have been something along the paths I saw? They go, yeah, those are the ancient footpaths. Jesus was walking as a peripatetic rabbi. And they would walk behind him, the 11 disciples, and at 12 at the time, Judas saw all the miracles. And then he would say, quote a scripture or a saying, and they would repeat it while he was walking down these paths. And they lived together for three years. And I was just stunned. No internet. No Google Analytics. No website. No radio ministry, no printing ministry. Man, how is it that all of us will stake our lives on our love for Christ? We're either insane, which the world thinks we are, or maybe this rabbi still lives, and he's continuing to work. from a minuscule, barely visible little seed that will grow larger than all the plants in the garden and become a tree that fills the earth where birds come. So he wants us to understand, don't be discouraged, my little flock. Quit measuring success the way the world measures success. You measure it off the quality, not quantity. But know this, the principle of tiny beginnings will ultimately have expanded massive endings. That's where the, out of every kindred, tribe, people, and nation, at the end of the day, He will save his people from their sins out of every kindred, tribe, people, and nation. So in other words, this little beginning is so important. Don't lose sight of this. Remember, let me show you another passage. Remember the passage in Micah 5. Micah 5. Notice this, verse 2. This is the prophecy saying where the Messiah will be born. Bethlehem. Watch. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is of old, from the ancient days, or the days of eternity. Now you might not, if you look at this and you say, well, Bethlehem Ephrathah, okay, I've heard of Ephrathah. My Hebrew professor in seminary, Dr. Ken Barker, who is a head translator for the NIV, NIV Study Bible, he knows 35 Semitic languages. What that means is all the branch-offs from Hebrew, he's an expert, and he's written grammars on a lot of those languages. When he was explaining to us in our Hebrew exegetical principles class, he said that statement, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, first of all, Bethlehem's a small place even to this day, and then when he said Ephrathah, it'd be like saying this, Gulfport, John Mark Road. Is it John Mark? John Clark Road. He gave the specific area of Bethlehem. Pinpoint a tiny place even to this day, but from that tiny beginning Mashiach He wants us to see these the scripture wants us to see these great principles. How about this Isaiah 9? Isaiah 9 6 & 7 watch same principle For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government and of his peace there will be no end. on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice, with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. How is this possible? The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Now, listen. I used to think. And God's been teaching me, I believe about this, I used to tell my people in my church, if we're really faithful to God, then 100 years from now, our church will be standing. You know, it sounds logical. I read some things in church history that made me, yeah, if we're really faithful, we will never be without a witness. And I thought, no, struggle with that, that's prideful. No, no, what I'm responsible for and what you're responsible for is this, being faithful while we're here. Success is measured on whether this church entity will be here 50 years from now. No, it's will we be faithful right now as we're here for the time God's ordained for us to be here? Will we be faithful and hold fast our confession? That's all that should matter to us. And guess what? This kingdom which began with a little infant and swaddling clothes in Bethlehem, Ephrathah, the government increasingly upon His shoulders, His kingdom will be without end And all of that kingdom will be accomplished by the zeal of his father to his son. Now that's powerful. Little beginnings, large ending. Abounding lives, kingdoms advancing. All over, I'll just give you references for time's sake. Ezekiel 31, three to six. I know you're taping this. Daniel 4, 20 to 22. That's imagery of the Old Testament talking about Small trees, seedlings, grow to trees, referring to the kingdom of God, how birds can nest in them. They would have understood quite clearly when Jesus was teaching this in Matthew 13, 31 and 32, oh yes, in other words, these are prophecies about God's kingdom. And remember, Jesus said elsewhere, remember the field is the world. So the world is the field. God is sowing His people, right? And elsewhere in Matthew 13, the parable of the weeds, He's sowing the men, the brethren, His people in there. And the devil also is sowing. In the midst of that, so always, not Pollyannaish, but optimistically from scripture, understanding it's a spiritual war that we're up against. We already have the victory in Christ, but in the midst of all that, he's calling us to perseverance, right, as he preserves us, perseverance and vigilance, watchfulness, so that he would continue to bless us and help us to see. the success of his kingdom. Go to Daniel 2. Daniel 2, verse 44. At the end of all these different kingdoms, again, now watch how he describes this kingdom right here. And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven, Daniel 2.44, will set up a kingdom, this is Christ's kingdom, that shall never be destroyed. Did you get that? It doesn't say a thousand years. It says it will never. Once started, it will never end. Nor shall the kingdom be left to another. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms. and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. Just as you saw that stone which was cut from the mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, the gold. The great God has made known to the kings what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and the interpretation is true. Luke 1. 31 to 33. Follow this. Same thinking. Luke 1. 31 to 33, here it is. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, Mary, and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, this little boy, called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. Watch. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. What? No end. Now when was the kingdom inaugurated? When the king was born. when he was born two thousand years ago the kingdom was inaugurated and that kingdom shall never end We're just a part of the process. It's a blessing, it's a privilege. We're some of the few that God's allowed us to understand these things. This isn't a prideful issue, this is a humbling issue that why us? No answer except God chose to love us. Not because there was anything he foresaw in us. He didn't go, wow, Blair is an amazing guy. I want him on my team. That wasn't what happened. He sovereignly chose to love us because He chose to do it. There's nothing in us to love us. We're loved by God. Now, what kind of impact should that make you? Well, life's tough. Well, life is tough. Who's told you it wouldn't be tough? We live in the midst of enemies. in the midst of demonic opposition. We live encased right now, incarcerated in a body of death, our own flesh, which we have to fight and mortify and put to death every day. And we have a world around us seeking to lure us into its trap. We know that. But we know who has the victory. Jesus Christ, and so we don't blindly look at that, but we pray against it, and we walk by faith, not by sight. We trust God. Listen, again, little beginnings, a life abounding, and then large endings. So even though, again, there's opposition, the victory comes to our Lord. In fact, Right now as I speak, there's conversions happening, there's churches being planted, there's missionaries being sent, there's churches being burned down, there's saints being martyred. Even as I speak, there's all this. But notice, the scriptures continue to be distributed all around the world. continue to be translated all around the world. China, which in 1949 had 1 million believers, now has 60 to 90 million believers, they say right now. Korea, which they said, this theologian said in 1900 could never be reached, now is 30% evangelical. And in the city of Seoul, Korea, there's 7,000 evangelical churches. It sounds like Isaac Watts. Jesus shall reign wherever the sun does his successive journeys run. His kingdom stretched from shore to shore till moons shall wax and wane no more. That's what I read. How about this? Every day across the continent of Africa, 20,000 people, they say, are being added to the body of Christ. even as we speak. Bible believers, believing followers of Christ, today around the world they say 3.5 million local churches are being started every day. Representations of 33,000 denominations. 4,000 missionary agencies are overseeing 419,000 missionaries. And the list keeps going on and on and on. One of the small ways that we've been involved is there's a, and you guys may say, I don't know if you support him. Do you support Caleb Jubello? You do? Right, so we support him and he's gone to a tribe that had never heard of Christ. A tiny, minutiae area of the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Your church is involved, we're involved, other churches are involved, and we're sending him. When I came to my church 25 years ago this November, our budget was about 10% missions. I said, God, I mean, I'm sorry, about 3%. I said, please, would you let us one day give 10% of our budget to missions? Now we give 23%. I've preached in 18 different countries all around the world. Not because I went looking for it. Amazing things have happened. My church got behind it. Funded me on a lot of that. Other churches have helped. And I go whenever my elders are behind me and lay hands on me. I go. Sometimes I go. Maybe I'm going too much. They go, well, doors keep opening. My wife's behind me. If I don't go anywhere else again after my Cuba trip at the end of September, that's fine. I don't live for that. I'm busy enough doing what I'm doing. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be a missionary to Mississippi. I am amazed, though, that God would take a pagan, godless, immoral, violent young man from Los Angeles who never heard the gospel when I was 22 and sent me right in the heart of the Bible building. I am amazed that one day in my office I was praying and feeling letter to the Lord, and I wrote down and sketched out a whole idea. I came up with the idea of fire. Share with another guy I know, Jim Neuheiser, next thing we know, we're now in 16 different countries, 40 different states, and God's doing much good through fire. All little things. Big things God's doing. They don't need us to keep perpetuating it. God moves people's hearts. And our hearts and our desire is to proclaim Him. The other day I got some information on a particular ministry out of Oregon that beams in messages every day into Iran in Farsi. Every day, beaming them in. The gospel message, I didn't even know about it until a couple months ago. And they've been doing this for years. Instrumental. I mean, there's so many things that we just have no idea that God is doing right now. It's amazing. Amazing. So let us not forget that God is in control and accomplishing all of his purposes. Matthew 13.33, our third point is this. God wants us to see here, it's so wonderful and so clear. He wants us to see that the kingdom's future is a permeating kingdom. It goes into every nook and cranny in society. In fact, look what it says here. It uses the illustration of what we would say is yeast and flour. which they call a little leaven and three measures of flour until it says, the kingdom of God is like leaven that a woman took and hid three measures of flour, pecks of flour, until it was all leaven. He said, it's going to go into every little thing you can't even imagine. God's gonna do. I'll never forget a buddy of mine. His uncle was a church planter in Brooklyn, New York. Went into a rough area planting a church. In one year, he had 66 batteries taken out of his car. Think about that. 66 batteries stolen out of his vehicle. He hung tough. He said one time when he was preaching, a prostitute staggered in and threw up right on the pulpit. Cleaned it up and kept preaching. And God eventually established a solid church there. I mean, God's working in nooks and crannies in all kinds of different ways for the glory of His name. One writer made this comment. He said, in the 20th century, for the first time, there was, in the world, a universal religion called the Christian religion. Christianity acclimated itself in every continent and on almost every country in the world. In many areas, that hold might be precarious, and its number is small, yet in country after country, the Christians envisioned the power to be a dynamic majority minority. It took root, though, however, not as a foreign import, but as the church of the countries in which it dwells. With those words, this one writer made this comment. He said, by the end of the 20th century, the Christian missionary movement had reached around the globe. This is 100 years ago. Still, the missionary challenge looms larger than ever. This comes to mind when we think about God's call upon our lives. In other words, go to OperationWorld.com and just sign up to get an email every day sent to you of all that God's doing in this world to pray for countries. It's amazing. The gospel's everywhere in the world right now. We're just a part of a great movement. We may be minuscule to the naked eye, our churches. It's irrelevant. Christ is using us in an amazing day. I heard something the other day. I think John Piper's ministry, they evaluate their impact on the internet. One in six human beings are on the internet every day. The amazing feedback that Desiring God gets on just the internet downloads is stunning. And that's just one ministry. It's amazing. I know you guys have your ministries and radio ministries too. Same ideas. God's doing so many things. The gospel's going forth. Nothing is going to stop this effort. Remember, the principle, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. That's used in a positive way instead of a negative way. But it's true in negative too. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump. He wants us to understand this, that one day, The kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord in actuality. And then finally, the kingdom's private explanation. Let's go to Mark 4 as we draw to a close. Mark 4. Mark 4. 26 to 29. The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises day and night, night and day. And then the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. The earth produces by itself first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain and the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. The kingdom will continue. We don't have to understand all the details, how it all works together. All we have to know is this, is that the king has been born, the king has been raised from the dead victorious, He sat down at the right hand of his father, and he is putting all of his enemies under his feet. Remember, some of you, you and I were some of those enemies. For example, do you not know that the carnal mind is enmity with God? Romans 8, 7, or how about this? Do you not know that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? James 4, 4. See, he's putting his enemies under his feet. He's reigning and ruling in the midst of his enemies. He wants us to not walk with the naked eye, but to walk with the bird's eye, through scriptural lenses, and to hope in God and to know that if we are to get a bad diagnosis from the doctor next week, we just wake up in heaven. If something happens that is an overwhelming trial, we have the body of Christ to comfort us and pray with us and carry the trial with us. We have the certainty of God's kingdom that will be without, it is without end and nothing, not even the gates of hell will stand against it. I do think I'd be amiss if I didn't end with this. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 15. Verses 20 to 28. This is my view of the end times. Eschatology, Matthew 16, 18, and this passage here sums it up for me. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order. Christ, the firstfruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end. when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him. And when all things are subjected to him, then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all. Let's pray.