The Warning Jesus Would Not Stop Giving
You say you want peace but live like you’re never going to stand before God. You say you believe in heaven but act like judgment won’t come for you. You say you don’t want to think about hell but you won’t stop sinning and you won’t bow to Christ. That’s the paradox most live with every day and Jesus came to rip it open.
Matthew 13 doesn’t allow you to skate by with a religious label. Jesus likens the world to a field where wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest and then says “the harvest is the end and the reapers are angels” (~Matthew 13:30, ~Matthew 13:39). That means there’s a season for masquerading as a Christian. It means your outward appearance, your church speak, your “I’m a good person” line, your family background, your moral reputation…none of it matters if you’re not authentic right now. You can fool crowds for a season but you will not deceive the Lord of the harvest.
Jesus isn’t saying this to scare you. He’s saying this because you’re in danger and you don’t feel it. You can live your entire life believing you have free will but He’s saying the net is closing. The kingdom is like a net thrown into the sea that gathers every kind of fish and when it is full they haul it ashore to begin sorting (~Matthew 13:47–48). That is your life. Whether you know it or not, believe it or not you are being carried toward the shores of eternity. Each day that passes is the net tightening around you. Each breath you take is one pull closer to the end.
And what people do everything they can to avoid is what Jesus refuses to soften. He says the angels will “sever the wicked from among the just” and “shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (~Matthew 13:49–50). That’s not a figure of speech for hard times. That’s not hyperbole for feeling badly about your life. Jesus is painting a picture of literal judgment with literal punishment and literal terror and the reaction He says people will give is weeping and gnashing of teeth not partying and playing jokes. Hell isn’t a punchline. Hell is where every road that refuses Christ ends.
Here’s why all this matters right now. Sugarcoated Christianity is one of Satan’s greatest weapons. Let you keep church if you never repent. Let you talk about Jesus if you never submit to Jesus. Let you admire Christ if you won’t receive Christ. Hell did not stop Jesus from warning about those who say “Lord, Lord”, when the Lord Himself will say to them “I never knew you” (~Matthew 7:21–23). That ought to terrify you because it proves you can know enough truth to quote scripture and still live far enough from it to be condemned by it.
Jesus then goes on to give two more parables in the same chapter to reveal your heart. He says “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which when a man found, he hid, and for joy thereof goeth and sells all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” (~Matthew 13: 44) Then Jesus says it’s like a merchant looking for pearls who finds “one pearl of great price, and went and sold all that he had, and bought it” (~Matthew 13:45–46). Jesus is not teaching you to earn your salvation. He’s showing you what it looks like when a genuine soul finally sees reality for what it is. When we truly see Jesus all of life’s shortcuts are exposed. All of our excuses die. The heart willingly declares, “Whatever it costs, I want Him.” Not because good works save us, but because a heart that has truly seen Jesus won’t treat Him as an accessory.
Either Jesus is your treasure or He is not. Either He is LORD or He is an option. Will you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? Will you bow before Him as the guilty sinful individual you are or will you harden your heart and trust in your own goodness?
“I’m not that bad.” The Bible says you are. “There is none righteous, no, not one” (~Romans 3:10). “I have my own truth.” Jesus says “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (~John 14:6). “God is love, He wouldn’t send me to hell.” The same Jesus who loved us so much He died for us also warned “fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (~Matthew 10:28). “I’ll get right with God later.” The Bible says “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (~Hebrews 3:15). Later is what you’ll shout for in Luke 16 if you’re crying out for a drop of water when time is up and the chasm is fixed (~Luke 16:24–26).
Do not neglect what God is revealing to you. He’s showing you how patient He is right now, allowing wheat and weeds to grow together for a time. He’s showing you truth by telling you exactly where the road you’re on ends. He’s showing you mercy right now in case you’ll turn from your sin and receive Christ ~1 Timothy 1:15. He’s displaying unfailing love right now because “God demonstrates his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (~Romans 5:8). He’s showing you the only hope there is because there is “neither is there salvation in any other” ~Acts 4:12.
But if you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior you will not be rescued by simply admiring what you see here. You will not be saved by agreeing with this message. You will not be forgiven by being related to Christians. You will only be rescued by Christ Jesus if you turn from your sin, turn from your righteousness and bow down before Him as the guilty you that you truly are. “Clean yourself up and come to Jesus” is not what the Bible says. Scripture says, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (~Acts 3:19). Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (~Acts 16:31). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (~1 John 1:9). There is no “righteous you” to come before Christ. There’s only the real you who must be rescued from your sin.
The choice is before you. The net is closing. The shore is drawing near. The sorting will occur. Either Christ is your treasure and you will have Him or your sin is your treasure and it will take you where Jesus said it does (~Matthew 13:49–50). Either you repent and believe or harden your heart and resist God (~John 3:36). Receive the Son and have life or reject Jesus and remain in wrath.
So decide while you can. Bow down now while God’s mercy is accessible. Come to Jesus not as a spectator to salvation but as a sinner who desperately needs a Savior. Because soon there will only be wailing and gnashing of teeth and there will be no more excuses.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that 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 containers but threw away the bad. ~ Matthew 13:47-48
Genesis 42:18-43:34
Matthew 13:47-14:12
Psalm 18:16-36
Proverbs 4:7-10
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New Testament: Matthew 13:47-14:12
Summary:
The Parable of the Net
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
The Death of John the Baptist
Overview: Matthew 1-13 – Click Here
This particular parable is a parable about judgment. It is a parable about hell. And the keynote of the parable is found in verse 50, the furnace of fire, where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Our Lord spoke very much and very often about hell. He said many things about the abode of the damned, the wicked, the Christ rejecters.
But of all of the startling, terrifying things that Jesus ever said, perhaps the most startling was when He said to the Jewish leaders, “How can ye escape the damnation of hell?” in Matthew 23:33. “How can ye escape the damnation of hell?”
It seems strange to us to hear words like that coming from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. For we don’t associate the Lord Jesus Christ with hell, as often as we ought. He said more about hell than he did about love. He said more about hell than all the other biblical preachers combined. And if we are to model our preaching after His, then hell is a major theme for us.
The other night I heard a teenage punk rocker being interviewed. And the reporter said to her, “What are you looking forward to? What is in the future for punk rock?” She said, “Death. I’m looking forward to death.” He said, “Why?” She said, “I want to go to hell. Because hell will be fun. I hope I go to hell. I want to die so I cat get to hell and have fun.”
What deception. Hell is not fun. One writer said, “There is no way to describe hell, nothing on earth can compare with it. No living person has any real idea of it. No madman in wildest flights of insanity ever beheld its horror. No man in delirium ever pictured a place so utterly terrible as this.
“No nightmare racing across a fevered mind ever produced a terror to match the mildest hell. No murder scene with splashed blood and oozing wound ever suggested a revulsion that could touch the borderlands of hell. Let the most gifted writer exhaust his skill in describing this roaring cavern of unending flame and he would not even brush in fancy the nearest edge of hell.” End quote.
This is a parable in which our Lord warns about hell. Now remember, in these parables the Lord is telling us what it will be like in this period of the world’s history, this form of His rule. He is the King and He rules in the world. And He is allowing, in this period of time, good and evil to grow together as we saw in the parable of the wheat and the tares. He’s…He’s tolerant of the good and evil through this period. But in the end will come a judgment. And that’s why this is the last parable.
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