Good hymns of future glory, what we've just sung about. We're
going to consider that a little bit tonight. I first want to
issue a minor apology. I really do not intend to preach
as long as I've been preaching lately. I really don't. Charles Spurgeon used to tell
his students I don't care what you preach about as long as you
preach about 45 minutes. And honestly, I am aware of the
fact that you work all day today and made a special effort to
get here and you're tired and it's real hard to listen for
a long period of time. I hope you're glad of the fact
that I did so much I want to bring to you. I haven't had any
complaints. And nobody's fallen out the window
and broken their neck yet. And just a few started nodding. But I'm trying. I really am.
And I did the same thing down at Fred's last night. I just
couldn't quit. But he eggs me on. It's his problem. I hope
you've enjoyed these parables. I hope you've profited from them. This is truly wisdom from above.
This is wisdom from above that's hid from the wise and the prudent
and revealed unto us and our children. Tonight, the last parable
of the nets, the gospel net. Let's read verses 47 through
50. 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. 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." Now, while this is a solemn parable, as you saw,
it's also a blessed one. Kingdom of heaven. The Lord says
this in every parable. The kingdom of heaven. And one
more time, one last time, I want to consider the kingdom of heaven. Would you, I think it's getting
too warm in here. Stan, would you, Stan, Sam, would
you turn the, it, from, y'all surely know that I know your
names by now. It's just you'd sit, one of you'd
sit over here. It doesn't matter, does it? One more time, let's consider
the kingdom of heaven. We read about it in Psalm 145.
It talks about the glory of God's kingdom, the glorious majesty
of His kingdom, an everlasting kingdom. And this kingdom, as
you know, Christ is the king. He is the king. He's called the
king of kings because there are kings in His kingdom. And we're
going to see them. They're there now, many of them.
Kings like David is there. He's worshiping the true king.
Solomon, Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat, Josiah, and others are in that
kingdom. He's the king. Christ, though,
is the king. The kingdom, the dominion of
the king. He's the king of kings. And it's
a vast kingdom. Scripture says there are ten
thousands times thousands and thousands of people, persons,
in his kingdom, wherein dwelleth righteousness, holiness, where
nothing defiles, but all is holy and pure, a kingdom of unsearchable
riches, the streets of gold being a minor part, the gates of pearl
being very insignificant. compared to the unsearchable
riches of Christ and all else. A kingdom of inexpressible beauty. Our Lord said of the new heaven
and new earth which he shall create in Isaiah 65. He said the former shall not
be remembered for the beauty, for the glory of the new. As
glorious and as beautiful as the first was, it shall pale
in comparison to the beauty, the wonder, and the glory of
the new heaven and new earth. His kingdom, a kingdom in perfect
peace and harmony, perfect love where everyone perfectly loves
and enjoys joy unspeakable right now and full of glory. A kingdom, a place where Christ
dwells with His people forever and never leave, and they with
Him. Where all of His people enjoy
Him personally, actually, literally, see Him face to face, touch Him,
handle Him, the Word of Life, and He speaks to them, a day
to Him. Amen. Unbroken, eternal fellowship, praise and glory. A kingdom without sin, no sin. A kingdom without thorns, without
thistles, without sorrow, without tears, without pain, and no more
death. Is this enticing you? An everlasting
kingdom of heaven upon a newly created earth. Can you have both?
A heavenly kingdom on earth? You sure can, and we're going
to experience it. The kingdom of heaven. You want
to go? You want to go? All right. He says the kingdom
of heaven. is like unto a net cast into
the sea. The kingdom of heaven, as we've
seen, is what he's talking about is the making up of his kingdom,
the bringing in of his subjects into his kingdom, under his dominion,
where he reigns and rules. The gospel of their salvation,
the making up of his people, the gathering in of his people,
is like casting a net, he said, into the sea, the vast ocean. Now, a net. We have a few fishermen
in here. You don't fish much with nets
anymore, but I'm sure you have. You've used a net, haven't you? Some of you. At least seining
for minnows in a creek or cast the net out in the ocean or whatever.
I'm sure you have. Or seeing someone who has. A
net is something that encompasses the fish. A net surrounds. and closes the pit, so that they
are apprehended in this net, and they can't get out. The bringing
in of His people, the gospel of their salvation, the way God
saves people is like casting a net. The Spirit of God is the
one who casts the net. The old preachers preach, it's
not by a man, but it's the Spirit of God. And through the preaching
of the gospel, the Holy Spirit powerfully closes in on God's
elect. He's going to get them. Nets
don't miss fish, do they? If they're in the area, they
don't miss. A good net won't break even. And the gospel powerfully
closes in on God's elect, hemming them up. Isn't that the way you
felt when you first began to hear the truth? You felt hemmed
up, uncomfortable. It's closing in on you. And then
when finally you were caught, apprehended, then you felt comfortable. You were glad you were in it. A gospel net that apprehends
all of God's elect so that they cannot get away. Now, our Lord
in His wisdom calls true gospel salvation a net. If you'll stop
and think about it, modern religion is like modern fishing. that
uses lures and artificial bait and things to try to get people,
try to entice them, try to trick them. When you're fishing, what
you're doing is trying to trick fish, aren't you? You're trying to trick them into
biting something that's not really good for them. And people do that. They swallow
hook, line, and sinker. All these enticements. They try to entice people with
this and that and the other. But the gospel, the kingdom of
heaven, God brings his people in by net. By net. This net. God doesn't try to
catch fish or men. Our Lord proved that several
times, didn't He? He doesn't try to catch fish.
We go out and try to catch fish. Our Lord didn't do that, did
He? He proved that a couple of times, didn't He? Showing His
power over all flesh. Man flesh, human flesh, and fish
flesh. One time, disciples had been
toiling all night, had nets. And He said, cast your net over
on the right side. And they didn't think He knew
anything about fish. And they said, we've toiled all night,
but OK, teacher. And he called those fish into
the net so that the nets were back in place. In fact, they
pulled them into the boats and the boats were going to sink.
That's how many fish were in there. That's how they knew he's
the Lord over the fish. Another time he called a fish
onto a hook. It doesn't say, Ron, that there
was any bait on that hook. He told the fellow to go down
there and cast a hook. And in that fish's belly was
a coin which the Lord had placed there to pay their taxes with. The Lord doesn't try to catch
fish. or men. He doesn't try to save men. The
Lord does as he will, with whom he will, when he will. He's Lord,
that's what it means. He's sovereign. So he says the
kingdom of heaven is like a net. A net. Wasn't that the way it
was with you? And he says the kingdom of heaven
is like a net which is cast into the sea and gathered of every
kind. Turn with me to Acts chapter
2. Acts chapter 2. The kingdom of heaven is like
a net cast into the sea. This world has been a sea of
humanity, hasn't it? A sea of humanity, literally
trillions and trillions of people. And it says, the gospel net,
the kingdom, has gathered of every kind. God began making
up this kingdom thousands of years ago. bringing in his subjects. Many thousands of years ago,
it began with Adam and Eve, didn't it? I believe the first was Abel. Have you ever thought about that?
Abel was the first sinner to walk into heaven. He was the
only one there. Only one there. What do you reckon
he was doing? Singing at the top of his lungs. of the mercy and grace. Have
you ever thought about that? One man. And he felt like he didn't deserve
to be there. The only one there. He was praising
God for his sovereign, electing grace and mercy. Revealing the
truth to him and saving him by his grace. One man. And pretty
soon the fish started coming in. They started coming in. Well, God began this with Adam
and Eve Noah, and Shem, and Abraham, and so on and so on, people of
all sorts, every different color, shape, and size. Every tribe,
the Scripture says, kindred, nation, and tongue under heaven.
Pentecost is a good example of that. Look at Acts chapter 2,
after, well, this is when Peter and John and others were preaching
the gospel. Acts chapter 2, verse 5. and
they were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every
nation under heaven." Verse 9 through 11, Parthians, Leeds, Elamites,
dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judea, Cappadocia and Pontus, Asia,
Phrygia, Pamphylia and Egypt, parts of Libya about Cyrene,
strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes, Arabians, they all heard
these apostles speak in their languages. the wonderful work
of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation. So
you see, it was a vast array of people of all different color
and, as I said, shapes and sizes, different people all over the
world. They looked different, real different. Red men. I believe Adam First
man was red in color. He sure wasn't Caucasian. The
other skin, a whole lot prettier than this old white stuff. But
the name Adam means red, so it means red man. I believe he was
probably the color of one of our Native American infants,
kind of a darkish red color. Beautiful. No one has prettier
skin than that. Beautiful. Red men, women, brown. I go down to Mexico and look
into a sea of brown faces with pearly white teeth and big white
eyes. Mayan Indians. And they're beautiful.
They are beautiful. And all of them wearing white.
And I feel like the only ugly one there. Old pale white man. Really. Go down to the Dominican
Republic. You've been there. Aren't they beautiful people?
Dominican Republic. Oh, those Indians. people were
true Indies, were in the West Indies, beautiful people, and
so on and so forth. And somehow, and we can't really
understand this, but it's so, somehow in heaven and in the
new earth we're all going to retain our identity, yet we're
going to look like we all are related. Does that make sense? We're all
going to look like family. But we're going to retain our
identity. So we'll know each other. And we're all going to
look like Jesus Christ. We're going to bear the family
resemblance. Beautiful, beautiful people. It isn't like, you know, God
made everything diverse, didn't he? Like snowflakes. Each one
is beautiful, but it's different. Totally different. Leaves on
the trees. They're beautiful, and we're
like leaves on the tree, Christ, the tree of life. I really believe
that, that we're going to retain our identity. They knew various
ones who appeared to them, like Moses and Elijah and Samuel and
so forth. They knew them, and we'll know
each other. And somehow, though, we're going
to retain our identity and yet all look alike, and that's I
can't go any further with that. Trillions of individuals, like
the sands of the sea, the stars of the sky, all alike and all
beautiful. Beautiful. Won't that be something? We speak
the same language. Languages started, as you know,
at the Tower of Babel, and I'm about to start Babel. So let's
go on. All right, the gospel gathers in the church, the gospel
When the gospel is preached, it gathers in all sorts, and
in that in all sorts, as the Lord has already told us, there's
bad and good. That's true and false. That's what he said in verse
forty-eight. When it was full, he drew it to shore and sat down
and gathered the good in the vessel, but cast the bad away.
The good are taken into vessels, that is, they're kept for the
Master's use, put in vessels. But the bad is cast out. Men,
if you watch these fishermen on TV and they're catching fish
and they're sorting out the fish, they don't care about those bad
fish. They're not trying to save whatever dolphins or whatever
they're doing. That's not what they're after. They're after
a certain kind. And it doesn't matter what happens
to them. Well, that's what the Lord says
here. He casts the bad away into outer darkness, He said. And
He said there'll be tares among wheat. There must be heresies
among you. Goats among the sheep. The visible
church He's talking about. The visible church. There's the
invisible that's with the Lord. And those whom the Lord knows
are true. but the visible, those who appear
to be believers, but there's false and true in it. And the
end will bring it all to light. Verse 49, so shall it be at the
end of the world. 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. You know, our Lord spoke
on hell more than anybody. And it's significant that people
kind of make fun of and mock this thing called hell. No, they really do. They make
a mockery of it. And what they're doing is calling
the Son of God a liar. And he spoke about it more than
any other. It's not a laughing matter. It's not a joking matter.
It's not a light matter. And it's true. No one really knows if it's literal
fire. The Lord says that, though, doesn't
He? But the worm died not, and so forth. The way there would
be wailing and gnashing of teeth. It's torment, he called it, misery.
Whatever it is, it's a terrible, terrible thing, place. I know
something about what it is. It's the absence of God. People talk about hell on earth,
don't know what they're talking about because We read in Psalm
145 how that the Lord is good to all in his tender mercies
over all his works. And the fact that God is here
with his people, the rest of the earth benefits from that.
There's still some mercy around. There's still some goodness.
There's still some smiling faces. There's food and so forth and
so on. But remove God, who is love, who is mercy, who is grace,
who is goodness, and what do you have? You go down the closest
we can come to finding out what it's like to be totally, God
totally removed. You go down to the depths of
the inner cities, some of these places where it's just a writhing
mass of corruption, people killing one another, raping one another.
You know, that's God, that's just a slight notion of what
it's like for God not to take His hand off and remove His presence. So hell is a horrible place,
and I believe, so does my pastor, based on the scripture, that
hell is going to last as long as this earth lasts, but then
he's going to cast hell and death into the lake of fire, and that'll
be, he says, the second death. I think it's all going to be
gone forever. But he says the just, and the
wicked. He talks about the just and the
wicked. It behooves us to find out which of the two we are,
doesn't it? What does it mean to be the just
or be the wicked? I've got an article going in
Sunday Bulletin by Brother Joe Terrell entitled, Save to the
Righteous, It Shall Be Well With Thee. It shall be well with thee. Wonderful article, just wonderful.
You're going to enjoy it. The just, when our Lord said
there in Revelation 22, he that will be just, let him be just
still. Righteous, let him be righteous
still. What does it mean? Well, first of all, the wicked. Turn over to 1 Corinthians
16. 1 Corinthians 16. It says He's
going to separate the wicked first. Take them, remove them.
1 Corinthians 16. Who is wicked? And it goes without saying that
people that are, you know, in the depths of depravity are wicked. That goes without saying, doesn't
it? But look here at 1 Corinthians
16. It's all summed up in a verse. Those whom God calls wicked.
Summed up in one line. A verse. And what He's going
to do with them. Verse 22, 1 Corinthians 16, 22,
If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema
maranatha, meaning cursed when the Lord comes, put in hell,
let him go to hell. That's what it says. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, who are the wicked? Those that don't love God's Son,
that's who He counts. Isn't that it? Those that don't love
His reign, those that say, We will not have Him front and Him
foot. Those that don't love His rule, those that don't love His
glory, those that want to share it. Those that don't love His Word,
they don't like the pulpit. They think nothing of it. They
think lightly of it. Lightly esteem it. Set it at norm. How could you set this word? How could we have? We did. How
could we have done it? This is, this is amazing to me. God interceded. Those that don't love His salvation,
He does the saving. That's plain. It's all in Him. Those that don't love Him to
have the glory in it, God calls them wicked. Those that don't
love His presence, He said, where two or three are gathered in
My name, that's where I'll be. And at His right hand are pleasures
forevermore. The presence of the Lord is in
the presence of glory and joy of the people. Some of you express
that all the time, that this is the most enjoyable time you
have while you're on earth. Not always, you know, there are
times when the Lord gives us special time, but nevertheless,
those who truly love Christ's presence, love to be where He
says He's going to be, and quite often they enjoy that presence.
And worship, those who love His worship, and those who love His
people. That's how our Lord said, those that love my people, or
those that love their brethren, by this shall they be known.
The just are those who love Christ's reign, love his rule, love his
glory, love his word, love his salvation. They love his presence,
love his worship, love his people, want to be like him, love his
person. They love him, not like they ought to. And though they've never seen
Peter said whom having not seen. Why? Because he personal. That's right. And so those who
love me, it's very simple. Those who don't love him, the
Lord calls them wicked. And he leaves them to themselves
to practice all sorts of ways and they become what they are.
They do what they are. But those that love Christ, He
has already done a radical transformation of them and will perfect that
work until they love Him perfectly someday. And He calls them justified,
the just ones, wholly unblameable, unapprovable in God's sight.
Though they be sinners, not to God they're not. They're just.
God doesn't call them sinners. He calls them saints. He calls
the other people wicked. He calls these just. You know,
they're sinners, yet he calls them just if they trust Christ. Well, he says in verse fifty,
he'll cast these wicked into the furnace of fire, and they'll
be wailing and gnashing of teeth. As I said, hell's a difficult
thing to understand, but clearly spoken of. Our Lord said he's going to burn
up this earth. And it's not an old fable. Those
are not the notions of a maniac standing on the street with a
sign. But the Son of God. And when you think about it,
the only way to really destroy something is to burn it. Burn
it up. And that's what Peter wrote about.
He said that heavens and earth shall melt away with a fervent
heat. And we're all going to watch
it burn. Hopefully. Well, verse 51. Jesus saith unto them, Have you
understood all these things? He's talking to you. Have you? Have you understood this parable
of the sower? How the kingdom of heaven is like the sower,
the tares and the wheat? Have you? I know you do. The mustard seed. That's a blessing
in wonder. The leaven. About the treasure
field. Pearl. Pearl of great pride. You understand that? Now the
net. You understand these things? Then you're a scribe. A good
scribe. There's bad scribes and good
scribes. Most of the scribes our Lord dealt with were bad
scribes, weren't they? Legal scribes, fellows who didn't,
all they knew was the letter of the law, they didn't know
the Spirit. They weren't instructed by Him. They were just instructed
in the law. But you, if you understand these
things, they've been revealed to you by the Heavenly Father,
and you're a scribe in the kingdom. So He says, read on, He says,
Every scribe, then He said unto them, well, they said unto Him,
Yes, Lord. I bet Peter's going to collapse,
didn't he? Have you understood these things, Peter? Yes! Oh,
yeah, I see it now. Yeah, well, you do. It's like
that. You know in part. It's like it
does. Like, oh, the Lord had patience,
didn't He? Can't you see the way He looked
at them and talked to them like a father does a little child?
You understand, son? Yeah, I understand. Okay. I'll teach you more later. Well, verse fifty-two, So he
said unto them, Then, he said unto them, Therefore, if you
understand, 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. A scribe,
as we said, a good scribe. A scribe is one who is concerned
with God's Word. That's what the scribe did. They
looked at, read, studied, and wrote down God's Word. And isn't
that what we do? That's all we do. That's all
we do here. We're a blessed people. We really
are. A lot of people say that. They do that. where they study God's Word more
fully. Line upon line, the Word is unto
us, line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept
upon precept, here little, there little, for all the years. Not just me, every man that comes
here. And we read, we hear, we teach,
we rightly divide it. Oh yeah, I'm not saying that
for something. And it's like a householder,
a man who's a householder with a treasure, a householder, a
servant in a house, kind of like that butler who's been given
this treasure to dole out. And it says he brings out of
this treasure things new and old. I shouldn't have to tell
you what that's saying at all. This treasure, we have this treasure,
don't we? In earthen vessels, but nevertheless,
it's a treasure. A treasure house of God's Word.
A treasure of the wisdom and knowledge which is Christ. Treasure chest. He, as we saw,
is the Word and He is that treasure. That pearl, that ark, that golden,
as the song says, casket. The ark. Treasure chest. In which
is all the Wisdom and knowledge and fullness of God. And we bring
out when we study. Like scribes. That's what scribes
do. They sit around and study. This
whole room is full of them. Writing down. Many of you take
notes. Scribing. You're actually transcribing. Well, as we study, we're bringing
out of this treasure things new. The gospel is good news in it.
And how I know it's gospel to you is if it's new to you when
you hear it. Same old story. There really
is nothing new about the gospel. It's as old as God, the gospel
of God. But yet, it's so like a river of living water. It's
all fresh. It's all new every time we look
at it. Can we look at the same story? Can we? It's like that
story of Solomon and Sheba a few weeks ago. I just want to look
at it again, don't you? Get things new, brand new and
old. Go back, study some obscure hidden
passage, look and find antiques. Any of you like, well, I know
you like antiques. Flea markets, where's Charles?
There he is. And you go into flea markets looking for old
stuff, antiquities of value. You don't want just junk. Well,
you don't want all junk. You're looking for something
of value, old, quite often used. And we search and see, and we
find what? Old pants. It's a good way to walk there. The old types, the old pictures,
the old symbols, and even from the old will bring you happiness. That is treasure. And we haven't
even, we're like a person who's opened this vast chest just overflowing
with jewels. And once a year, we pull out
one little jewel and look at it. Look at it under my protection. We've got a lot of jewels, but
yet this treasure. So, he said. He said. Sound like a place you'd like
to be? with the person Christ who reigns,
someone you'd like to know and be with. The King of Heaven is
like unto you. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord, thank you for your
word. Thank you for revealing give
to us in part. Thank you for that which we do
know and understand. And we, like the disciples, we
do understand, Lord, something. We're thankful for that. But
yet we know in part, we preach in part, we long to know more.
Perfect that, O Lord, which concerns us, we pray. We know you will,
you've promised to do so. Lord, make us all, if indeed
I will, sheep, wheat, the just, justified in Christ. That's in
Christ's name we've met here tonight. Amen. You're dismissed.