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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.
The Kingdom of God
| Sermon ID | 87181735291 |
| Duration | 1:06:41 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 13:31-33 |
| Language | English |