Let me just read one or two verses
to you, reading from the King James Version
this morning, at verse forty-seven, Matthew
thirteen and verse forty-seven.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a
net which was thrown into the sea and
gathered fish of every kind.
When it was full, men drew it ashore
and sat down and sorted the good into
vessels, but threw away the bad.
So will it be at the end of
the age the angels came out and separated
the evil from the righteous and threw them
into the furnace of fire.
There men will weep and gnash their teeth.
Have you understood all this?
They said to him, Yes.
And he said to them, Therefore every scribe
who has been trained for the kingdom of
heaven is like a householder who brings out
of his treasure things old and new.
It's not the authorized version, it's a mixture.
Ready?
May I take a final look, as I
said, at this thirteenth chapter and the parables
this morning?
Of the eight that we are considering, speaking
of the progress of God's kingdom on earth
between the first and second advent of our
Lord, two of those eight, of which this
is one, place their emphasis on the ultimate,
the end, the final issue.
The parable of the wheat and the tares
and the parable of the net thrown into
the sea.
These speak to us of the final issue.
I think it's extremely interesting that in the
first of these, the wheat and the tares,
which we have considered, the emphasis is on
the wonderful destiny of the believer, verse forty
-three.
That parable, you remember, was told to the
crowd, the multitude.
The emphasis in it was of the wonderful
future that awaits the Christian.
There shall the righteous shine forth as the
sun in the kingdom of their father.
In the second, dealing with the net, related
to the disciples, the emphasis is on the
awful fate of the unsaved, verse forty-nine.
The angels will come out and separate the
evil from the righteous and throw them into
the furnace of fire.
It almost seems that the strength of the
appeal to the man who is unsaved is
to give him a glimpse of the glory
of heaven, of what it will be like.
And the strength of the appeal to the
Christian is to give him a glimpse of
what hell will be like.
As much as to say, I hope this
isn't just imagination, but as much as to
say, let the non-Christian, the unbeliever, catch
just a little glimpse of the glory of
heaven and the future that awaits the Christian
in his mouth of water.
And he will be persuaded to drop the
entanglements of sin for the glory of the
kingdom.
On the other hand, give a child of
God, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, just a
little glimpse of hell and his devotion to
Jesus and his service for the salvation of
others.
We'll have a passionate longing to see their
salvation.
Now, that all just came to me this
morning, and if you want me to repeat
it, I will, but I'm just, you know,
introducing the subject today with that.
If you've got it, the gist of it.
A great friend of mine who was a
minister in London, I heard him preach a
little while ago, and he was preaching on
hell.
That's a subject that's very rarely heard, but
that was his sermon.
And he said, Some little time ago, I
asked the Lord to show me what it
meant to be lost eternally.
He never answered that prayer, because I think
if he had, I'd have gone mad, out
of my mind.
Get it?
Got the gist of it?
You've all been looking at me, not doing
your notes, but however, the Lord bless you,
I hope you've got a better memory than
I have, else in two minutes you'll forget
it.
You don't want me to go through it
again, no?
Okay, you see the idea.
Thank you very much.
Are you nodding your head because you do?
No, it's all right.
Come and ask me about it afterwards.
Now, with just that little thought in mind,
let's turn to this parable of the net,
and see what the Holy Spirit has to
say to us this morning.
Notice first, here is the function of the
church.
Verse 47, The kingdom of heaven is like
to a net, the Revised Version puts it,
a dragonet, that was thrown into the sea
and gathered fish of every kind.
When it was full, men drew it ashore.
Here we are this morning in the atmosphere
of the sea, waves, busy fishermen who reach
a fishing ground and then throw their net
into the sea.
The net in use here is the kind
that makes a great haul.
It needs a large boat, strong equipment, and
a disciplined crew.
It's left to swing to the tides and
the waves, and then at evening time, or
maybe early in the morning, the whole area
of the fishing ground is encircled while the
net is slowly and carefully brought ashore.
You've probably seen this in operation.
This was the kind of net the disciples
had used before.
One night, they caught nothing and dragged it
to the shore to find it empty and
torn.
You'll find that in Luke, chapter 5.
And it was the same kind of net
they used on another similar occasion with similar
results.
John, chapter 21.
But this time, before they brought it in,
they heard a voice on the shore telling
them to throw the net into the right
side of the ship.
And it was filled with 153 fish.
And Jesus stood on the shore, the risen
Lord.
Now, this is not the main emphasis of
the parable, but I say there are some
tremendous lessons to learn here.
Here's all your authority for mass evangelism.
All your authority for mass evangelism.
Here's the sanction for mission home and abroad.
Here's the necessity for church organization and machinery.
That net was a piece of very elaborate
and carefully designed material.
And the boat and the tackle and the
disciplined crew tell us of careful organization, planning,
cooperation, with one great object in view.
And it all needed capital, that's money, investment,
time, talent, sacrifice, and above everything else, a
united plan of action.
A united plan of action.
You remember that the Lord first trained 12
people, just nobodies, but he trained them.
Mark chapter 3, and
at verse 14, I think, that they might
be with him and that they may go
out to preach and have authority to cast
out demons.
First, that they might be with him and
then get out to preach and then use
authority to cast out devils.
That was their one object.
Get it down as ready to reach people
and to multiply the effect of the ministry
of Christ among them.
That's what it's all about.
To reach people and to multiply the effect
of the ministry of Jesus.
And he left his church on earth designed
for that one purpose.
To sweep the ocean everywhere.
And that's what you and I are here
for.
Some of us will be at one end
of the net and some of us at
another.
We probably will never meet again this side
of heaven but we're all partners.
Together.
Workers together with God.
1 Corinthians 3, 9.
And the missionary overseas can't carry on his
ministry without the prayer and support of the
church at home.
And the pastor cannot carry out his ministry
without the prayer, cooperation of all his people.
And none of us can witness without prayer
backing.
Once you become a Christian you cannot go
it alone.
You cannot be independent.
You read of an independent fundamental church there's
no such thing.
There's no church that is independent.
Dependence is the right word in the New
Testament.
The church is Christ's great fishing net to
catch people.
And what the whole church is the body
of Christ so every local church must be.
The net of every fellowship the net of
every fellowship is composed of every member flung
out into the stream of life worldwide.
Get this down.
Ready?
Going slow now.
A missionary program is not a branch or
an arm of the church.
It is the church.
Evangelism is preaching a whole Christ by the
whole church throughout the whole world.
That's evangelism.
Preaching a whole Christ by a whole church
throughout the whole world.
Now ready?
Get this.
Ooh.
Sorry, what's the matter now?
Are you?
Is that not?
Do I go again?
All clear?
What do you want me to repeat?
The whole thing?
Lord bless you.
Here we are.
Come on quickly.
Ready?
Getting to top overdrive.
Come on.
Right.
I forgot what I was going to say.
Oh yes.
The church is Christ's fishing net for catching
people.
What the whole church is every local church
must be.
The net is composed of every member flung
out into the stream of life.
The missionary program is not a branch or
an arm of the church.
It is the church.
Evangelism is preaching a whole Christ by a
whole church throughout the whole world.
A long word coming.
The worthwhileness the worthwhileness w-o-r-t
-h w-h-i-l-e n-e
-s-s worthwhileness One word.
Not a very good word really.
The worthwhileness of any movement depends upon its
ability to mobilize every member of it to
propagate that's p-r-o-p-a-g
-a-t-e propagate what it believes.
Okay?
What does that mean?
You had some statistics yesterday that I gave
you about the average church in Britain and
America.
You have that in your notes somewhere.
Do I give it to you again?
I don't want to take time.
I'll give it to you.
Average church of the average total number on
the membership roll 5% don't exist 10
% can't be found 25% never attend
church 30% have no mission or interest
75% never attend midweek service and prayer
meeting 90% have no family worship at
home and 95% never win anybody to
Jesus.
You should have something like that already.
That's failure to propagate.
Propagate means reproduce.
And we have some wonderful people in our
churches but they never reproduce.
Lovely people trustees, elders, deacons lovely, sound people
but they never reproduce.
You know what I mean?
That's propagating.
Or that's failure to do so.
Now this is the important thing or it's
all important but this is especially so.
If the whole of fish H-A-U
-L is to be worthy of Jesus the
crew must be disciplined.
A tackle must be strong.
You have one hole in the net and
that will allow many fish to escape.
Every time Christian people won't work together or
keep aloof won't give themselves to this task
the supreme task of the church won't pray
won't give that creates terrors and rents in
the net.
Again we need to remember that we're going
to be partners in this all of us.
Nobody more important than anybody else.
Nobody can be independent of the other and
each of us will have to ask one
day what contribution am I making to this
campaign of the whole church as distinct from
my own little plans which I want to
do on my own because I thought them
up and I want to be chairman of
the committee that does them.
What contribution am I making to the church
as a whole?
The Christian who acts independently of the fellowship
of the church is responsible for its ineffectiveness.
The Christian who acts on his own to
do his own thing is responsible for the
ineffectiveness of the church and its witness.
So when I begin to get into the
ministry and the fellowship of a local church
how will what I want to do affect
the fellowship as a whole?
I've got to think that out.
Fellowship is a wonderful word.
It really it's strange to say it's a
word that had a very human meaning before
it had a spiritual one.
It really means well the best real definition
of it is Siamese twins.
That's fellowship.
Who share the same bloodstream the same life
Siamese twins that's fellowship.
Sharing life with another.
Compare that with 11am Sunday morning somebody dashes
into church in a hurry how are you?
Fine thanks bye and they sit down.
Nobody speaks to them.
They go out thanks great time goodbye and
that goes on year after year in evangelical
churches and it's called Christian fellowship.
And people come into a church listen to
the preacher oh don't listen and out they
go.
And so often nobody has said anything to
them.
You read oh my 1 Corinthians chapter 12
I was a good giver sometime to that.
The gifts of the spirit Paul's classic example
the gifts of the spirit 1 Corinthians chapter
12 just let me leave with you one
or two thoughts about it and you will
begin to think why I must read about
that.
We've all been baptized in the spirit.
The baptism of the spirit is not something
that happens to you after you're born again
it happens when you are born again.
Nobody can be a Christian without the Holy
Spirit.
We are baptized by the spirit into the
body of Christ.
And we're each given some gifts.
There are 21 gifts of the spirit not
all in 1 Corinthians 12 14 of them
there.
Others are in Ephesians chapter 4 and Romans
chapter 12 but about 21 all together.
Nobody ever has had all of them.
You can't have all the gifts but you
can have all the graces.
That is to say nobody has all the
gifts of the spirit that are outlined there
but you can be filled with the spirit
in character.
The gifts are for ministry and service.
And the thing is to decide what gifts
you have and what gifts God has given
you and never to be jealous of somebody
else's gift.
To say that oh yes I'm leaving me
to doubt around so I can risk saying
this now and you won't catch me.
To say that to be baptized with the
spirit you must speak in tongues is totally
unbiblical.
Some people have the gift of tongues.
I don't.
It takes me all my time to speak
right with the one tongue I have got.
Sorry.
But undoubtedly unquestionably that's a gift but you
press that on somebody else that's unbiblical and
highly dangerous.
Not everyone has the gift of healing.
Some have.
And it's right to exercise it.
But to demand of somebody who is ill
you must have faith and be healed instantly.
That's unbiblical.
I remember when I had a very severe
stroke some twenty years ago some dear kind
lovely people wrote to me and said if
only you had faith you would be well
today.
I let my wife answer that.
I was healed divinely healed.
I never had instant healing but I had
divine healing all the same.
You know what he called her who was
a specialist in that job it's a neurologist
I think.
The very best in Edinburgh came to see
me and he gave me his prognosis and
said well I think that you may you
may live for another five years if you
do nothing and possibly ten but you won't
make seventy.
I'd like to meet that chap right now
because that was about twenty years ago.
Here I am alive divinely healed but not
instantly healed and I tell you I wouldn't
have missed the lessons I learned in those
twenty years for anything.
If I had been immediately healed it would
have been a disaster.
And I turned and saw I never read
my Bible never prayed for three months and
one day one day I picked up my
Bible and happened in quotes to open it
at Psalm 39 and I read thy stroke
has consumed me I am crushed by the
blow of thy hand and I saw it
like a flash the devil had nothing to
do with it the Lord had done it
to teach me some lessons because I had
been putting work before worship orthodoxy before obedience
being proud of being fundamental you know what
I mean and when I saw it I
wept like a child God broke my heart
and then from sinking sands he lifted me
from shades of night to paths of light
praise his name he lifted me he did
it his best way so what I'm saying
to that boy is when you get into
the ministry whatever it is don't insist on
somebody else having a particular gift God knows
what best to give us and the thing
that matters is most now you can start
writing again only for a very few minutes
so take heart you'll be back to letters
and coffee surely look I mean not look
listen no I don't mean that write ready
from 1 Corinthians 12 be sure that you
have the gift which God has given you
and exercise that gift in the whole fellowship
of the church don't be independent don't covet
somebody else's gift don't be jealous thank God
the gift he's given you of course you
may get others and some that you have
may be taken from you but the fellowship
of a church worldwide depends on every person
exercising the gift of the spirit that God
has given them nobody is indispensable nobody can
act on their own and every Christian is
a charismatic Christian you can't be a Christian
without being charismatic what's the word mean?
charis grace medic gifts if you haven't got
any grace if you haven't got any gifts
you're not even born again forget about the
charismatic movement the only charismatic movement I know
that began at Pentecost has been going on
ever since mind you I'm not saying that
to throw the thing aside it's done tremendous
impact upon the whole church this century the
awakening of interest in the Holy Spirit it's
such a pity that some people take it
to extremes now let me finish get on
with the lecture you can come and tackle
me about all that some other time so
we are fellowship in fellowship labourers together with
God that's the function of the church now
here is in verse 48 what I call
the fact of severance the fact of severance
s-e-v-e-r-a-n-c
-e the fact of severance that's verse 48
when they drew the net to shore they
gathered the good and the vessels but threw
away the bad now here is the main
emphasis of the parable while the net is
in the sea it gathers fish of every
kind nobody knows what's in it the fishermen
can't see but they carefully draw it all
in carefully when it's full the good and
the bad and then they sit down on
the shore to undertake the task of collecting
the good and vessels and throwing the bad
away so shall it be verse 49 at
the end of the age God has set
a time when the net will be drawn
in when the gospel will have been fulfilled
its purpose throughout the whole world the net
is filling up right now sometimes quicker than
others it's being drawn in verse 49 then
notice this the angels shall come forth and
separate the evil from the righteous that word
separate is a very strong one seven times
in the new testament it's translated that way
I'll give you one or two references you
can look them up sometime separate me Barnabas
and Saul Acts 13 2 in other words
put a boundary around them set them free
separate them for the ministry which I have
for them Paul said Romans 1 verse 1
I am separated to the gospel cut off
Matthew 25 32 before him shall be gathered
all nations and he shall separate one from
the other as a shepherd separates his sheep
from goats I wonder one day whether there
will be more sheep or more goats that
depends on us doing the job Matthew 25
32 setting a boundary you see in every
church in every fellowship there are some people
who are real and there are some who
aren't but there's no boundary no boundary the
net was carefully drawn in and all that
was in it to the shore and God's
care for everybody is so real he loves
them all even though some are not real
but one day the boundary is set up
forever the hypocrite and the true Christian will
be parted and I'm so thankful that it's
the angels from heaven do the job the
angels from heaven do what no angel on
earth could do they sever the wicked from
the just we needn't ask how they distinguish
they've got their instructions from him who knows
everybody there'll be no blunder no mistake on
that day the Lord knows those who are
his 2 Timothy 2.19 I'm not concerned
with the sequence of events on that day
and that's not the issue of the parable
to enter into it now would be impossible
anyway I am concerned however that we realise
this tremendous inescapable fact of severance good and
bad true and false are drawn into the
net but some are worthless therefore severed with
weeping and gnashing of teeth and you notice
the agents whom God uses to do that
are angels they've intervened in human history before
they're serving today Hebrews 1.14 now they're
not all worshipping spirits sent forth to minister
to the heirs of salvation they worship in
the presence of the Lord they cry holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts but
when somebody like you and me cries out
woe is me for I am undone a
man of unclean lips they come and apply
the life coal they minister to us