Are You Ready?

-


TEXT: Matthew 13:47-52

TONE: Warning

TARGET: Unbelievers

TASK: To warn unbelievers about the coming judgment of God.

TEACH: Let me ask you a question. What will matter the most one hundred years from now? (My testimony) Think of what is on your mind. Maybe you are worried about something that needs to be done before the day is over. Perhaps you have you have something pressing this week, that’s on your mind. In reality, you could a 100 answers to this question.

But one hundred years from now all that is going to matter is if your saved or not. With this simple parable Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter. He highlighted the single most fundamental issue and decision we face in life and reminded us all of the most dreadful possibility -the possibility of being eternally lost. In this parable Jesus reaffirmed His view of hell.

TRUTH: Let me summarize for you what the parable of the fishing net teaches:

I. First, the net represents the application or effect of the Kingdom.

II. Second, not all who are caught in the net are saved.

III. Third, we learn there is only two categories of people.

IV. Finally, the parable teaches that the wicked are eternally lost.

            a. The Last Judgment is…

1. Certain

2. Universal

3. Final

4. Fearful: Hell is where no one had anything in common with anybody else except the fact that they all hate one another and cannot get away from one another and from themselves.

They are all thrown together in their fire and each one tries to thrust the others away from him with a huge, impotent hatred. And the reason why they want to be free of one another is not so much that they hate what they see in others, but what others see in them. For all recognize one another only by the depravity of their willful sin. They all recognize in one another what they detest in themselves, selfishness, and impotence, agony, terror, and despair.

The tree is known by its fruit. If you want to understand the social and political history of modern man, study hell.

Our God also is a consuming fire. And if we, by love, become transformed into Him and burn as He burns, His fire will be our everlasting joy. But if we refuse His love and remain in coldness of sin and opposition to Him and to other men then will His fire become our everlasting enemy, and Love, instead of being our joy, will become our torment and our destruction. -Thomas Merton

5. Hopeful: Glorification, New Heavens New Earth.

TAKE-AWAY: At this time we cannot separate the good fish from the bad. Our task is fishing for souls, and we must leave it up to God to separate the good from the bad at the final judgment. However, we must also warn the wicked of the future eternal punishment that awaits as a result of their evil deeds.

TIE-UP: What is going to matter one hundred years from now.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
The Eternity of God   Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.  Psalm 90:2   I. How God Is Eternal   1.  God is without beginning : “In the beginning” God created the world (Gen. 1:1). God was then before the beginning, and no point can be fixed in to where God began, if He were before the beginning of created things? God is without beginning though all other things had time and beginning from Him. Abraham called upon the name of the everlasting God, “the eternal God” (Gen. 21:33). It is opposed to the heathen gods of foreign nations.    Time began with the foundation of the world, but God, being before time, could have no beginning of time, there could be nothing but eternity.    2.  God is without end . He always was, always is, and always will be what He is. He remains always the same in being -so far from any change that no shadow of it can touch Him (James 1:17). The Scripture states, “the
Read more

Jeremiah the Bold

-
Image
Jeremiah the Bold  Read Jeremiah 7-9 (evening gleanings) In the book of Jeremiah, chapters 7-9, God's judgement against Judah is a central theme. These chapters depict a solemn warning against disobedience and unfaithfulness to God. The Lord, through the prophet Jeremiah, is warning the people of Judah that their disobedience and neglect of the law will result in dire consequences. The people of Judah had turned away from God and were engaging in idol worship. They were offering sacrifices and worshiping false gods, thinking that their actions were pleasing to God. However, the Lord saw through their hypocrisy and warned them of the impending judgment that would come upon them. In chapter 7, the Lord speaks through the prophet Jeremiah and warns the people of Judah that their disobedience and unfaithfulness will lead to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. He reminds them that the temple was not a guarantee of their safety, but rather a symbol of their relationship with God.
Read more

The Immutability of God

-
Image
                           THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD   They shall perish, but you shall remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. Psalm 102:26-27   I. How God is Immutable    1.  God is unchangeable in His essence . He is unalterably fixed in His being, so that not a particle of it can be lost form it, not a mite added to it. He who has not being from another cannot but be always what He is: God is the first being, an independent being; He was not produced of Himself or of any other but by nature always has been, and therefore He cannot by Himself, or by any other, be changed from what He is in His own nature. He is not capable of change. The author of Hebrews, speaking of Jesus, wrote, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”    2.  God is immutable in regard to His knowledge . God has known from all eternity all that which He can know, so that nothing is hi
Read more