Today we continue our study in Matthew chapter 13, verses 47 to 50. For those of you who are new, I would like to let you know that we study the teaching of our Lord Jesus systematically, week by week. Every week we study the teaching of our Lord Jesus, which in fact we have been doing for some two and a half years and have managed to get as far as Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13, verses 47 to 50. And this is the parable of the dragnet. It's the parable of the net.
And let me read this passage to you. Matthew 13, verse 47: "Again, the kingdom of heaven, the Lord Jesus tells us, 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 it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire. There men will weep and gnash their teeth."
What does this parable mean? This is the seventh and last parable in Matthew chapter 13. It is the last of the cycle of parables in Matthew chapter 13. By cycle we mean a group of parables. And here we come to the last of these, and the last of these parables emphasizes the judgment, the judgment of God. And that is very appropriate to being the last of these seven parables. And like all the other parables in Matthew chapter 13, it deals with the kingdom of God, God's government. The word kingdom can be just as well translated as government, God's government.
And so the question is, how do we enter into God's kingdom? For to be in God's kingdom is the path of life. Why should we be interested in God's government in our lives, that God should be king of our lives? It is because only so will we have eternal life. That is the teaching of the Lord Jesus. Only those who live under God's government, who have God as king, will have enjoyed his life, the life that he gives. Now it is very clear that if you don't live under God's kingship, if God is not king in your life, you cannot expect to have the benefits of his kingship. If I don't live in Canada and under the Canadian law, and even a visitor is under the law of Canada while he is in Canada, I cannot have the benefits of the life in Canada. But once I come into Canada, I am under the law of Canada. That is to say, even if you are a visitor or a foreigner, as most of us are, and you commit something wrong on the streets, or you park your car in the wrong place, you are going to get a ticket. You are going to be fined for it. And it doesn't matter whether you are a Canadian or not, because so long as you are in Canada, you are under Canadian law.
When you enter into the kingdom of God, you are under the law of God, under the law of Christ, as we saw at the communion just a moment ago. But if you want to enjoy the benefits of being in God's kingdom, then it is evident that you have to be under his rule, his government. And I always remember Confucius' words, where he says, don't go into a country where there is disorder, where there is no proper government. Because if you want to enjoy the benefits of a good life, you don't go into a country where there is no proper government. But if you want to enjoy the benefits of a good life, you go to a country where there is good government, good rule. And that's the case with the kingdom of God. You want to enjoy the benefits of a life where there is righteousness, where there is peace, where there is joy, where there is love, where there is understanding, where there is holiness, then the place to be, where all these things are found, is in the kingdom of God, where you commit your life to live under God's government.
Now, the Lord Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a net which was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. If we change the picture back to the picture of what we've just been talking about, about a good country with good government, you will see that precisely because there is good government, it will attract people of all kinds. Not necessarily just good people, but also bad people. Because strangely enough, even bad people like good government. And so you will find that even gangsters will look for a country where there is good government, which is very strange. So we find that good countries also have a lot of moral problems. This is the case everywhere, because everybody is attracted to a good country, because the economic standards are high, the standard of living goes higher with good government. Everybody likes to enjoy a higher standard of living. But where there is bad government, the economic standard goes down.
This is the reason why economics plays so important a part in elections. Government always has to prove that under their government the standard of living has risen, inflation has decreased. Everybody tries to prove that. And whenever the figures of inflation are high, unemployment is high, then the government is in trouble. People say, we don't like this government. They don't give us good government. We want to kick them out, because our standard of living is being affected. So little wonder that everywhere people like good government, even the bad people, because they also like a high standard of living. And so the result is, the kingdom of God is like a net which is thrown into the sea and gathers fish of every kind.
Now, most of you probably are not fishers. Most of us are not fishers. I do a little bit of fishing, but I cannot claim to be a fishing expert, especially not with nets. And so I need to tell you a little bit about this parable. And I can imagine that the Lord Jesus taught this parable perhaps by the Sea of Galilee, where the people might have just been watching the fishermen drawing in the nets. Then what exactly were they looking at? What is the picture that they see? Well, let me paint the picture a little for you. What happens in this type of fishing, fishing which is called seine fishing, fishing with seine nets? The net here is a seine net. This is not — the word seine does not appear in your English translation, because most people don't know anything about fishing anyway, and if you had the word seine there or not, it wouldn't make any difference.
Seine fishing is where you have a long net that is drawn out by maybe two ships, two boats, fishing boats going out. Or one end of the net could be fixed on land, and the other end of the net is then drawn out by a boat that sweeps around the shore and so closes in a lot of fish. By going around, you see, if you go out from the shore, the ship would start by the shore, one end is fixed on this side of the shore, the boat is on the other side, and it sweeps out towards the sea, and then sweeps in again, so enclosing the fish against the shore. Or else you can take two boats out. There are many ways to do this, and the two boats would go out together and then circle in, closing the gap and so trapping the fish inside. And then the two boats would come to shore together, towing all those fish that got trapped in the nets.
Now, one end of the net, of course, has to be — the top end of the net has to be floating. It is floating on the surface. The nets then drop downward until it touches the bottom of the lake. That means to say, of course, you do not use this method out in the middle of the lake where the water is very deep, but always fairly close to shore. And so the other end of the net will then be hanging down, being weighted down. So the net would be spread out somewhat like this in the water, except that it is very long, and the top end would have floats, like you have corks or empty containers, that will hold the top of the net up, and the weights holding the bottom of the net down, so that it sweeps along the bottom of the lake, or at least fairly close to the bottom of the lake, so not all the fish go underneath the net and get away. And in this way, this whole net then comes forward, being towed by the boats, and is sweeping towards the shore.
Now you can imagine what happens with that system, of course, that it traps all the fish within the net. Today this method is still being used, as far as I understand. Even in commercial fishing they use nets in seine fishing. In fact, these nets are very long and drawn by modern trawler boats, fishing boats. But in the Sea of Galilee, even to this day, this kind of fishing is still being used. And so when the ships come to shore, then they haul the nets in, and then you can see that all those fish inside, the big and small, good and bad, all trapped inside there. And the fish then are drawn ashore and hauled ashore by the people. And then once they are on dry land, they are sorted out. Some of the fish people don't want. They are sick fish, they are dead fish which have died being trapped in the nets. And other fish which are simply too thin, too weak, and some are already turning on their stomachs. And so there is a great variety of fish, and these are then thrown out. The fishermen don't want this kind of fish, which are too small, they have little commercial value, and others which are not in a healthy state. So that then is the picture of fishing with these nets.
And so once you see that picture in your mind, you can see the parable the Lord is speaking about. Now, what then does the parable mean? Well, in the Bible, the picture of men as fish is very common. Men are often pictured as fish, swimming out there in life, turning around, doing their usual business of feeding on small fish. As the Chinese say, "大鱼吃小鱼" — the big fish eat the small fish, the small fish eat the smaller fish. And so this world in which we live is compared to a world of fish. You see, and it is — they have different varieties. It says here, all kinds of fish, of every kind of fish. So fish are like people in many ways, and these different kinds of fish might portray the different nations, the different types of people in the world.
And there are an awful lot of varieties of fish. In the Sea of Galilee alone, there were 24 varieties, somebody has counted. And out in the sea, there are hundreds and hundreds of varieties of fish. And so these are compared to different types of people. And then, just like the fish, there are some which are big, there are some which are small, there are some with very sharp teeth that are always biting others. And there are others which are very peaceful; they just feed on the insects or the crabs or the small lobsters and things. All kinds of fish, like different people, with different habits, different appearances. Some fish have one kind of design, one kind of shape — all shapes and sizes.
So in the Bible, for example, in Habakkuk chapter 1, verses 14 and 15, nations are compared to fish. People are compared to fish. And in verse 15, it says that the Chaldeans — the Chaldeans were very aggressive people in those days, a powerful nation that conquered the world — it is there described as bringing the nations into their net, rather like what the Lord Jesus is saying here. And bringing them into the net is a picture of this powerful nation conquering other nations, bringing them under its power and its influence. So here the kingdom of God is pictured as going forth into the world and bringing people in. In this case, of course, in a spiritual conquest and not a physical one.
Also then, the servants of God are described as fishers of men. They are fishers of men, that we see in Mark chapter 4, verse 19. And then the scholar Edith Heim tells us that in Jewish writings it was very common to compare fish to men, or rather men to fish, in Ezekiel chapter 12 and verse 13, especially in the Symmachus translation of the Greek Old Testament. There we see the picture of the Lord taking Israel captive in the nets of the Chaldeans. And so here we have the picture of God himself capturing Israel in the net. And there is a certain sense in which the idea of being caught in the net means that they are taken, to some extent, unaware. There is a moving of the kingdom of God, the Word of God, there is a certain power which draws them in.
Now this is then the picture that we have here. And we are told here that when this net is full — when the net is full, in verse 48 — then it is drawn ashore. Now every part of this parable is full of meaning. It is so rich in meaning that I have to become selective in the way that we present this picture of the parable. The fullness here reminds us of chapter 22, verse 10, for example, in the parable of the wedding feast. There the Lord Jesus speaks of this same idea, that the wedding hall was filled with guests. You remember that the servants went out, in verse 10 of chapter 22, into the streets and gathered all whom they found — and notice the same parallel — both bad and good. So the wedding was filled with guests. Here then the idea is that of going forth and inviting everybody into the wedding feast. So instead of the picture of a net bringing in different kinds of fish, in Matthew 22 you have the same kind of idea of people going forth and inviting you to a wedding feast.
Now everybody likes a wedding feast, just as they like good government. And so they come into the feast. But what is gathered in are both good and bad, because they desire to get something out of this wedding feast. They desire to come to the kingdom of God because they want to get something out of it. So here we have, also in verse 48, this word "they gathered." When all was full, in verse 47, they gathered fish of every kind. To gather in — now "gather in" is again used. The same Greek word is used in Matthew 25 and verse 32. And here again we have this same idea of all the nations being gathered before him. And there he separates the good from the bad, the sheep from the goats. And the word "separate" also occurs in this parable. All this means that there are several parables quite similar in meaning to this parable of the net. And all this means that this is a very important element in the Lord's teaching, as we shall see as we sum up in a little while.
So when is the net being brought in? The net is brought into shore when it is full. This reminds us, of course, of Romans chapter 11, verse 25, where the apostle Paul says that when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then will the end of the age take place. That is, God is so working right now. You might say, why is not the end of the age, the end of the world, already taking place? Because the net is not yet full. When the net is full, when God's purpose is complete, then will the end come. The nets will be taken ashore.
Now this word "gather together" is also very interesting, because the Greek word also means "to welcome." It is used in this sense in Matthew 25, verses 35, 38, and 43, where the word is translated "welcome." "I was in prison, I was hungry," and so forth, "and you did not welcome me." Or to the good ones he says, "You welcomed me." The English word there translated "welcome" is in fact the same Greek word as the word "gather." This means that the kingdom of God welcomes, stretches out a welcoming hand to everybody. It is not exclusive in the sense of its invitation. Everybody is invited to enter the kingdom of God. If you are not a Christian, then you are also invited today to enter the kingdom of God.
Now that's more than can be said right now, say, for most countries, which have very strict immigration laws. You are only welcome if you are a certain type of person and you meet the immigration requirements of that particular country. But the kingdom of God welcomes everybody. It's not that this welcome is unconditional, but it is a welcome. So the word is, "Whosoever will, may come." God so loved the world. Whosoever will, may come. But it doesn't mean that because you are in the kingdom of God, that therefore you are saved. And that is a striking thing, another idea that we are not quite used to. Because the idea is that anybody in the kingdom of God is somehow automatically saved. But look at this parable. There are good and bad in the kingdom of God. And the bad will be thrown out at the end of the age — not now, but at the end of the age, they will be thrown out.
We have many people in the churches today who seem to be Christians, who claim to be Christians, but God will throw them out at the end of the age. That is the warning of this parable. Don't think, because you are in the church, don't think, because you can call yourself a Christian, that therefore you are saved. Or not. So what makes the distinction? And this comes to the crucial point of this parable. What makes the distinction between the good fish and the bad fish? What defines a good fish? What defines a true Christian and a false Christian? The false Christian will be thrown out at the end of the age, at the judgment. So we can see that this parable is a parable of warning. It is, as we saw right at the beginning, a parable of judgment.
Now, what kind of a Christian are you, if you claim to be a Christian? That is a crucial question. Are you in the kingdom of God? And do you think that you are safe simply because you are in the kingdom of God? And listen carefully to what the Lord Jesus has to say. He is warning us that just because you are in the kingdom of God is no guarantee that you will be saved at the end. Not in that way. It has to depend on something else. What then is that something else? Because at the end of the age there will be a sorting out to take place. So we find here, in verse 48, when the net is drawn ashore, the fish will be sorted out.
Now, before I get to this part, let me also tell you about the picture of the sea. Here the human beings are compared to fish in the sea. Now I told you, every part of the Lord's parable is rich in meaning. What does the sea mean? In the Bible, the sea is a picture of the world. Not only in this parable, but you see, the Lord Jesus uses in his parables picture elements which are already familiar to people who have studied the Bible. The sea in the Bible is a picture of this world, this present world system as we have it. Why? Because the sea is something that is always pictured as unstable, unsteady, uncertain, unpredictable.
Now if you have ever gone on a boat, you know just what I mean. The lake is very unpredictable in many ways. Suddenly a wind will hit the lake, and your little boat will be going up and down, being thrown around quite a bit. And this is more so in the Lake of Galilee. It's completely unpredictable. You don't know when a storm will suddenly hit. There may be bright sunshine, everything is nice, and within a few minutes a storm hits the lake. And even experienced fishermen have gone down with the boat. There is something very unpredictable about the sea. And you look at it, you see it's unstable. It is moving all the time. And you wonder, what is down there underneath?
I wonder if you've done long-distance swimming. You often swim there and wonder, what is there underneath? I remember once in Hunan, I was swimming in China, across a river which was quite a wide river. And I could not help but keep feeling, what is there underneath in this river? You keep always wondering, there might be some strange creature that might pop out of there sometime and grab hold of your leg or something. Because you always hear of good swimmers who disappear in the sea and disappear without a trace. So every swimmer — and many of you know that I like to do long-distance swimming — often ponders to himself, as he is going across long stretches, and especially when you're swimming alone, what is there in the hidden depths of the sea?
The Bible pictures the sea then as something unstable, uncertain. What Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 25 and following — 2 Corinthians 11:25 — as the perils of the sea. The sea hides many perils. It is a dangerous place. And even powerful ships have disappeared into the sea, with always unpredictable things happening. You remember when they built the Titanic, they built it in compartments, and they claimed that this ship was unsinkable. It sank on its first journey. It went out only once and never came back. It was hit by another strange thing of the sea, the unpredictable thing — the iceberg, often nearly invisible, mostly submerged. There are many kinds of dangers in the sea.
And so we find that the sea is in this way pictured constantly in the Bible as something dangerous, as something threatening, as something that is unstable. In fact, it is pictured in the Bible often as a monster that has to be kept under control. For example, in Job chapter 38, verses 8 to 11, the sea, or the ocean, is often pictured in this particular way as a monster that has to be kept behind bars, that God keeps it under control. Because sometime, and again, the sea can threaten you even when you are on land. You don't have to be in the sea to be wiped out. You know that even in recent history, suddenly great tidal waves from the sea have wiped out whole villages, and whole towns have been swallowed up, where tens of thousands of people have been swept away by the sea overflowing its banks, or coming forward with a tidal wave. It is always something that was regarded as threatening and dangerous.
The floods were a common experience both then and now. Even in Quebec we have times when suddenly waters come up and they flood whole districts, and people find themselves underwater. Or again, lakes overflow their banks, or rivers, and whatever. Recently in the States again, towns have been submerged and enormous damage has been done in terms of millions. So the sea has always been — this water, the sea, has always been regarded as something dangerous. It has to be held back by bars and doors. Limits have to be set upon it. So here we see the meaning of the shore. The shore is where a limit, a door, a bar, is set upon the sea. This means, this is to say, that the very picture of shore is designed in this parable to tell us of the end of this world period, the end of this age. The sea will come to an end there at the shore. Every part of the parable is loaded with meaning. But the world will be under God's judgment.
And so we read in Psalm 114, verse 3, that the sea fled at the presence of God. At God's judgment, when God bares his arm in salvation, the world will tremble with fear. It will flee from his presence. In fact, for his own people he will make a path through the sea, as we read in Psalm 136, verse 13, and Isaiah 43, verse 16. There God makes a path through the sea. That is, for his people he delivers them from the power of the sea, from being flooded or drowned or destroyed by the sea.
But does it mean then that you can flee from God by running into the world? Because the world is restless and is a picture of turmoil, of lack of peace, of instability, which is of course what we find the world to be. It is now calm, now we have a storm; now we have peace, now we have war. So we see how appropriate it is as a picture of the world, and you may have a storm in one part of the sea and calm in another part of the sea. The whole picture is of this restlessness of this world. But does it mean that you are safe from the judgment of God if you hide yourself in the world? Oh, by no means. And so in Psalm 139, verses 9 and 10, it says, "Even if I flee to the uttermost parts of the sea, there your hand shall take hold of me." Don't think that you are safe from the judgment of God because you don't believe in him. Don't think you are safe from the judgment of God because you can hide in the world.
I have said before, unbelief is no ground for security. And because you don't believe a thing does not mean that that thing is not true. It only means that you think it is not true. Unbelief only says something about you. It says nothing about the facts. If I don't believe there is a fire in this building, when there is a fire in this building, my unbelief does not put that fire out. I wish it did, but it won't. The fire of God's judgment will not disappear because you don't believe in the judgment. Oh no, unbelief does not remove any facts. It only determines your attitude towards those facts. If I believe there is a fire in this house, when somebody says there is a fire, and I look there, I don't see any smoke, I don't see any fire, but the person who tells me there is a fire is trustworthy — he says there is a fire in the building. I look at him and I say, well, this guy never tells lies. If he says there is a fire, there is a fire, so I get out. There is an emergency exit here, you see. I get out through the stairs there, so I am not burnt up in the building.
And the Lord Jesus, when he tells us that at the end of this age there is going to be the judgment, and I look at Jesus and I say, this man never tells lies, and I say, well, if there is going to be a judgment, I better be ready for it. Now you say, "I don't believe in it." That doesn't matter. The judgment will not disappear because you don't believe in it. It will only determine your attitude and your response to that particular event. Let's be very clear about this. Many times when I talk to unbelievers, they somehow think that, well, I don't believe in it, and they think that because they don't believe in it, they are secure. How foolish! I believe the words of Jesus because I have tried his words. I have put his words to test. I have tested his words for 20 years, and they have never failed. And therefore I know, when he says something, it's true. He has never once been mistaken. The Word of God has never failed. The Lord Jesus is the only person who dared to say, "Heaven and earth will pass away, my words will never pass away." When he says there's going to be a judgment, my friend, there is going to be a judgment. He has never been wrong. And if you say, "I don't believe what Jesus says," that's up to you. But when the judgment comes, then you better figure out what you're going to do. And by that time, it's a little bit too late to do something about it.
Now is the time to do something about it. It's no use trying to run out of this building when the flames have encircled you. It's when the flames have not yet encircled you that you can get out. It is when the judgment has not yet gotten hold of you that you can still do something about it. And that is the warning of this parable. He says, at the end of this age, when we reach the shore, at the end of this world period, when we come to the shore, there is going to be the hauling in of the nets.
And now here is another very interesting thing about this word, and as I said, every part of the parable is loaded with meaning. The Lord Jesus doesn't waste words. I have never ceased to be amazed that he can say so much with so few words, and that most of us, when we are trying to explore what he has to say, have to spend so much time trying to bring out its meaning. He uses one word in the Greek where he speaks, in verse 48, of bringing in the net. In the English it doesn't come out at all. The word is "drew it ashore." The word translated as "drew it ashore" literally in the Greek means "to bring up the net." This word is unique, unique literally, because this word occurs in the Greek New Testament only once. It's a rare word — "bring up the net." What's the significance of this? The significance of this strikes you once you compare it with Acts chapter 24, verse 15. Acts 24, verse 15, there speaks of that we will be brought up — when? At the resurrection. At the resurrection. And so we read this: "having a hope in God, which these themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both" — notice this — "the just and the unjust," the good and the bad. Now the Lord Jesus emphasizes this, because you think, well, because I don't believe in God, or I don't believe in the teaching of Jesus, then when I die, that's the end of the matter. Well, if it were the end of the matter, that wouldn't be so bad. You see, the trouble is that that's not the end of the matter. There is going to be a bringing up of the net. Notice the picture: the net is drawn up out of the sea, all the fish are brought up. An amazing picture — a picture of the resurrection, where the Lord Jesus uses this unique, this rare word, to bring out this idea of being lifted up at the resurrection, good and bad alike. So that even those who have died before are being brought back at the resurrection to face the judgment, which they hope very much, of course, they would not have to face, because they thought that by not believing in the judgment it would simply disappear, and that because they are bad, they'll die and they'll be buried, and that's the end of it. That's not the end of it. They will be brought up at the resurrection to face the judgment of God.
You see, the point of it is this: the kingdom of God, God's government, extends in fact over the whole world. Just because you don't acknowledge his government is no reason why he will not judge you. The fact that you do not obey his government also does not mean you will escape his judgment. Because a gangster in Montreal, for example, who does not submit to the law of Canada, does not mean that he is thereby automatically outside the jurisdiction of Canada. On the contrary, precisely because he lived in disregard for the law of Canada, the law will be that much more severe with him when he falls into the hands of the law. And so every person is going to fall into the hands of God, because he is not only king of the church; he is king of the world, by reason of his having created this world, and by reason of the fact that he has provided a redemption for every person. He has provided a forgiveness, a pardon, in Christ, for every man who has sinned. There is no excuse for any person to be bad, to remain in sin.
And so here we find again this significance, the beauty of the Lord's teaching here, that through this rather simple-looking parable, we find now we have the key to all these various pictures. And to summarize these pictures, let me put it again like this: here we see that the sea is the world, the fish are the people. We find here that the drawing ashore with the nets, bringing it up out of the sea, is a picture of the resurrection. And what then is the net itself? Even the net is full of significance, for here he uses the word "cast the net." It says here in verse 47, it's like...
# The Parable of the Net — Part 2 (Matthew 13:47-50)
Because in the Lord's teaching, he has used this word many times in different connections. For example, in this same chapter in Matthew 13 earlier, there was the parable of the seed and the sower. And there he had used this word "cast," of casting the seed. Which is what? Which is the Word of God. Again in the parable of the mustard seed, he speaks of the casting of the seed. Again, each time the casting of the seed has to do with the preaching of the Word of God. Now the picture has changed from — and I'm not giving you all the illustrated instances of this word "casting" — but it has to do with the preaching, the proclamation of the Word of God. So the proclamation of the Word of God is here described as this net, is where the message of God's Word goes forth. What brings you into the kingdom of God? It is the Word of God that draws you into the kingdom of God. It is the proclamation of salvation, which is pictured here as a net, which draws people in.
But people desire salvation for different reasons and different motives. It may be a purely selfish thing, in which I just want to reserve for myself a seat in heaven. Or it may be a deeper thing, in which I am weary of rottenness and sin in my life, and therefore I desire to be healed and changed, so that I may make a useful contribution to my fellow men in this world. There is already a much less selfish motive. Or you may start with a selfish motive, but gradually God changes your motive into something less selfish. But what is important is that the change must be there. If the change does not take place, you may end up being among the bad fish, not the good ones. And the bad, as we saw, will be thrown out. The word literally there in the Greek is "to throw out of the kingdom of God."
Now here we find these striking pictures. So let us now come to the point and ask, what is meant by the good fish and the bad fish? What does the bad fish represent? What the good fish represents is quite easy for us to understand. But what does the bad fish represent? Now when we were expounding on the parable of the tares, or the darnel, we saw that in that parable we had two kinds of people in the kingdom of God. There were the wheat, which represented the good Christians, the true disciples. And there were the weeds, the darnel, which we saw looks very much like wheat but is not wheat. It has the outward appearance of wheat but is not wheat. In fact, we saw that the darnel is poisonous. Just like the false Christians are really poisonous, because they do terrible harm in the world. They are not just neutral. How many people have refused to become Christians because of these phony Christians, these false Christians? The poison of these false Christians has done enormous damage to the gospel. But they have an outward resemblance to the wheat.
Here again, we have different kinds of fish. How are we to understand these different kinds of fish? Is this parable similar then to the parable of the wheat and the tares? Yes, it's similar, but not the same. What is the difference? The difference is very significant, and it is exactly at this point: that the darnel, the weeds, are by nature weeds. That is to say, they did not change into anything else. That's the first point. The second thing to notice in that parable is that the weeds were sown by Satan into the kingdom of God. As you remember, we expounded on that only a few weeks ago. It is Satan, in that parable, that sows the weeds into the church. We saw that these are the false teachers, the false Christians, who have never changed in their character. They have just come into the church. They have just learned to talk like Christians, to behave like Christians. They know all the jargon, all the language of how to talk as a Christian. They have been baptized. They go to communion. They do everything that Christians do. But there has been no inner change. They have always been what they were before, simply inside their hearts, deep down in their hearts. They have never committed their lives to God. They are simply people who have never been regenerate, never been transformed inside their lives. In other words, they are simply non-Christians dressed up as Christians. They are simply sinners in their nature, and they have never been anything else. They have only changed the outward appearance. That's all they have been. The dirt on the outside has been washed off, but the dirt on the inside is all there.
This is the picture. They are, as the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 23, whitewashed tombs. Inside they are full of corruption, dead man's bones, but outside it's been whitewashed, painted over with white paint. It looks nice on the outside, but inside is nothing but corruption and death. That is the picture of the darnel and the weed. In other words, these people have never changed. There are so many people who become Christians, but they are not any different from any non-Christian, because inside of them they have never changed. They have never become new creatures, as Paul speaks about in 2 Corinthians 5. And these are the people who are a great damage to the church and to the reputation of the church, because every non-Christian can see that these people behave like non-Christians. In fact, they are worse than non-Christians, because at least the non-Christian doesn't pretend to be good. He doesn't pretend to be righteous or religious. But these people have the outward appearance of being religious. They walk around with their big Bible. They go to church. They talk like pious people. But inside is rottenness. They are simply non-Christians in the worst sense, non-Christians who pretend to be better than they are.
So what is the difference with this parable? This parable — the key word, again we have to turn to the Greek to understand it. This word here in verse 48, translated "bad" — this word is no ordinary word for bad. This word "bad" is used elsewhere in the Lord's teaching, always with reference to what is rotten, something that is rotten or corrupt. He uses it of the rotten fruit, for example in Matthew 7: a good tree brings forth good fruit, but a rotten tree brings forth rotten fruit. Now that is how the word is used by the Lord Jesus. And what does the word basically mean? This word basically means "corruption, rottenness." That is what the word means, and that of course you can find in any standard Greek-English dictionary. And when you check the use of this word, you find that the character of this word is different from that of badness in the sense that it was always bad. Corruption means something was good before but became rotten later on. For example, a corrupt fruit or a rotten apple was originally healthy, but in due time it became rotten. Some worm got into it. Some disease hit it. And so what was an originally healthy apple or healthy fruit, whatever it was, became rotten.
The word is used in the Greek of a person who becomes sick, for example. He was healthy originally, but he became diseased. His health was corrupted by disease. That is how the word is used. It is also used, for example, of old age, in the sense that a person was once young but he became corrupted by age, became decrepit. You have seen old people who have become very decrepit, unable to move freely. They are crippled by this and that disease. Their mind becomes slow. Their memory becomes blank. They can't remember things anymore. A person who was once healthy and strong has now become corrupted, become weak as a result of this corruption, and becomes ill and dies. So we find that this is the idea of this word: it is something which was once good, but then became bad. Now you can see immediately how different is the meaning from that of the darnel, which was never good in the first place. It was always bad. It never was anything else but darnel. It was never anything else but a weed. But here it is talking about something which was once good and has become bad. That is very significant to understand.
That is why when it speaks of the bad fish, it is not referring to fish that were Levitically unclean. Levitically unclean fish — and I am speaking for those who know something about the Old Testament here — were fish that the Jews would not eat. They were fish that had no scales and so forth. They were fish which were regarded as unclean, that is, ceremonially unclean. And they were always so by nature. They did not change character and so forth. So it cannot be applied to fish of this kind, that is, unclean fish. And I am surprised to see that some commentators who really should know better have given the notion that these fish that are thrown out are Levitically unclean fish. This is not the case. The word used here, the Greek word sapros, which is used here, never means anything unclean. And nowhere in the Old Testament does it have this kind of meaning. No, it always means something that was once good and then became bad. Now that is the significance.
In other words, this parable is not just a mere repetition of the parable of the wheat and the tares, which it would be, because even the ending is the same, if this were the case. But no, it brings in a new and very important element. This new and important element is the element that these fish were bad by corruption, not by origin. This means to say that the fish that are thrown out are the fish that were once healthy but became sick, or even died.
Now, the German scholars, of course, are very clear about this. For example, the German scholar Stier, and I read to you what he says here — he points out that the fish in question were fish indeed which might have made good food, but which unfortunately have died in the net amid the swarm and have become corrupt. What Stier is saying is that as the nets were brought in, for example, or when the fish were surrounded by the nets, the congestion caused by so many fish together resulted in quite a number of fish dying. It happens, of course, often with animals when they are being corralled — they stampede, and some get crushed and killed. So this might have been one sense, that Stier is suggesting. The great German scholar Meyer says of this word here, he translated it as "the putrid ones." The word "putrid," of course, means corrupt as well — "which are already dead and putrefying, and yet enclosed in the nets." So both these German scholars see very well that this word means something which was good originally but became corrupt in the process of time within the net.
Now then, here we see our lesson. And with that, we have to begin to draw to a close. The lesson basically is this: this type of person are those who came into the kingdom of God indeed, who are drawn into the kingdom of God. And notice again the distinction from the parable of the darnel and the wheat, that there, as I pointed out to you, it is where Satan sowed them into the kingdom. But these are not sown by Satan. These are drawn in by the net, by the Word of God. They responded to the Word of God. They were drawn in by the Word of God. They are not planted there by Satan. They are not the spiritual fifth column inside the church. They are those who responded to the Word of God. But having responded to the Word of God, what happened? Gradually, they turned away. This is a common problem in the New Testament, a common problem that is dealt with: the problem of those whose love has grown cold, and grown cold to the point where they have departed from the faith.
As we see in the scriptural teaching, for example, in 1st Timothy, from chapter 4 onwards, where the apostle Paul tells Timothy, the Spirit says expressly that in the last days — especially in the last days, when the net is being drawn ashore — that many shall depart from the faith. Now you cannot depart from the faith unless you were once in the faith. I cannot depart from Montreal unless I was in Montreal. There is no point speaking about departing from the faith unless you were in the faith. And here we find exactly this very picture here. Here were people who once responded to God, who once came to God, who once were truly — were even very active in the church.
I think of the church that I was once in, in London. All the young people that I shared with you — they were so enthusiastic for the Lord. And one person was busy in this, and one person was busy in that, and they were organizing Chinese Christian fellowship here, another one was organizing a Chinese Christian fellowship there, and we started one in Hong Kong House in London, we started one in Malaysia Hall in London, we started — oh, everywhere we were busy. I tell you, we had a great busy time. We were building up the church of God. My question is, where are these people today? Where are they today? Ninety percent — no exaggeration — ninety percent of them are gone. Yes, some of them occasionally still go to church. But now they behave, they live virtually like any non-Christian. What has happened? The fire that once burned has gone. The spiritual health that they once enjoyed has become corrupted. They have gone into spiritual degeneration.
That is precisely the warning in the letter to the churches that we have in Revelation chapter 3. "You have lost your first love. Your love has grown cold. Repent, or else I will remove you." That is exactly what happens here. These fish were once healthy. As Stier says, they might have been good for food, but now they have become corrupted, rotten. They have spiritually died in the nets. Now this shows you some very important distinction, that you should see from this parable it is no mere repetition of the parable of the tares. But here we see it is something which, as you analyze it into the Greek, as you analyze the text, you begin to realize how serious is this teaching.
And so, with this, I begin to bring our study to a close. And before I do this, let me read to you something that the great early church commentator, St. John Chrysostom, wrote on this parable. Because in this parable, I do not stand alone at all. My exegesis is fully in accord both with the early church and with the great modern scholars that I have pointed out, though sometimes I do have to differ from them.
This is what John Chrysostom — the greatest of early church preachers, so that he was described as a "golden mouth" preacher. "Chrysostom" is from the Greek word chrysus, "gold," and stoma, "mouth" — golden mouth. So powerfully was he used by God in the fourth century of the early church. On this parable, this is what he preached in his 47th homily, his 47th message on Matthew. He writes this, and I read some extracts of it for you. And I read it to you because it is really so beautifully stated. This is what he says: "After this — that is, after the parable of the pearl that we studied last week — that we may not be confident in the gospel merely preached, nor think that faith only suffices for salvation," he, that is Jesus, "utters also another and awful parable." By "awful," of course, he means a fearful parable, something that inspires fear or awe. "What then is this? That of the net." Now in case you didn't get it, notice these words. He says, "that we may not be confident in the gospel merely preached," that you don't think that you are saved just because you hear the gospel, that you are drawn by the net. Nor think, John Chrysostom says, that faith alone, faith only, suffices for salvation — that faith that you just believe in, that you don't live forth in holiness and righteousness. A faith that is all talk and no life. A faith that is all talk and no works. Is that it? You don't think you'll be saved like that.
And then he goes on: "And wherein does this differ — this parable differ from the parable of the tares? For there too the one are saved, the other perish. But there — that is, in the parable of the tares — but there, for choosing of wicked doctrines." That is, these people were wicked from the start. They were never changed. "But here, for wickedness of life, who are the most wretched of all." These fish that are thrown out are people who are wicked in life. That is, they have once been good, but they have become corrupted. They don't anymore live the holy life. "Having attained to — notice what John Chrysostom says — having attained to his knowledge," that is, the knowledge of Christ, "and being caught by Christ in the net," being caught — a well-known Greek phrase — being caught by the fishers of men, that is, brought into the kingdom of God, "but now, even so, incapable of being saved." Though they came to know Jesus, though they came into the church, they were still incapable of being saved. He says, these are the kind of people who are most wretched.
Then he goes on. And I remind you, John Chrysostom, great man of God, who was in fact the leader of the eastern church, the churches — he was the leader of the church in the east of the Roman Empire, and the archbishop of Constantinople. A great man of God, who, as I shared with some of you, was later put to death because of his condemnation of wickedness in the churches which were under his care. And he goes on to say: "For lest on being told — he says, in case you have not yet understood the seriousness of this parable — for lest on being told 'they cast the bad away,' that it says here in this parable the bad were cast away, thou should suppose that ruin to be without danger." Now there are many people today who think that being cast out is not very dangerous, it's just that you don't enjoy certain blessings, not that you don't enjoy salvation. John Chrysostom says, in case you think that — "suppose that that ruin of being cast out is without danger — by his," that is, Christ's, "interpretation, he," that is, Christ, "signified the punishment, by saying, 'They will cast them into the furnace.'" That's what it says here. What happens to the bad fish? That they are just thrown back into the sea? No, no, they are not thrown back into the sea. Look carefully what it says here, in verse 50: "and throw them into the furnace of fire." At the destruction, there men will weep and gnash their teeth. "And he declared the gnashing of teeth and the anguish that is unspeakable."
And so finally, John Chrysostom sums up like this: "Seest thou how many other ways of destruction? By the rock" — you may be destroyed by the rock in the parable of the soil. Remember the rock resulted in the destruction of those who had first received the gospel, but they died when the sun came up. "By the thorns" — you remember those that were sown among the thorns and were choked, although they received the gospel. "By the wayside" — that is, the seeds that fell on the wayside and the birds picked them up. "By the tares" — you remember that the tares, as we saw, intertwined their roots with the wheat and could cause damage to the wheat. "And now also by the net."
And so John Chrysostom continues: "Notwithstanding therefore — not without therefore reason — did he," that is, the Lord Jesus, "say, 'Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go away by it.'" Here he is quoting, of course, Matthew chapter 7, verse 13. But even in quoting Matthew chapter 7, verse 13, in the Greek text — and of course John Chrysostom taught and preached in Greek — he uses deliberately a different word. He uses the word "go away by it" instead of what we have in the Greek text, "go into by it." That is, there in Matthew 7, verse 13, it says, they go into destruction by the broad way. But here John Chrysostom uses the word "go away." Into destruction. Now the word — deliberately, he uses the word "go away" — means go away from what? Go away from Christ. He is speaking here of apostasy. This great preacher, John Chrysostom, like so many of the early church fathers, who certainly is no teacher of a doctrine that teaches some idea about being once saved and then always saved no matter what kind of a sinful life you live — John Chrysostom would have none of that.
That is why he continues as he concludes this passage by saying this: "Having then uttered all this" — that is, the Lord Jesus having uttered all this — "and concluded his discourse in a tone to cause fear, and signified that these are the majority of cases, for he dwelt more on them, he says, 'Have ye understood these things?'" Now you see verse 51: the Lord Jesus, having concluded this parable, says these words, "Have you understood all this?" Do you understand what I am saying to you? I wonder today whether you understand what I am saying to you, or rather what the Lord Jesus is saying to you. Here, as John Chrysostom says, the Lord Jesus teaches as he concludes these seven parables on a note that strikes fear into the heart — the fear of being corrupted again, when once you have been brought into the kingdom of God, when once you have received a new life, when once you have been healed from sin by the Lord Jesus, and then going back, as the apostle Peter says, like a dog returning to its vomit, like a swine returning to the mud.
So then, here we must conclude, and let us then bear in mind this important thing that we have seen. The Lord Jesus says at the close, what does he say? In verse 49, it is the righteous which are separated from the evil. Yes, he does not speak about believers and unbelievers, but about evildoers and righteous. Who shall be saved? It is the righteous that will be saved. And on this point we shall expound more fully: what does the Bible mean? What does the Lord Jesus mean by the righteous? One thing is plain though in this parable: be careful. Be careful lest, as the Lord Jesus says, the light in you become darkness. You remember those powerful and frightening words that the Lord Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount: "Be careful lest the light in you become darkness." And if the light in you become darkness, the Lord Jesus says, "How great is that darkness!" If the salt has lost its taste — salt, which was once the salt of the world, Christians are the salt of the world — if that has lost its taste, what does the Lord Jesus say? Like the fish, they are thrown out. They are fit for nothing, to be trampled underfoot of men.
Let us pray then that by the grace of God we shall not in any way be corrupted. We shall not be among the fish that were once well and then became bad. It is so important that today you receive the life of God and then persevere in God's life, going on from strength to strength. Let us now be quiet before God in prayer.