The Parable of the Dragnet

The Parable of the Dragnet

Text: Matthew 13:47–50 (KJV 1900)

47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:

48 Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

49 So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Introduction:

* Turn with me now to the Book of Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24.

* While the prophet Daniel was praying, God sent an Angel to him, with information about when the Messiah, the King of the Kingdom of God and of Heaven, who we know as Jesus, would come and set up His Kingdom.

* Now let’s examine what the Angel said to Daniel for a minute.

Daniel 9:24–25 (KJV 1900)

24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city,

* We know from our Bible studies that these 70 weeks are “weeks of years” prophecy in the Bible is filled with the number 7.

* These 70 weeks of years add up to 490 years. Daniel is told that it will be 490 years until the “King of the Kingdom of God, “the Prince that is to come,” would come.

* This 490 years started from the seventh year of the king Artaxerxes, and stretched until the Jewish month of Nisan, which was the very month and year in which Jesus, the King of the Kingdom of God and of the Kingdom of Heaven, our Lord, suffered, and completed the work of our salvation by dying on a cross for sin.

* Sir Robert Anderson, in his book, The Coming Prince, calculates that the 490 years until the Messiah, the King of the Kingdom, would come began on March 14, in 445 B.C. and ended on Sunday, April 6, 32 A.D.

* That was the very year and the very day, of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, and the people of Jerusalem cried out “Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Lk 19:28-40).

* This day when the King of the Kingdom of God, the Messiah, Jesus, would present Himself to the people was foretold by the prophet Zechariah in Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9:

Zechariah 9:9 (KJV 1900)

9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem:

Behold, thy King cometh unto thee:

He is just, and having salvation;

Lowly, and riding upon an ass, And upon a colt the foal of an ass.

* Now, the angel told Daniel in Daniel chapter 9, that when the “King” of the Kingdom of God, the Messiah comes He will do the following things:

Daniel 9:24–25 (KJV 1900)

24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city,

to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins,

and to make reconciliation for iniquity,

and to bring in everlasting righteousness,

and to seal up the vision and prophecy,

and to anoint the most Holy.

* In our Parable that we have before us this morning, we have Jesus, the King that the angel told Daniel was coming, is standing before us now, teaching the last of 7 parables about His Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven.

The scheme of the Parable:

* This parable stands alone as a parenthesis at the end of the Kingdom Parables.

* All seven of the Kingdom parables, are enclosed in a set of “parenthesis” if you will, beginning with the Parable of the Sower, and ending with our Parable we are looking at this morning, the Parable of the Dragnet.

* Inside of the “parenthesis,” of the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Dragnet, there are three “couplets” of parables.

* Each set of two parables, we call couplets, have the same revelation of a certain truth about the future of the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven.

* The first couplet of Parables we looked at, the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, presented to Jesus’ disciples the Nature of the Kingdom of Heaven.

* In these first two parables Jesus reveals that the nature of the Kingdom of God after his death and ascension up to Heaven, until His final Return to judge the world, will be that of two kinds of people- The children of the seed of Satan and the counterfeit religious systems, and the children of the seed of the Word of God, the true believers.

* In the second couplet of Parables, the “Parable of the Mustard Seed,” and the Parable of the Leaven, Jesus presented to his disciples the coming Power and Influence that the seed Jesus sowed, will have in the world after his death and resurrection.

* In the third couplet of parables, which we are dealing with this morning, The Parable of the Hidden Treasure, and the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price, Jesus revealed to His disciples the method of entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. (which we dealt with last Sunday)

* Now, let’s take a look at today’s parable, the last of the seven, the Parable of the Dragnet.

The Basic Structure of the Parable of the Dragnet:

I. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet.

II. The end of the Kingdom will be the end of the World.

III. At the end there will be a separation of good and bad.

IV. The bad will be cast into a furnace of fire.

The Focus of the Parable

* There are many things we could say about the Parable of the Dragnet, but the Lord’s main focus is on one element of the parable- the separating process that the fishermen went through on the shore.

* Jesus emphasized that aspect of The Parable, the separating of the good from the bad.

* Since this is what Jesus emphasized, then that is what we will emphasize as well this morning.

* The Parable of the Dragnet is a picture of the angels separating the good wheat, the true believers, from the bad tares, the false wheat, the false believers, at the End of the World, the end of the age.

(Remember the parable of the wheat and the tares?)

Matthew 13:30 (KJV 1900)

30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

* In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, after the Enemy, the Evil one, the Devil, has sowed tares among the good wheat, the servants wanted to pluck up the tares right then!

*The angels wanted to Judge the world right then!

* I want you to realize this morning that Jesus, the King of the Kingdom of God, in his great mercy and grace, has made the angles wait until the end of the age of Grace, the age of the Church, while God extended his mercy to the world by the Church preaching the Cross.

* But know for Shure this morning that the time will come when God’s mercy will be full, and this time of Grace and Mercy will give way to God’s righteous judgment, and the world will be judged by Jesus the righteous King.

* At that time of Judgment there will be a great separation in the Kingdom of God…

* In John 5:25-29, Jesus said there was coming a resurrection of all men: some "unto the resurrection of life," and some "unto the resurrection of damnation."

* At that final separation, God will determine an eternal destiny for every soul that has ever lived.

* We read also, a little further ahead in the book of Matthew, in chapter 25 and verse 31 about that great separation that will take place at the time of the end:

Matthew 25:31–34 (KJV 1900)

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations:

and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

The Good on the right

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…

The Bad on the left

Matthew 25:41 (KJV 1900)

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

(Remember the parable of the wheat and the tares?)

Matthew 13:30 (KJV 1900)

30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

* At that time, the end of the world, Jesus the King of the Kingdom Parables will judge the entire earth, and separate the saved from the unsaved.

* Jesus took his disciples aside in private and gave them the impetration of the parables of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in our text chapter Matthew 13 in verses 36-43.

* Let’s look at this interpretation again:

Matthew 13:36–43 (KJV 1900)

36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.

37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil;

the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;

42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

* From Revelation 6, as the first seal is opened, on to the end of the book, each seal of the book of revelation shows us the angels of God, as they carry out the reaping and separating process at the end of the world in great detail.

* Now, I want you to see something about what Jesus says next in verse 43:

* I opened up this morning’s message with the words of the book of Daniel concerning the coming of the “King” of the Kingdom of God…

* I want you to see that Jesus says something, by the Holy Spirit, that refers back to the book of Daniel- Look at verse 43 in our text in Matthew 13- Jesus said…

43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

* Now look at Daniel chapter 12 verses 1-4 with me…

Daniel 12:1–4 (KJV 1900)

The Tribulation…

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time:

The Battle of Armageddon…

and at that time thy people shall be delivered,

every one that shall be found written in the book.

The Judgment, or the Separation…

2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

* Now I want you to see the connection the Holy Spirit has made with what Daniel said and what Jesus is saying to us about the parable of the Dragnet and the end of the Word.

3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

* In our parable, Jesus said here in Matthew 13 and verse 43:

43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

* At that time, the end of the world, Jesus the King of the Kingdom Parables will judge the entire earth, and separate the saved from the unsaved.

* Now let’s look at Jesus description of that great separation in the parable we have before us this morning:

The Use of a Dragnet

Matthew 13:47–50 (KJV 1900)

47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:

48 Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

49 So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

* In this story, Jesus describes a great net that is cast into the sea.

* This is a completely different net than the net Jesus described when he told his disciples they would use a “fishers of men.”

* That net, a smaller net that would be used by one man, would be cast out and it would fling out into a circle. The sides of the net were weighted and it the circle would sink to the bottom trapping the fish under it.

* When the net had sank, there would be a cord attached to the wrist of the fisherman, when he would pull on it, the cord would draw the net into a sort of sack, trapping the fish it had landed over.

* The net indicated by the text here in the Parable of the Dragnet is a much larger net, a net that had to be let out by boat.

* This is indicated in the text by the use of the Greek word sagene.

* The dragnet is also known as a seine net or trawl net. It is a very large net.

* Bible commentator R. C. H. Lenski said that some of those nets covered as much as one-half of a mile.

* These nets were so large; they could not be used by one man alone.

* When a dragnet was used, one end of the net was attached to the shoreline, and the other end was attached to a boat.

* The boat would then go out on the water and stretch open the net.

* After the net was opened, the boat would begin to move in a circle.

* Because the top edge of the net had floats and the bottom edge had weights, it moved through the sea like a vertical wall.

* As the circle was being completed and the boat made its way back to where the net was attached to the shoreline, all the sea life that was inside the circle the boat made was caught inside the walls of that net.

* In the Parable of the Dragnet, Jesus was talking about the gathering of men for judgment.

* Jesus emphasized two important things in verse 47: the size of the net was immense, and the catch was all-inclusive.

* The dragnet swept up living and dead creatures, as well as seaweed and other things from the bottom. It caught every form of life in the area that the net encircled.

* We have already learned from the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, that during this era in which good and evil exist together, God, in this age and dispensation of Grace, will tolerate evil long enough to allow men to repent and be saved.

* But there is coming a time when God will separate those who are subjects of the King, those who have believed the Word of the Kingdom that Jesus came to sow in the first Kingdom Parable, the Parable of the Sower,-

* - there is coming a time when God will separate these seeds that fell into the good soil, from those who will not believe the world that Jesus sowed in the field of the world.

* Little by little, imperceptibly and silently, God's net is moving through the seas of time and bringing all men onto the shores of eternity for that inescapable separation of the good from the bad as in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares.

* Just as the dragnet of this Parable of the Dragnet draws in all kinds of fish, Even so the Dragnet of the Judgment of this world is catching all manner of men, both good and bad, no one will escape God’s judgment.

* So, as verse 47 says, the Kingdom of heaven is like a net that moves silently through the sea of life.

* By the time people awaken to what God is doing; they will have already been brought to the shore to be separated.

* The only spiritual application Jesus makes from the parable is from the separation process on the shore.

* Jesus doesn’t comment on anything else.

* I think we too ought to focus on that one thing, and learn from the parable what Jesus intended to teach.

* Let’s look at some more details from the Parable of the Dragnet…

Let’s look at the Time of the Separation…

Verse 49 says that the separation will "be at the end of the age."

* The judgment of all men man will occur when Jesus returns to earth to set up His glorious Kingdom.

*Jesus was not trying to pinpoint chronologically every element of judgment when He said that.

* He didn't specify whether He meant the Great White Throne Judgment, the judgment of the separation of the sheep and the goats, or the Judgment seat of Christ, the Bema Seat, (when believers are rewarded after the Rapture).

* Jesus was just making a general statement that, ultimately, all of the people in the world will be caught in the dragnet of judgment.

Let’s look at the Agents of the Separation- those who will do the separating…

* Notice that verse 49 says that angels are the ones that will separate the good from the evil.

* The Angles were also mentioned as the separators in the parable of the wheat and the tares (Mt. 13:41).

* The Bible makes it clear that angels will be the agents of God's judgment (Mt. 24:31; 25:31; Rev. 14:18- 19).

* According to the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, God will tolerate good and evil growing together in His Kingdom for now, but the time of separation is moving closer every day.

* At that final separation, God will determine an eternal destiny for every soul that has ever lived.

Let’s look now at the Functions of the Parable…

* Some people wonder why Jesus taught the parable of the dragnet, which talks about the separation of good and evil, when He already talked about that separation in the parable of the wheat and the tares.

* One reason He taught it was because the parable of the wheat and the tares emphasizes the coexistence of good and evil, not the separation of good and evil.

* Another reason Jesus had for teaching the parable of the dragnet was because of His compassion for men.

* Jesus wanted to warn them about hell. He said, "Watch, therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of man cometh" (Mt. 25:13; cf. Mk. 13:35).

* Jesus cautioned people not to take their sins lightly because inevitably they would be accountable before God.

* Jesus said that there would come a time when men would live as they did in the days of Noah, and that judgment would follow soon after (Lk. 17:26-27).

* Through His prophet, John the Baptist, He said that He would come to burn the lost "with unquenchable fire" (Mt. 3:12).

* When Jesus looked at the people around Him in Matthew 9:35-38, He saw a harvest moving toward judgment.

* The heart of Jesus was filled with compassion for people on the way to Hell.

* Jesus showed His compassionate heart for men by warning them of the inevitable separation in the parable of the dragnet.

* According to 2 Peter 3:9- God does not take pleasure in seeing the wicked die. He is "not willing that any should perish" (2 Pet. 3:9).

* First Timothy 2:3-4 says that God, our Savior, "will have all men to be saved."

* Jesus wept over Jerusalem and said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them who are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Mt. 23:37).

* Jesus also said to the Jewish people, "...ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life" (Jn. 5:40).

* Jesus was constantly warning men about the reality of Hell because He loved them.

* In this Parable of The Dragnet, The Kingdom of heaven is like a net.

* That net moves through the world unseen. When the net touches the back of a fish, the creature simply swims a little further ahead of it, enjoying what appears to be permanent freedom.

* Men move about in this world imagining themselves to be free, fulfilling their own desires, with little knowledge that the net of judgment is coming closer and closer.

* Each time men are touched by the net, they move a little further along.

* Eventually they will find themselves hitting the part of the net in front of them.

* They will make a wild dash to escape, yet find themselves totally surrounded by the net.

* Finally, they will be dragged onto the shore, flailing as they go to their death.

* Men may not see God moving in the world, but He is moving.

* When they are touched by the gospel of Jesus Christ, or become scared by the threat of judgment, they dart away into the freedom they think is ahead of them. But sooner or later, they will find they are still caught in the net that is moving them toward judgment.

* The Kingdom will ultimately engulf all men, and God will separate them with His angels.

Let’s take a look at the Peril of the Furnace of Fire (v. 50)

"And shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

* That is a horrifying verse. If there were any doctrine in the Bible that could be wished away, it would be the doctrine of hell.

* But hell cannot be eliminated from the Bible.

* The wicked will be cast "into the furnace of fire"--those are terrifying words from our Lord.

* He spoke of hell more than anyone else in the Bible, and for a good reason.

* The truth about hell is so terrifying and awesome that if the Lord had not taught about hell, we would not believe it existed.

* People probably wouldn't listen if anybody else tried to teach about hell.

* Jesus had to be the one who taught about hell. We refuse to conceive of eternal damnation.

* Jesus emphasized hell in His preaching. If you don't think that is true, then you haven't paid attention to what Jesus says in the Bible.

* Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 and verses 29-30, "...if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."

* Jesus again said in Matthew 8:12 that "the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

* Jesus also said in Matthew 11:20-24 "Then began He to upbraid the cities in which most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not."

* Jesus condemned people who did not repent of their sin and said they would go to hell (vv. 21-24).

* Those were serious words from our Lord.

* In Matthew 12:36-37 Jesus said, "But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account of it in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

* Jesus constantly taught about hell. He talked about it in Matthew 23:14-15, 33; 25:29-30, 41, 46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 6:24- 26; and 12:5.

* In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus told a story about a rich man that died and went to hell.

* The man was in such torment that he screamed for Abraham to send Lazarus with water to cool his tongue (v. 24).

* Based on the example of Jesus, the emphasis of preaching should be on warning men and women about the reality of hell.

* But people don't do that today.

* It is wrong for those who have the knowledge about the Judgment that is coming and preachers and Christians so say so little about hell to those around us.

The Description of Hell

Hell is a place of unrelieved torment and horrible misery.

* What is hell? Let me give you four truths about hell that I think will answer that question:

1. The Bible defines it as outer darkness (Mt. 8:12; 22:13).

* It is a place of impenetrable darkness without light.

* Have you ever been in the darkness of night and longed for daylight, or been in a dark room and wanted light?

* Darkness will encompass those who will be in hell for eternity; there will be no hope of ever seeing light.

2. The Bible also says that hell is a place of fire (Mt. 25:41).

* There will be no relief from suffering in Hell. God uses both darkness and fire to describe the torment of the damned.

* The Bible gives us two insights into how people will respond in hell.

* One is in a parable the Lord tells in Luke 16, where a man who went to hell cried, "...Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame" (v. 24).

* The other is a statement Jesus frequently made, saying that in hell "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth"

* Jesus used this phrase about Hell in (Mt. 8:12; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Lk. 13:28).

* Hell is not going to be a place of fun; it is going to be a place of weeping, screaming, grinding of teeth, and unrelieved torment.

* Jesus said, "...fear not them who kill the body...but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Mt. 10:28).

* Some people think that hell will only be experienced by the inner consciousness.

* But the Bible teaches that hell will be experienced by the body, too.

* According to Jesus eternal bodies are going to be given to the people in Hell; they will suffer in those bodies forever.

* You might ask “How do we know that the damned will have eternal bodies for hell?”

1) First, the Lord said that hell is a place "where their worm dieth not" (Mk. 9:44, 46, 48).

* When a body is put into a grave, worms begin to consume it.

* Once the body is consumed, the worms die.

* But in hell, the worms that consume the bodies will never die because the bodies will never be totally consumed.

* In other words, Jesus was teaching that the unrelieved torment of the body will go on forever in hell.

2). The Lord described hell as a place where "the fire is not quenched" (Mk. 9:44, 46, 48).

* A fire always dies out when there is nothing to give it fuel. But because the fire in hell will never run out of fuel, it will never die out.

* According to Jesus, Hell will be a place of unrelieved torment for both body and soul.

* Hell will be a place of unrelieved torment for body and soul, and it will be endless.

* The worms there will never die; the fire will never die out; light will never shine there, and the sweet relief of death will never come.

* The only reason some people are able to endure life with all of its suffering and diseases are because they believe that death will bring relief.

* But it won't. Because hell is eternal, the people who go there will go insane.

* You might say, "Can we be sure hell is everlasting?" Yes, because Jesus that the wicked "shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal" (Mt. 25:46).

* Both heaven and hell are eternal. In the Scriptures the same Greek word that is used to describe the eternal nature of Heaven is used to describe the eternal nature of Hell.

* If Hell is not eternal, the neither is Heaven Eternal.

Let’s look now that the disciple’s comprehension of the message of the Kingdom Parables…

Jesus Remark (v. 51a)

* Jesus asked the disciples in verse 51, "Have ye understood [lit. `put together'] all these things?..."

* He was asking them, "Have you been able to put together in your mind all the information in the parables?

* Do you understand that the before the time that I set up my glorious Kingdom that good and evil will coexist, yet the good will continue to grow in influence?

* Do you understand that the only way to gain entrance to Heaven is is to trust in the righteousness of The King of the Kingdom, and put aside your own self-righteousness?

* Do you see how in the end, there is coming and inescapable separation between those who are trusting in their religion and self-righteousness, and those who place their faith in Me?"

Now, let’s look at the commission Jesus gives them to teach what they had learned about the Kingdom (v. 52b)

"...is like a man that is an householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."

* Jesus trained the disciples to be laborers in the harvest and warn men about the coming judgment.

* The disciples are now householders with a storehouse of knowledge about the Kingdom of God, filled with both old and new things.

* In other words, they knew the Old Testament and knew about the mysteries of the Kingdom.

* They could not only teach about the Old Testament and Jewish tradition; but they could dispense the new mysteries of the Kingdom.

* They now knew more than the Jewish scribes. All that the scribes knew was the Old Testament.

* But the disciples had knowledge of both old and new things in perfect balance.

* God had called and trained them, and now wanted them to spread their knowledge.

* The term "bringeth forth" near the end of the verse means "to fling out, or to scatter abroad." Jesus is saying, "You've got all this treasure now, so fling it out."

* He's telling them to be liberal with the riches they have: "Now that you are trained biblical teachers, give out both what God said in the past and what I have told you about the Kingdom."

* Jesus saw men on their way to hell (Mt. 9:36-38).

* That is why He taught the disciples about the Kingdom.

* He said that good and evil will coexist for a while, but there is coming an inevitable separation and judgment.

* Jesus wanted the disciples to proclaim that truth.

Conclusion:

* We are to proclaim the same message that the disciples were to proclaim:

* The people of this world are destined for hell.

* In Matthew 22, the Lord gave a parable similar to the parable in Matthew 13:47-50.

* In that parable, a king had a wedding feast. Many people showed up for it.

* When the king came to see the guests, he saw one man without a wedding garment. (That man was like a fish caught in the dragnet of the Kingdom.)

*The king said, "Friend, how camest thou in here not having a wedding garment?..." (v. 12).

* The man without the wedding garment was speechless.

* Then the king said to his servants, "Bind him hand and foot...and cast him into outer darkness.... For many are called, but few are chosen" (vv. 13-14).

* The Kingdom net will catch many people, but not everyone that is caught will belong to the Kingdom.

* Since we know the mysteries of the Kingdom, we have the responsibility to make them known to others.

* Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:11, "Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men...." If we aren't concerned about the fact that people are dying and going to hell, then we are selfish.