Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Verse 47 says, Again, the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of
every kind. The kingdom of heaven is like
a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind. I went fishing the other day. I've been going fishing a lot
lately. I'll let you decide whether I'm
lying to you here in a minute. I'll give you a hint. I am. But I went fishing the other
day. I've been going fishing a lot.
And I'm not catching anything. And I don't know why, I don't
really know what the problem is. I am saying to the fish,
I'm walking up to the edge of the water, and I'm saying to
the fish, won't you let me catch you? Won't you give yourself to me? If you'll just get in this cooler,
I'll take you home. I'll have you for dinner at my
house. But now you're going to have
to clean yourself first. You're going to have to fillet
yourself first. You're going to have to prepare
yourself and make yourself ready, you know, seasoned. To my liking. But if you'll do that. I'll have
you, I say that to all the fish, all of them. If you'll just do
that, I'll have you. I keep going out to the lake.
I keep saying that, but I keep coming home empty handed. Do we realize how ridiculous
that sounds for a man conducting himself in that way before a
fish? Do we realize that that is what
men are accusing the high and holy God of doing before worms? If it's ridiculous for a man
to do that before a fish, how ridiculous is it for the high
and holy and lofty God to do that before worms? The whole theme and tone of our
message tonight is going to be based on this fact right here.
Verse 47 says, The kingdom of heaven is like a net. Not a negotiation. A net. What God wants, God gets. And it's because God already
has it. He already owns it. There's nothing
that is not His. And to what he already has and
already owns and already belongs to him, he does not trick and
lure to get it to come. You know, he doesn't do that. He engulfs. That's what he does. He captures. He lays hold of
and He draws in. What is rightfully His? He gave three parables right
here, back to back, to tell us that. Look at verse 44. It says again, The kingdom of
heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field, the which, when
a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and
selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field. Again, the
kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly
pearls, who when he hath found one pearl of great price, went
and sold all that he had and bought it. Again, the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and
gathered of every kind, which when it was full, they drew to
shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast
the bad away. So shall it be at the end of
the world. The angels shall come forth and
sever the wicked from among the just. and shall cast them into
the furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus saith unto them, have you understood all these things?
They say unto him, yea, Lord. Then said he unto them, therefore
every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is
like unto a man that is an householder which bringeth forth out of his
treasure things new and old. Now he started here by saying
the kingdom of heaven is like the things of God, the salvation
of God. the way that it went, the way
that God secured heaven for His people. It was like this. Verse 44, The kingdom of heaven
is like unto treasure hid in a field, the which when a man
hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth
all that he hath, and buyeth that field. He said it's like
a man who saw something that was desirable to him. He wanted
it. But in order to have it, it was
going to cost him everything that he had. He was going to have to give
everything. He couldn't just give a piece of what he had.
He had to give all of it. If he wanted it, it was going
to cost him everything. So he sold all that he had and
bought it. Verse 45, he said, I'll say the
same thing again. Let me put it this way. Verse
45. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls. who when he had
found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had
and bought it. He said, that's how the kingdom
of heaven was obtained. Now, until God reveals to men
and women the truth of what he's saying
here, they will see this as a burden laid on men and women to sell
everything that they have and go buy the field of heaven. That's
what they'll say. You've got to sell everything
you have. If you want to go to heaven, then you're going to
have to sell out and buy that field. If you want the pearl
of great price, then you're going to have to sell everything you
have and buy the pearl of great price. Now, while the Lord Jesus
Christ is the pearl of great price, he is. And even though
the Lord Jesus Christ is heaven, he is. There's a great problem with
the error of viewing man as the purchaser of the field and the
purchaser of the pearl. Great error. That problem will
be made known to men and women when God reveals to them the
utter bankruptcy, the bankruptcy of their sinful condition before
Him. We don't have anything. We don't
have anything. We don't have anything of any
value. We most definitely don't have
anything that would be worthy of purchasing Christ. Think about that. We don't have anything that would
be worthy of purchasing glory. In the transaction that secured
the treasures of eternity for God's people, here's the question.
Who did the buying? Who did the redeeming? That means
paying in full. Who did the purchasing here?
Turn with me over to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians 6, look at verse
19. It says, what? Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have
of God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with
a price. Aren't you glad for that? You're
not your own, and here's the reason why. You are bought with
a price. You were bought. You didn't buy. You were bought. With what? What were we bought with? Turn
with me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1 verse 18, it says, For
as much as you know that you were not redeemed, you were not
bought with corruptible things as silver and gold from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ. As of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, you were bought with the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. How much of his blood did he
have to give to pay the price of his people? How much of his
blood did he have to give? All of it. All of it. He gave all of it, even unto
death. Though he was rich, yet for your
sake he became poor, emptied, emptied, that you through his
poverty might be rich. He's the one who bought the field.
He's the one who bought all those blades of grass. All flesh is
grass. And he bought the field. He's
the one who gave everything for His, as the scripture words it,
precious jewels. He bought the field and He bought
the jewels. Turn with me if you would to
Malachi chapter 3, the last book in the Old Testament. This is a great portion of scripture. Malachi 3. Verse 16, it says. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was
written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought
upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith
the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. That means special treasure.
That's what he calls his people. In that day when I make up my
jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son
that serveth him. He's the one who gave all for
his people. Paid the price for his people.
He paid it in full. When he said it is finished,
what he was saying was the payment has been paid in full. They're
mine. Now, with the purchase being
made, with that purchase being totally finished, it is finished,
with it being done, with the ownership having been secured,
and with the Son of God having given His all in the transaction
to make it secure, Do we really believe that God is now going
to go around to all of his purchased possession? Asking them and begging
them to let him have them. Our brother just read, I will
work and who shall let it? Who's going to let me do anything?
Who do I have to get permission from? Who's going to stop me?
After all that Christ has done, do we really believe that He
now has to go to great lengths to trick His people and lure
His people into Him? You know, have to have all of
these programs and have all of these different tactics to get
His people to come to Him. The gospel call is a net. It is a net. And at his good
time, whenever he's pleased to call one to himself, call a sinner
to himself, that sinner will come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He or she is coming to Christ.
There is no resisting God. And to that we all say, thank
God. And here's the reason why. If we could, we would. And every child of God would
admit that. If we could, we would. The apostles all learned that
real quick. You know, Peter said, though they all leave you, I
won't leave you. I'll die with you. And they all
said the same thing. Oh, I'm staying. If we could,
we would. But thank God, there is no resisting
Him. No resisting him at all. Our
Lord said, all that the father giveth me shall come to me. No
man can come except the father draw him. But the father will
draw him and he or she will come. And he or she will be willing
to come. So willing, all of God's people
come to him willingly. Even the fish come to him willingly.
I love all the stories. You know the Lord, the only time
He ever gave money was when they had to pay taxes. And He told
Peter, go fishing, and the first fish you pull up will have the
exact amount of money in His mouth that we need to pay our
taxes. So Peter did, there was the money, and there they paid
their taxes. That fish came willingly. All of God's people, like those
fish, they come willingly. All of God's people want one
thing. This is what we all want. We want to be captured in His
net. I do. I don't want to be outside
the net. I want Him to capture me in that
net, and I want to stay right there. Those who are not His
people, they do not come to Him willingly. But it doesn't really
matter either way. They're coming. If He calls them
to stand before Him in judgment, they're coming. If he calls,
they're coming. There is no resisting God. But every soul who has been lovingly
bought with this great price and has had that revealed, they
don't want to resist him anyway. They just don't. They come running
to the net. I love when the Lord told Peter.
to cast his net on the other side of the ship. Peter was out
there fishing. They were all out there fishing. And the Lord
said, children, have you caught anything? Peter said, no. He
said, cast your net on the other side. As soon as he did, the
net almost broke. And here's the reason why. All
of the fish were fighting to get into that net. They all wanted into that net.
They all came swimming into that net as fast as they could, as
hard as they could. It was a violent, get me into
that net. So much that it was going to
sink the ship. That's God's people. Our Lord gave an exact number
of fish in that net. That's God's people. He has a
particular number of people that He has chosen to engulf in that
net and all of them cry, please capture me. Please take ownership
of me. Please draw me to you. Draw me
to you. That's what we want. That's what
God's people want. Draw me to you. Turn over to Isaiah 43. Where our brother just read here,
Isaiah 43. This right here is all that God's
people want to hear from Him. All they want to hear Him say.
Isaiah 43 verse 1 says, But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, For I have redeemed thee. I've bought you. That's
what that word redeemed me. I've bought you. I have called
thee by thy name. Thou art mine. Don't fear. Don't fear. That is the good
news net, the gospel call that draws all of God's people to
him. I saw you. I bought you. I made you my own, you're mine. You are mine. That is his cords
of love that draws his bride to himself. He says, I'm yours
and you're mine. Now, do we see him to be our
great purchaser, our great redeemer? and caller. Do we see him to
be that way? Do we see him to be the one who
saw us, loved us, bought us, engulfed us, drew us, made us
his own? Do we see him to be that way?
All of God's people do. All of God's people do. They
see him to be the absolute authority over him. I want to end this
message by seeing this final thing in the text. Go back back
to Matthew 13. Verse 53 Matthew 13 verse 53. And it came to pass. that when Jesus had finished
these parables, he departed thence. And when he was come into his
own country, he taught them in their synagogue in so much that
they were astonished and said, whence hath this man this wisdom
and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? And here's what I want us to
consider. Is that what we see him to be? They said, Is not
this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary?
And his brethren James and Josie and Simon and Judas? And his
sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man
all these things? And they were offended in him. Seeing this net. Seeing this
sovereign net. One man made a statement one
time that he wanted to be a puppet on a string. And another man
was offended to hear. I don't want to be a puppet on
it. Don't make me a puppet on a string. All of God's people
say, I'm the puppet. You're the master. Verse 57 says, they were offended
in him. But Jesus said unto them, a prophet
is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own
house. And he did not many mighty works
there because of their unbelief. How about us? Are we offended
by his sovereign lordship over us? Are we offended by his purchasing
right over us when he says, I bought you, you're mine. Does that offend
us? Are we offended by His powerful
authority that closes us in, hymns us in, keeps us with Him? That's our delight, isn't it?
That's our delight. That's our glory. That's our
hope. That's all our desire. We believe. He did not many things there
because they didn't believe. Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief.
But we believe, we willingly bow to Him. We come to Him. Lord, we come to You. We thank
God for Him. Unto Him that loved us and gave
Himself for us. by washing us in His own blood.
We cry, thank God, thank God, thank God for the sovereign ownership
and call of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that God, by His Spirit,
in His ability, in His time, I pray that He will, with that
gospel net, lay hold of His people, lay hold of us, and draw us to
Him. All right, Brother Eddie, you
come.