Title of the lesson is, The Lord
Will Save His People. You know, the idea that God is
trying to save people from their sins if, if they will let him,
if we will let him, or if we will cooperate, is just not scriptural. And it's anti-gospel. That's not good news, because
you have to consider What the Bible says, not only about God
himself in his holiness and in his righteousness and his justice,
and even in His mercy and grace and love, you have to consider
what the Bible says about us. And that's the basis of our faith. It's not how we feel or what
we see. It's not what we surmise or rationalize. It's what God's Word says. If
God's Word says there's none righteous, no not one, then there's
none righteous. And you may look at yourself
or you look at another person and you say, well, they're just
such good people, you know. Or they're trying to be the best
they can be. And we all should try to be good
people. But that does not equal righteousness
in the Bible. According to God's standard,
we all fall short. And so having said that, based
upon that, we're all, you know, sometimes we'll use the term,
we're all in the same boat. We're all in need of salvation
by God's grace. Well, we're all in the same ocean.
And that brings us to the parable of the dragnet. The dragnet beginning
at verse 47 of Matthew chapter 13. Christ continues to speak
these parables. And remember why he's doing this.
He's concealing the truth from the Pharisees and people like
them who continually refuse to accept and believe and latch
on to truth. It seems like there comes a point
of no return for some of these people. And I don't know what
that is in the case of certain individuals. We're commanded
to preach the gospel to anybody who will listen as long as they'll
listen. whether they come to faith in Christ or not, whether
God gives them the gift of faith or not, because that's not our
business. Our business is to preach the
gospel, and we're gonna see that in these first two parables,
the parable of the dragnet and the parable of the householder,
which is just in one verse, that we have a great responsibility
to tell people the truth, to preach the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace for sinners, based upon the blood, the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God revealed
in the gospel. That's what people need to hear.
That's what law centers need to hear in order for them to
be brought by God to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. And that's what God's people need to hear to be motivated
to obedience and perseverance. It's kind of like, I've often
said, it's kind of like the gas in our tank, you know? You can
have a beautiful brand new car, but it's not gonna run without
gas, or we might say today, without electricity or whatever. But
the gospel is our prime motivator. Somebody recopied an article
that I wrote on Facebook talking about how grace is a dynamic
power. People who live by law, legalist,
that's what motivates them. And it's always a fear of punishment
or promise of earned reward. And that's not grace. That's
such a low motive. But the grace of God, look at
what God has done for me. Look at what He's given me freely.
Every blessing that I have is given to me of God. Is it too
much for me to thank Him? And in that thanks, by way of
obedience and worship? Love to God, that's the prime
motivator. That's the fruit unto God that
he gives us. Well here it says in the first
parable, again the kingdom of heaven, verse 47, again the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and
gathered of every kind. Now God has a people of every
kind. There's no race of people, no
nation of people, no class of people who have a toehold on
grace. And to say that you must become
part of our group before you can be saved, no. God saves sinners. And he chose his people before
the foundation of the world out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation. The Bible emphasized that. It's
not just for the Jew. It's not just for the Gentile.
It's the, and God has worked his plan and his purpose to bring
the Messiah into the world, to bring the truth down. And he
did it for the Jews first because that was his purpose and plan
in order to infiltrate this world with the truth and with salvation
by the Messiah who according to his human nature was a Jew.
But it wasn't just for the Jews. It was for people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And when this net is cast into
the sea, he said, he gathers every kind. And this net is the
preaching of the gospel to anybody who'll listen. I know there are
people who try to rationalize because they claim to believe
in the sovereignty of God. Well, we're just to preach to
the elect. No, we preach to anybody who'll listen. Now we know that
it is God who makes it effectual to the salvation of his elect. But you know, Paul wrote about
this in 2 Corinthians. He talked about how we preach
the gospel to anybody who'll listen. To some, it's the savor
of life unto life. That's the elect of God. That's
the sheep. That's the good fish that he's
gonna talk about in this parable. To others, it's the savor of
death unto death. That's the non-elect, that's
those who are goats. We're gonna talk about the harvest
today in the end. That's where Christ separates
the sheep from the goats. Those who are indicated in this
parable as to be the bad fish, okay? But they get caught up
in the net, they hear the gospel. Sometimes they'll join a true
church or they'll gather with the people of God. But it's God
who will separate things in the end. But look, it says, again,
the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into
the sea. The sea is the world. Go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel. All right? And there
is drawn into the visible church, here on earth, every kind. And it says in verse 48, which
when it was full, they drew to shore and sat down and gathered
the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. Who are the good
here? Now this is important for us
to understand. Scripture has to interpret scripture. So is this teaching, well, if
I try to be a good person, that I'll be gathered in? And if I
don't try to be a good person, but I'm a bad person, that I'll
be cast away? No, it's not teaching that at
all. Who are the good? And who are the bad? Well, he
defines it here, look at verse 49. He says, so shall it be at
the end of the world. Now that's what I'm gonna be
preaching on today in Revelation 14, the final harvest. The angels shall come, the messengers
that God sends, they'll come forth and they'll sever, they'll
separate the wicked from among who? The just, the justified. and shall cast them into the
furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth." And then he concludes the parable by saying, Jesus
saith unto them, have you understood all these things? And they say
unto him, yea Lord. Now they understood it because
it's been revealed to them. They understood it because of
what he said in the first parables here in Matthew chapter 13, what
he's talking about. You remember he talked about
in the parable of the soils, three types of soil which did
not receive the seed, but there was a good soil, good ground.
Well, who are the good ground hearers? Are they people who
are better than the rest of humanity? Are they the people of free will
who chose right? Is that what the Bible teaches?
And the answer's no. That's not what the Bible teaches.
Because the Bible teaches that if left to ourselves, if left
to our own wills, none of us would choose God. None of us
would choose Christ. None of us would submit to his
righteousness as the only ground of salvation, his righteousness
imputed. We'd all go our own way. We'd
all go astray. And then he talks about the other
parables too, where he makes that distinction. So who are
the good fish? Well, they are sinners saved
by grace. The justified. Who does God justify
according to the Bible? He justifies who? The ungodly. So in other words, these aren't
people, these good fish, these aren't people who are good because
of their works, These are not people who are good because of
their natural, I'll say natural natures, of their natures. In
other words, the Bible teaches that all of us fell in Adam into
a state of sin, death, spiritual death, and depravity. Ignorance,
darkness, unbelief, that's what marks us. Self-righteousness,
that depravity manifests itself in so many different ways. Sometimes
it manifests itself in total disregard for anything moral. The law, you talk about common
criminals, perverts, all of that, it's out there, isn't it? But
a lot of people do not understand this, that that depravity manifests
itself mostly in the majority in false religion, man trying
to work his way into God's favor, man trying to establish his own
righteousness before God. That's what Paul wrote about
in Romans 10. They're ignorant of God's righteousness. That's
man by nature. They don't know the justice of
God, because the justice of God demands payment for sin, and
that payment is death. And being ignorant of God's justice
and God's righteousness, they go about to establish a righteousness
of their own. and they reveal their ignorance. That's all of us by nature, but
in time, God brings his fish, his good fish. He casts that
net out and he literally drags, this is the drag net, drags them
into the kingdom. So the bad are those who do not
know the gospel, do not believe in Christ, do not submit to his
righteousness imputed as the only ground of salvation. The
good are the justified, sinners saved by grace. And understand
that, that's what the Bible teaches. That's how it is portrayed if
we interpret scripture with scripture. And so in this parable, What
God is saying, he throws out the net and he brings them in.
He doesn't stand on the edge of the boat and say, now fish,
jump in the boat if you will. No, he casts that net and he
brings it in. Now, again now, understand now,
this is talking about the preaching of the gospel in the world which
is effectual by the power of the Spirit to the good fish,
the elect of God, but not to the bad fish, even though they
come in to the church here on earth. You understand? They're not yet separated. And
that's the case with every true church where the gospels preach,
you have sheep and you have goats. And that's why the Bible tells
us to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith. We can't
sit back casually and just assume, well, just because I'm under
the preaching of the truth or with the people who believe the
truth, that that means automatically I'm safe. No, you've got to seek
the Lord. You've got to search out these
things and examine yourself, not to see if you measure up,
because you don't, The only way we can measure up to God's standard
is what Paul said in Philippians 3, to be found in Christ. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ. I must be washed in his blood and clothed in his
righteousness. That's the only way I'm gonna
measure up. Any other way, I fall short. So that's what I wanna
know. Am I in the faith? And what I
wanna, is the Christ that I serve and believe in and trust, is
he the true Christ of the Bible? Is he God manifest in the flesh? Is he the one who saves his people
from their sins? Because what this parable teaches
is God's gonna save his people. There's not gonna be anybody
who perishes for whom God chose, whom he justified, and for whom
Christ died and redeemed from their sins. If you're redeemed,
you're saved. And that'll be found out when
the net is cast, the gospel is preached, and you're brought
into the kingdom, brought into the church. And yet, we know
that while this earth exists, There will always be a mixture
of good fish and bad fish. Always. And we've seen it happen
in our church. We've seen people who come and
stayed for years and then left the gospel. You never hear from
them again. They're not hungry for it. If
you don't have a hunger for the gospel, what does that tell you? You say, this is our life. Spiritually speaking, this is
our life. If you stop eating breakfast,
lunch, and dinner, you're going to die. And that's the way it
is with the gospel and the message and the worship of God and the
fellowship of God's people. We've got to have that. Because
if not, that means spiritual death. And I'm not talking about
works-based assurance here. I'm talking about looking to
Christ, resting in him as the author and finisher of our faith.
Well, one of the things that this parable teaches that's really
appropriate or important is the Lord shows here how that salvation
is not by the works or the wills of men, it's by the work of Christ,
the will of God. That's the case. God says, I'll
have mercy on whom I will, I'll be gracious to whom I will. That's
his prerogative. And when he's pleased to bring
his chosen people into the kingdom of God, he throws out the net
of the gospel and the power of the spirit and he brings them
in. Now there's a question here that comes up and I was reading
this in several messages that I listened to on this passage
this past week or a couple weeks ago. Somebody says, well, are
you saying that God drags people into the kingdom against their
wills? Okay, well look over at John
chapter six, and the answer to that, you're right, the answer's
no. But we can say it this way. God brings his children into
the kingdom against their natural wills, because what is our natural
will? Well look at John chapter six
and look at verse 44. Now this is after Christ has
said that all that the Father giveth me shall come to me and
him that cometh to me I will no wise cast out. Well look at
verse 44 of John six. He says no man can come to me. except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. And that word draw there is like
that dragnet that we're talking about in Matthew 13. God's got
to draw us. And he said, I'll raise him up
at the last day. Well, does God drag me into the
kingdom against my will? Well, against my natural will,
because if left to my natural will, I won't come. But what
does God do? He changes our will. He changes our desire. It's a
miracle. It's a miracle of grace, just
like our redemption by the blood of Christ, where we're bought
with a price. He sends the Spirit in this net
of the preaching of the gospel, and he gives us a new heart.
Ezekiel spoke of that. I'll give them a new heart. Because
that natural heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it? Deceitful. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. God changes our wills. He changes our desires. And he
does it by teaching us. Look at verse 45. It is written
in the prophets, they shall be all taught of God. How does God
teach us? Through the preaching of the
gospel in the power of the Spirit. And every man therefore that
hath heard. You see, before that, we won't
hear. You remember, he told them, hearing,
they won't hear. And seeing, they have eyes to
see, but they won't see. Ears to hear, but they won't
hear. He said, if any man hath an ear to hear, let him hear.
Well, how are we gonna hear? He gives us new ears, spiritual
ears. Ears of submission. to understand
and submit to the reality of His grace, knowing that we're
sinners and have nothing to recommend us unto God. No righteousness,
no goodness in me that would cause God to respond to me, which
He doesn't do. He moves, so every man therefore
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, be taught of the
Father, cometh unto me. So that's what he does. He changes
our will and he draws his people to himself against our natural
sinful and depraved wills, but he does provide us with a new
life. That's what new birth is about.
That's what circumcision of the heart is all about. He gives
us a heart. And so this right here, this
parable, is a strong motivation for sinners to seek the Lord.
Seek Him. Pray to God. God, don't let me
sit under the gospel and remain unmoved. Reveal it to me. Make it real for me. Make it
my life. Give me a hunger and thirst after
righteousness that can only be filled in Christ, the Lord my
righteousness. Well, in the end, he's gonna
sever the wicked from the just. That's the final harvest that
I'm gonna talk about this morning in Revelation 14. At the end
of the world, he's gonna separate the good from the bad. Sinners
saved by grace, sinners who die in their sins, who appear before
him. The sheep from the goats, the
elect from the non-elect. Now sometimes he separates them
here on earth providentially. Because like I said, we've seen
people who've come and stayed for a while and then left. Never
hear from them again. And somebody said, well, are
you sure they're not saved? Well, I'm not sure. But every
indication says that if there's no hunger for the word of God,
there's no life there. But God's the one who'll separate
the sheep from the goats. You remember, we read about in
the wheat and the tares, he said, well, should we go uproot them
and all that? No, you let it go. It'll all come out in the
end, you know. I don't wanna leave the gospel
and say, well, I'll find out in the end if I really believed
it or if I was really saved. Do you? I don't wanna find out
then. Well, so he says in verse 51,
Jesus saith unto them, have you understood all these things?
You have if you've been taught of God. If you've heard the gospel. And they said unto him, yea,
Lord. And then he comes to verse 52, that's in one verse, what
we call the parable of the householder. It says, then said he unto them,
therefore every scribe which is instructed. Now he's not talking
about the scribes who were connected with the Pharisees. A scribe
back then is one who knew the scriptures, studied the scriptures. And so he said, which is instructed
unto the kingdom of heaven. a scribe who knows the reality
of salvation, who knows the reality of the kingdom of heaven. What
is the kingdom of heaven? Who is the king? How do you get
into the kingdom of heaven? And we know it's by the grace
of God in the gospel. So he said he's likened to a
man that is a householder, doesn't own the house, He's like an overseer
of the house, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things
new and things old. That's what we preach. I'm preaching
to you things new and things old. Now, the Bible says there's
nothing new under the sun. And if I myself come up with
something new, disregard it, because it's no good. But what's
he talking about? I believe he's talking about
the Old Testament and the New Testament. Now all they had back
then was the Old Testament. And Christ began to teach them
things that were new to them, but were as old as eternity.
The gospel itself, the love of the brethren, all of these things.
He said a new commandment. So in the Old Testament, we preach
the types and the pictures and the prophecies that have to do
with Christ and the salvation of God's people, the one who
was prophesied to come in the future. And in the New Testament,
we preach that he's already come, he's already established all
of these things that were prophesied in the Old Testament. So it's
things old and things new. But it's not old and it's not
new to God. And really, it's only new to
God's people because we didn't know him before. You know, when
I first heard the gospel, it was new to me. But you know,
it was a message that was old as eternity. But it was certainly
new to me. So things old and things new.
But those who, what he's teaching there in that parable of the
householder is that we who know the gospel, me who I preach it
and teach it, you who teach it and preach it or witness it,
we have such a great responsibility to tell people the truth. And
I know it's not always easy. I always tell people this. Don't
go and try to kick the door down with people because if they don't
want to hear what you have to say, they're not going to listen.
But if God opens that door, that opportunity, take it. Tell them
the truth. Teach them the gospel. They may
not believe it. It may be the savor of death
unto death to them, but it could be the savor of life unto life.
We don't know. We're just householders. God's
the owner of the house, so we have that responsibility. Well,
this passage concludes with an episode in the life of Christ.
It says in verse 53, it came to pass that when Jesus had finished
these parables, he departed then, and when he was come into his
own country, he taught them in their synagogue. Going into the
synagogue, that was the gathering, that's like we say going to church
for the Jews. Insomuch that they were astonished
and said, whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty
works? Notice what they were astonished
at. They were astonished at his wisdom. And what is that wisdom? Well, that's the gospel. that
portrays Christ as the very wisdom of God. They were astonished
at his doctrine. Remember at the end of the Sermon
on the Mount, they were astonished at his doctrine. The word astonished
means it's like turns you to stone. It means it stops you
in your tracks. They had never heard these things
before. They'd been brought up under the pharisaical teachings
of the laws of Moses, and it was all perverted. They were
brought up under the teachings of the Torah, which was the human
commentaries on the Old Testament, which was nothing but salvation
by works. What had they been taught? Paul
summed it up in Romans chapter nine. Righteousness by works
of the law. But Christ didn't teach that.
He taught righteousness by the grace of God through his obedience
unto death. the redemption of God's people.
And then they were astonished at his works, the working of
miracles, which portrayed him to be who he was. And it says
in verse 55, even being astonished, listen to how they reason. Is
not this the carpenter's son, Joseph's son? Is not his mother
called Mary? And his brethren, James and Joseph
and Simon and Judas, and his sisters, are they not all with
us? Now there again, we see that Joseph and Mary had other children.
The Bible's plain on that. And it said, whence then hath
this man all these things? Where'd all this come from? We
know it didn't come from Joseph and Mary, it came from God. And
it says, and they were offended in him. Isn't that sad? Well, I remember when I was offended
in it. And that word offended is kind
of like a trap. They were trapped by their own
sinful reasoning. as shown forth in the preaching
of the truth. And it says, they were offended
at him, but Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor,
save in his own country and in his own house. What he's saying
there, you know what it is. They watched him grow up. All
that and they just they just figure well, we know who this
guy is. He's nothing special Even though he preached that
wisdom and performed those miracles You see that's the natural man's
aversion to the gospel message which calls on him to believe
and repent right there and It says in verse 58. He did not
many mighty works there because of their unbelief And that's
a sad commentary, isn't it, on man by nature. OK, we'll conclude
there.