Mustard Seed

Campbell Chapel Free Will Baptist Church

Ironton, Ohio

Campbell Chapel FWBC of Ironton Ohio - Pastor Bob Bradley

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Free Will Baptist Church
1709 Campbell Drive
Ironton, Ohio 45638

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Mustard Seed

Wednesday, February, 6, 2008

Bob Bradley

_________________________

Mark 4:30-32

30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?

31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:

32 But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.

Keep in mind for the last several weeks now we talked about light, we talked about candles, and we talked about bushels but the main lesson that we have been talking about the last several weeks or the lesson that Jesus has been teaching us is about sowing seeds. The lesson has been about sowing seeds and making comparisons to the kingdom of God. We are going to continue on with that tonight.

Go to the book of Matthew 13:31-32

31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:

32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

Jesus is teaching in parables. We studied what parables were. A parable is a picture. The word parable in the Greek means to “toss along side of” or to “lay along side of something.” We know that Jesus is teaching in parables. He is painting some pictures about spiritual things and even as He does this those there that are unsaved do not understand what is going on. He is doing it also because those that are saved and that are following Him would be able to understand some things. We know that there was a question about that we talked a few weeks ago about. He told them that they had been given the ability to understand these things and they need to take it and use it and so forth.

Tonight, He makes the statement:

31 …The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed…

We read in the book of Mark:

30 …Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?

He is asking the disciples a question. What can we compare the kingdom of God to? What can we compare Christianity to? What He says here makes a lot of sense when you look at what He is saying. He is painting us a picture here. He is showing the disciples what they can look at and sees some things here about the kingdom of God.

31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:

When you look at mustard seed, you don’t think too much about it. A mustard seed is very, very tiny.

Years ago when we use to raise tobacco all the time, we would go buy little packages of what we called tobacco seed. If you never looked at tobacco seed, you can take one seed of tobacco and put it out here on your finger and it would be very hard to see.

Mustard seed is smaller than that. It is very, very tiny. As we look at what Jesus is saying here, He makes this statement. He is comparing it unto a grain of mustard seed. It is small. When we think about a mustard seed it describes something small.

Think for a moment why would Jesus be saying that the kingdom of God or Christianity is like a grain of mustard seed. When you think for a moment then it is not hard to understand. When Christianity first begun it was not with lot of fanfare. They did not have microphones there and they did not have the press there. When God determined that there was going to be a church there might have been angels that were there. Or there may not have been. There may have been a lot of things there but when God in His mind thought and when God purposed His mind that there was going to be a church then God was there.

It was just God. The apostles were not there. The New Testament church was not there. The Baptists, the Methodists, and the Catholics they were not there. I’m not saying that God is small but I am saying in numbers when God purposed that He was going to have a church there were not a whole lot of numbers around; it was a thought in God’s mind. When we look at what happens here, when Jesus Christ comes on the scene, He is just one individual. Jesus Christ is just one individual. I know things are going to grow here a little bit. It does not start out with great numbers. The church of Jesus Christ does not start out with a lot of pomp and a lot of show. It starts out very, very small. Just like a mustard seed when you put it in the ground, it is very small.

As we have learned down through the last several weeks, within seed, in any seed, there is within it, life. In a seed, a good seed there is within it, life. That seed has to die. We put it in good soil. We put it in good ground. It gets some rain. It gets some fertilizer. It gets some sunshine and it dies. It comes to life, and it grows. That is what He is comparing the kingdom of God to. It starts out small.

He calls twelve men. We talked about them a few weeks ago. These guys were not intelligent folks were they? They were not super-intelligent. They were not well to do. They were not people that had a great understanding about God. They were not even people that had great faith. Because Jesus said many times to these guys, “O ye of little faith…”

Do you remember when they were about to drown one night? They were all wringing their hands out. He gets up and calms the storm, looks up and says, “O ye of little faith…Where is your faith at?” These men even though God had called them, they were not men of great faith. The church of Jesus Christ started out small. When Jesus Christ died, they were still yet not many people. They were not very many people following Him.

When we look in the book of Acts, there were only 120 in the upper room on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost came. There were only 120 of them. Do you know what happens? Faith grows. Seed grows. Seed that has life in it grows. That is what begins to happen.

We have been studying about our responsibilities as fruit. We have been studying our responsibilities and how that we have a responsibility to sow seed and how that we have a responsibility to bring forth fruit. Seed does that.

Good seed sown in good ground received into good ground will bring forth fruit. It starts to grow.

Christianity starts to grow. Jesus said it is sowed in the ground, it starts out very small. It is just like a grain of mustard seed. Do you ever think about what mustard is? You could not live on mustard. If that is all you had to live on you could not live on it. Mustard is a seasoning. It is something that you season your food with like salt or pepper. Mustard is a seasoning.

Mustard seed is very small. You put it in the ground and it dies and starts to grow. Christianity was the same way. Jesus came; it started out real small, not with show. A mustard tree; it is actually not a tree. It is bush or a shrub. It is not very pretty. It doesn’t have much shape to it. It is not real attractive. He is not making the comparison about its beauty. It is not making comparison about it being bushy or not being bushy. He is making the comparison and showing us that Christianity starts out small. It started out small. It was planted. It started out in the mind of God. It was God’s will that Jesus Christ came here to planet earth. We know that He preached the gospel. We know that there were men that began to follow Him. Christianity grew. We know that He dies. We know that on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit of God comes and baptizes us or those that are…believers into the body of Christ. We know that on the day of Pentecost, Peter preaches and there was three thousand people added. We go into the book of Acts and we see that today there were five thousand people added.

We see the church starts to grow. Just as you put the seed in the ground, just as you put it there, it takes time for it to grow. You put it in good ground, it gets sun, it gets water and it starts to grow.

The church of Jesus Christ started to grow. That is what it is telling us here. All through the book of Acts, all the cities that Paul went to, there were people that were saved there. The church began to grow. Just as the mustard tree began to grow, the church began to grow. That is what He is telling us here. It grows for this reason. When faith is received, He is talking about sowing seed and when you read the book of Matthew that He is sowing the seed in the earth. We know that He did that. When we have faith and we believe what God has to say and when it is revealed unto us by the Holy Spirit of God who Jesus Christ really is, then there is nothing that will ever change our mind about that.

Now we may go back out into the world and we may do all kinds of crazy things, we may do all kinds of horrendous sins; we may do a lot of things, but it will never change the fact that we know who Jesus Christ is and was. You can take the fellow that may have been faithful to church, he may have done a lot of great things; you could not take a hammer and beat it out of his head who Jesus Christ really was. We know that.

He sows the seed. It begins to grow. The church grows. People start being saved. Down through the book of Acts, people are being saved by the hundreds and by the thousands and things begin to grow just like a tree begins to grow. It was small, but it begins to grow.

There is something that I want you to think about when you look at some of these things. It is so important that we understand some things. When the church was established, on the day of Pentecost—and that was when the church was established; not when Jesus died—but on the day of Pentecost was when the church was established. When we see what happens there and we see the growth that starts happening there, I want you to keep something in mind; as the bush begins to grow and as fruit begins to grow on the bush the birds start lodging in the branches.

When you read, and you read a lot of people and that’s great; many people have a lot of different ideas about what He is talking about here, but to me it is very plain. We read the parable of the sower. Do you remember the seed that was sown on the hard ground? Do you remember the seed that fell by the wayside? The Bible says that because the ground was hard and was packed down the enemy came along, or the birds came along and ate up the seed that was there. When you turn over and read the interpretation that Jesus gave there; He said that the birds were the devil or the wicked one. That is Jesus interpreting His Word for us. I’m not making that up or adding my thoughts to that. That is Jesus interpreting His Word for us.

Early in the church when people start to get saved and the church starts to get growing, do you remember a family by the name of Ananias and Sapphira? Do you remember them? Do you remember what happened to them? They lied. Lying was very serious then and lying is very serious today. We don’t think it is but lying is very serious stuff. We know that Ananias and Sapphira, they saw this bush. They saw the comfort that they could get in this bush. They saw the lodging place in this bush. Therefore, they lodged in the branches of this bush, but they were birds. They were of the wicked one. They lied and we know that the Holy Spirit of God struck them dead. That is in the book.

Even back when this thing started many years ago there were people that came over and lodged on the branches of the church that were not genuine people. We can read all down through the book that there were people that came and wanted to be part of the bush. They wanted to lodge in the bush. They wanted the protection of the bush, but they didn’t really want to be a part of it. They were not born into. They did not have a part, but they came over and lodged in the branches.

Jesus is telling us something here that we need to look at. He makes the statement:

Matt. 13:31 …which a man took, and sowed in his field:

We know that is what he did. The word “took” brings out the idea of preparation. When the church was established, it was not just an after thought of Jesus Christ or an after thought of God, but He made preparation. There were things put into this thing before it just started. If we are going to anything today that is going to really accomplish anything it is going to be because we listen to His voice. We cannot be lazy. We need to make plans and we need to have some forethought about what we are doing. Jesus Christ did that.

He took the seed and cast it into the earth. The Bible tells us that the mustard seed grows and becomes a great bush. We know that it has. The church of Jesus Christ today in the last 2000 years has been the organization that has changed the history of planet earth. No other organization, no other group of people, no politicians, no group of politicians has ever changed the course of history like the church of Jesus Christ has.

It is through the church of Jesus Christ that we have liberty. It is through the church of Jesus Christ that we have peace today. It is through the church of Jesus Christ that 200 hundred years ago when America was established; it was established on the principles of the church. Our constitution, our by laws, our bill of rights and so many things here that we have today, that when this nation was established was established on the principles of the church of Jesus Christ. The great thing about that is that as long as the nation follows those things, God blesses us and when we quit following those things, then God is not blessing anymore. So many things today, our laws, our government…

I like to study about nuclear things; nuclear bombs and nuclear weapons. Some of these weapons they have today they have named them after cities in the Bible. They have a bomb named the “Jericho” bomb. Do you know why they named it Jericho? Because when it hits, it knocks everything flat. You know the walls of the city of Jericho fell down flat; they named this bomb “Jericho.” They have all kinds of names for them.

The tree grew through the book of Acts, and through the last 2000 years; the church of Jesus Christ has grew. Faith has been preached. Jesus Christ has been preached. People have come into the family of God. There is no doubt tens of millions of people today that are saved. All across America, all across this world, all across this planet there have been tens of millions of people that have been saved born into the family of God some of them still alive yet today. Some of them are dead today. Some of them are waiting on going to heaven. This tree has grown greatly. The church of Jesus Christ is still yet growing greatly.

If you listen to a lot of people today, they will tell you that we are going backwards. There are some churches that are going backwards. The church that is born again, the church of Jesus Christ is still yet going forward. Denominations may be going backwards. The Baptists, the Methodists, the Catholics all may be going backwards, but saved people are still yet going forward. People are still yet being saved. No. there is not as many as there use to be. Not at all. There is a reason for that and I want to talk about that just for a moment.

He took the seed, He had some thought, He made some plans, and He cast it into the earth and the Bible says:

32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

Get this. Think about a tree, a big tree.

Years ago when we were home, we had a—it wasn’t on our property, but it was on some real good friends of ours—but there was a big orchard right up in front of the house up the hill. Had to walk up a big steep hill and there was an orchard up there. We had cherry trees and all kinds of trees that you can think of up there, kept mowed real pretty. But every year when it came time for the fruit to come on especially cherries—they had black cherries and red cherry trees. We could go up there and we could pick some cherries, but do you know what you could always find? You could always find birds. Do you know why you could always find birds? You could always find birds there because there were some good fruit there. When the fruit was hard, and when it was bitter and before it matured; you could go up there and you would not see a bird anywhere. They wouldn’t be there because there was nothing up there sweet that they wanted to eat. However, as soon as the fruit started ripening and getting sweet and had all kinds of juice in it then here come the birds.

The church of Jesus Christ starts out small. Faith is preached. Faith has been preached for literally a couple of thousand years, thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions of people have believed the gospel. The tree has grown. Christianity has grown. It has become a great, great tree today. There is a lot of fruit hanging on the big tree today. There are some awesome people that are living for Jesus Christ today. There are some people that are bringing forth some wonderful fruit today for Jesus Christ. They are on the tree.

Also, on the tree and in the branches of tree are birds. If the mustard is being compared to the kingdom of God--and it is--and if birds are being compared to satan and that is what He is talking about. What can we see here? What is He trying to teach us here today?

It is big. It is around the world today. You turn on your TV sets today and you hear preachers preaching today. About any hour of any day you can turn a TV set and have some kind of a religious program. I’m not going to say that everybody on TV that is saying that they are religious Christian people but they are sitting on the branches on the tree. They have got a heading on their building where they are at and they are operating under the guidelines of the tree; of the church. It has grown. There are all kinds of birds that are landing on the branches of the tree. What that is telling us is that there was going to be birds that were going to infiltrate; there were going to be birds that were going to be in the tree. There are going to be people that say they are saved, who are going to be lodged in the branches of the church, but they are not saved.

That is what He is telling us. The reason that I want you to get that is this is because not everybody that sits in the pews of churches tonight are saved. There is a very simple way to figure that out. If we have people that never does anything to promote love, goodness, kindness, promote fellowship, or promote unity and all they are ever doing is just picking at the good fruit and trying to devour the good fruit—they are birds. If that is all they are ever doing is just eating the good fruit, eating the fruit that is ripe, eating the fruit—they are birds. Get this! Birds are there because there is something there to eat.

There are a lot of folks that come to church today not because they care anything about coming to church, but many come to church because they don’t have anything else to do. That is really true. Many people that come to church today; and they can get on the branches of the tree and they just fit right in with everybody else on the branches of the tree. Sometimes we can come and sit in the pews, we can sit a bird right by somebody that is bearing fruit and sometimes we can’t tell the difference in them. The difference begins when one starts devouring the other. Then we know that people are birds or they are buzzards.

In the church world today as whole, there are all kinds of birds and all kinds of buzzards that are there. They are not there because they love the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not coming to church because they have been saved, they have been born again and they want to promote Christianity; they want to promote the Love of God, they want to promote unity. They are not there for that reason. So many people are there to promote themselves, to promote their agenda, to do things that will promote self, or promote clicks. Get this little group together, or get this group here.

That is not going to happen here. If I have to fight till I die, my last day here at this place, I will be fighting to stop anyone that is trying to drive the vision, or cause the vision or start a click; I’ll fight that every day that I am here and everyday that I am allowed to be here. The day that I leave here, I will still yet be fighting it if it is still yet here.

Do you know why? There is too much at stake here. There is too much at stake in Christianity to let an old bird or two ruin the fruit. I mean what I say. I am not upset at anybody. I am not mad at anybody.

I’m chasing a couple of you and when I get you where I need you at, when I get you where I know what I am doing for sure, then we are going to have a serious talk. If it takes sitting you down before this church, and bringing charges against you before this church, I’ll do that. Why? Because, there are some of us are acting like birds. Some of us are acting like vultures, not caring anything about anything except themselves, promoting themselves, promoting their own agenda. I won’t tolerate that. That is not going to happen. That is not going to continue. If you want to continue that, then you need to go somewhere else because we are not going to have that here. This is a place that the Word of God is going to preached and taught. This is a place here that we can come together and worship Almighty God and sing about His goodness and praise Him. That is what we come here to do. If you don’t want to do that, then move on.

I’m not trying to run anybody off. I’m warning you tonight, straighten up or I’ll call you on the carpet and you know who you are.

Birds are dangerous. Birds eat fruit. Birds eat good fruit. Birds make a mess and carry disease and do a lot of damage.

I am not mad at anybody. I have too much to do to worry about getting mad at somebody. We don’t have time to permit buzzards and birds to destroy what Jesus Christ is building and is going to continue to build. We just can’t let birds tear that down. Why would we, with our eyes wide open and we know that we have birds and vultures and we don’t deal with those things; do you think that God is going to bless you? Do you think that God is going to continue to bless this place?

Birds are dangerous. In the church of Jesus Christ across America, across this world tonight; we have birds sitting under the leaves on the branches of Christianity tonight. They find security there. They find wealth there. You turn on your TV tonight and do you know what you see? You will see people talking about God’s love and God’s goodness, but oh by the way, send me some money. I need your money and they live in a twelve million dollar house. They have seventy-five different cars. They have a boat that cost three million dollars. Send me your money so we can feed the orphans somewhere else. I think that we need to feed the orphans. But I’m not going to send my money to a vulture. I’m not going to send my money to a bird that is energized by the devil. I’m not going to do that. We have too much to lose and we have too much gain not to deal with the buzzards and the birds.

Birds will eat al the fruit that they can eat and when they eat all the fruit that they can eat and make all the mess that they can make, and then they fly away. Do you know I am going to do before I let them eat a bunch of fruit, before they make a bunch of messes; do you know what we use to

If your only motive is to cause problems, if your only motive is start some kind of racquet then you are going to have trouble because I am not going to put up with that. This church is not going to put up with that. I know this church well enough to know that when it is all said and done, when the facts are laid out; I know this church will stand on the truth. I believe that. If it takes the hide off of me, if it takes the hide off of you, if it takes the hide off of your kids, my kids, your grandkids, my grandkids; I don’t care who it is, if we are wrong, then we are wrong. If that is the case and since that is the case then let’s straighten up. We know what we need to do. We know how we need to live. We know what God expects out of us. Then why do we want to be a bird? Why do we want to be a buzzard? Why do we want to be someone that just picks on things, makes a mess and leaves? Why do we want to be that way?

Why don’t we come under and be part of the church of Jesus Christ and have the security, have all that God has got for us; the blessings. Why don’t we just come and be a part of that and accept that and live as God wants us to live and move on through life. Also, teach others about Jesus Christ.

That is a better than getting up mad everyday. That is better than getting up today and wondering who you are going to pick on today. People that are going to heaven don’t do that. Birds or the wicked ones do that. If that is all you are trying to do is tear down someone then you need to get saved. It is a hard statement but it is truth.

Let’s straighten up. We have too much to gain. There are too many things out here that we have going on this year. Many things going on this year, a lot of activities this year that are good things and we don’t need any birds and we don’t need any buzzard. If you want to be a bird or a buzzard, that is your business, but fly somewhere else.

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