The Furnace of Fire

We have now swept through the parables that describe the nature of the kingdom, the power of the kingdom, the personal appropriation of the kingdom, and now we come to the climax and the end and the judgment. And it is a warning that in the end there will be an eternal separation of the damned from the redeemed. If a person says he died and has an amazing story to tell about heaven or hell, he'll probably sell a lot of books. But there's only one source of information on heaven and hell that's really trustworthy.

It never changes, and that demands your attention today. Well, in his current study on grace to you, John MacArthur has shown you the description of heaven Jesus gave in his parables. Today John looks to the other side of eternity. You're going to see how Jesus used parables to describe the reality of hell.

The contrast between heaven and hell may help you appreciate God's kingdom now and future like never before. And with that, here's John to continue his study titled, The Parables of the Kingdom. And now for the high and sacred privilege of coming to God's precious word, and I would encourage you, if you will, to take your Bible and turn with me to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13, verses 47 through 52. 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. 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 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. We have now swept through the parables that describe the nature of the kingdom, the power of the kingdom, the personal appropriation of the kingdom, and now we come to the climax and the end and the judgment. And it is a warning, it is a fearful warning that in the end there will be an eternal separation of the damned from the redeemed.

And the world, you see, is moving toward this. Every human life is moving toward that inevitable hour. Today at least 5,282 people in the United States alone will die and enter eternity.

Most of them will go to hell. And this final parable brings us up short with a sense of severe warning. Now I want us first of all to look at the picture the Lord paints. The picture is first, verse 47. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea and gathered from every kind.

Now this gives us the imagery that we need to understand the teaching here. Fishing in our Lord's time was a common enterprise. Fishing was a way of life. Fishing for some of the disciples was their way of life.

So they would understand very clearly of which He spoke. Basically there were three ways to fish and these three ways are still being used in that country in the lake of Gennesaret, the Sea of Galilee. First was with a line and hook which caught fishes one at a time.

In Matthew chapter 17 and verse 27, the Lord Jesus said to Peter, Put your line and your hook into the sea and catch a fish and open its mouth and find a piece of money and take it and use it for your taxes and for mine. And that was an illustration of the kind of fishing they did which was done with a line and a hook. Earlier in the fourth chapter of Matthew, the Lord had come across the disciples, Peter and Andrew, and they were fishing, it says in 4.18, casting a net into the sea. The second kind of fishing was a casting net. Amphleblestron is the word in the Greek and it was a very special net. It was a net that was like a large circle and on the outer perimeter of the circle were weights. It was pulled together in the middle and there was a rope attached to the arm of the fisherman. The net was draped over the shoulder and as the fisherman came to the shore, he threw the net and had become, of course, so deft at it that it would go into its entire circular form and it would hit the water as a large circle and as it sunk toward the bottom, it would capture in it as the lead weights pulled down the edges all the fish that were in that area. So the fisherman would watch until he saw the school of fish and then he would spin that thing and it would open its full circle and capture the fish and then that cord attached to his wrist would be pulled tight and it would pull the net together until he had a sack and he would drag the net onto the shore full of the catch. And that is the net that our Lord used to speak of being fishers of men, throw out the net and catch men for Christ and pull them in.

But that is not the net that is used here. This is a completely different Greek term. This term is a unique term. It is the term sagene and it has to do with what was called a seine net or a trawl net.

It's a very distinct term. It speaks of a very, very large net. Now when I say very large, I mean very large. Lenski, the commentator, says that some of these nets covered one-half mile of area. Very large net. A net that could not be worked with the hand of a man.

How it was used is very simple to understand. One end of this large net was attached to the shoreline. The other end was attached to a boat. As the boat left the shore, it pulled the net into a form where the net was stretched between the boat out in the lake and the net hooked to the shore. Then the boat would begin to move in a circle and as it moved in a circle, it would sweep into this massive net all the life in front of the net. It would complete an entire circle, come all the way back to where it was attached and would have gathered into that entire net all the life that was in the sea covered by that net. Because the top of the net had floats, it floated on the surface of the water, the bottom of the net had weights, it sunk to the bottom so that the net moved through the sea like a vertical wall, capturing everything. Now what our Lord wants us to understand in this net is basically two things. One is the immense size of the net. And two is the fact that it brings in everything.

A conglomerate, inclusive catch. Now once this has happened and the boat has moved through the sea and this great vertical wall has swept up everything, living and dead, it sometimes drug the bottom and pulled up all kinds of things, seaweed, every form of life that would be there would be caught in that net. Then it comes back to the shore and at that point we're introduced to verse 48. And when the net was then full, they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels but cast the bad away. Now the central figure of the parable is a group of fishermen.

They're on the shore in verse 48 and lying there at the edge of the water is this recently drawn massive net and it is literally soaking and teeming with life, filled with a conglomerate of creatures taken from the water. And then begins a very slow, deliberate, careful, patient, unhurried, accurate, knowledgeable, skillful process of sorting out the good from the bad. They sat down. It was something they did very carefully, very patiently.

Now this scene would be very common to the people to whom our Lord spoke, particularly the disciples. They would take the good and put it into some vessels. Very often water contained vessels to keep the fish alive if they were to be transported.

If they were immediately to be used in some form, they could be put in another vessel. The bad was just thrown away. Now the picture is very clear, isn't it? Let's look secondly at the principle, verse 49. And here is our Lord's own interpretation. So shall it be at the end of the age. The angels shall come forth and separate the wicked from among the righteous.

We can stop at that point. There's a lot that you could say about that parable. There's a lot you could do with it. There are some interesting possibilities. But the Lord is only interested in one element. And that is the separating process that went on on the shore as a picture of the angelic separation in judgment.

That's what He's after. You see, all along in this era as we've been learning, the good and the evil go together and God tolerates the evil. But the time is coming when He will make a separation between those who know the King and are subjects of the King and know the Lord Jesus Christ and those who do not. And that separation is inevitable and it is ultimate. And little by little, imperceptibly and silently, that net moves through the sea of time, drawing all men to the shores of eternity for that inevitable separation.

That is the principle. The net draws in all kinds of fish. It is indiscriminating in the sense that it just catches everything in its way. And so it is, it says in verse 47, the kingdom of heaven is like that net. It moves silently through the sea of life, drawing men almost without them knowing it to the shore of eternity. And by the time they awaken to what is happening, it is too late.

They're already there. They are drawn to the separation. Now this same truth was taught in this parable of the wheat and the tares, as you can go back to verse 41 and see. The Son of Man shall send His angels and they'll gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them who do iniquity and they shall be cast into a furnace of fire where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Same idea, but the Lord repeats it. Now the only spiritual thing that the Lord pinpoints in this parable is that last act of the fisherman.

Everything else passes without comment. And I think we ought to leave the rest without comment and just take what our Lord meant to teach. When He spoke of the casting net, He used that in a positive way to speak to the disciples of catching men for Christ.

When He speaks of this drag net, as it's called, or this troll net, or seine net, or sagonae net, He is talking about gathering men for judgment. Look at verse 49, so shall it be at the end of the age. When man's day is over and Jesus returns to set up His glorious kingdom, then comes the judgment.

Now this is not a technical, chronological, eschatological layout. This is not trying to pinpoint every element of judgment every time and place and are we talking about the great white throne or the sheep and the goats or the bemasy judgment or whatever. This is just a general statement that all in the world are caught ultimately in the net of judgment to be separated in the end. And you notice again, would you please, in verse 49, that the angels are the executioners? The angels are the separators, just as we saw in verse 41. Just as we see in Matthew 24, the angels come with the Lord to act out judgment.

Just as we see in Matthew 25, just as we see repeatedly in Revelation, particularly chapter 14, the angels are the agents of God's judgment. So while the kingdom may for a while tolerate good and evil growing together, the separation is moving closer and closer all the time. Jesus spoke of this same thing in Matthew chapter 25 when He said in verse 31, The Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him. Then shall He sit on the throne of His glory. And what will He do when He comes? It says, And before Him shall He gather all the nations and He shall separate one from another.

Separation. And He'll say to them on His right hand, Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And He'll say to them on the left hand, Depart from Me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And Jesus said in John chapter 5 that there's coming a resurrection of all men, some to the resurrection of life and some to the resurrection of damnation. There will be a final separation and eternal destiny will be determined for every soul that has ever lived on the face of the earth. Now some people have asked why this parable is included if the basic idea of separation is even also included in the parable of the wheat and the tares. And the answer to that is several things. Number one, it is repeated because the wheat and the tares emphasize particularly the coexistence.

This emphasizes only the separation. It is repeated also because the Lord has a compassionate heart and He wants to add one more warning. That's typical of our Lord. He warned about hell many times, many times.

So concerned was He that men not go there. Many times He said, Watch, watch for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man comes. Many times He warned the people not to take lightly their sins because there would be the inevitability of the accounting that God would make. He was compassionate enough to see men on the way to damnation and call to them.

And so that's why this is here. It emphasizes the separation that is the end of this age and it gives the Lord a chance to release that compassionate heart. You see the Bible says God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. The Bible says that He is not willing that any should perish. The Bible says that God our Savior will have all men to be saved. Jesus wept over Jerusalem and said, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft I would have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her brood, but you would not.

You will not come unto me, He said pensively, that you might have eternal life. His heart of compassion is one that warns because He loves. Now look again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net. And you can see the vividness of this imagery. That net moves through the world. It is invisible to those around who can't yet see it. And if perchance it touches the back of a fish, the fish simply flits a little further ahead and enjoys the freedom he thinks is his permanently. And men live in this world imagining themselves to be free, moving about, fulfilling their own desires, going here and going there as they will with little knowledge that the net comes closer and closer and closer.

People float about in the liberty of the wide deep sea of life, not knowing the invisible lines of judgment move closer and closer and closer. And each time they are touched by it, they move a little further away. And they're touched again and they move a little further away. And finally they've moved one time and they've hit it on the other side because it's moving toward the shore. And then wildly the fish may dart for the sea only to be caught again in the same net.

Finally to be dragged on the shore in the last throes of a flailing and flipping enter into silent death. And that's how it is. Men may not perceive the kingdom. They may not see God moving in the world, but He is moving. And men very often when touched by the gospel of Jesus Christ or threatened with the threat of judgment dart into the freedom they think is ahead of them. But sooner or later they run right back into the same net because there's no freedom there. And they are inexorably moving toward inevitable judgment.

All men are gathered in the net. The kingdom will ultimately engulf them all. And God with His angels will separate. Now that leads me to a third thought and that is the peril, the peril. Verse 50, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now that is a fearful verse.

And I confess to you that it affects me just as it affects anybody. It is a horrifying, fearful verse. And if there is any doctrine in the Bible that you wish were not there, it is the doctrine of hell, but that does not eliminate it.

It is there. And this is the heart of the matter. Cast into the furnace of fire. Those are terrifying words from our Lord. And yet He spoke more of hell than anybody else.

And I think there's a reason. You know what I think? I think that if Jesus hadn't taught us about hell, we wouldn't believe whoever did.

It had to be Him. It is so inconceivable. It so causes us to be revulsed. We cannot conceive of eternal damnation. And it had to be our Lord who said this or we never would have been able to accept it. It was His own special emphasis. And He was a preacher of hell. More than anything else, He threatened men with hell. And if you don't think He did, then you haven't been carefully noting His ministry.

Don't turn with me. Just listen and jot down verses if you care to. But listen to what He said in Matthew 5, 22. He said, Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. In verse 29 of chapter 5, If your right eye offend you, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish and not your whole body should be cast into hell.

Verse 30, If your right hand offend you, cut it off, throw it away, for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish and not that your whole body should be cast into hell. In chapter 7 verse 27, He said, And the rain descended and the flood came and the wind blew and beat on that house and it fell, and great was the fall of it. That's an allusion to damnation as well. In chapter 8 verse 12, The sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Chapter 11 and verse 20, He began to upbraid the cities in which most of His mighty works were done because they repented not. And He says to them, You will be brought down to hell.

Serious, serious words from our Lord. Same thing is true in chapter 12. He says in verse 36, Every idle word that men shall speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be damned or condemned. This was a constant part of what our Lord taught. Chapter 23 talks about hell repeatedly. Chapter 24, chapter 25, Mark chapter 9, Luke chapter 6, Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 16. It just goes on and on. Jesus told a whole story about a man that died and went to hell being in torment and screamed for someone to come with water and cool his tongue.

Now if you then are to evaluate what should be the emphasis of preaching based on the example of Christ that should be preaching on hell. Our generation doesn't do that. It's convicting that we say so little about hell. It's so hard to believe.

It's so terrifying. It is so awesome that it had to come from the Lord and we never would have been able to accept it. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. John is a pastor, a conference speaker, and he's Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. He's titled our current study, The Parables of the Kingdom. Now John, considering all the parables Jesus told and Scripture records, and you wrote a book about this subject, the various parables of Jesus. Let me simply ask, why did he teach in parables and does the fact that he taught so often that way suggest that that's how we should teach as well?

You know, that's a very popular view today. We hear people who are supposed to be preachers and teaching preaching say, well, we need to tell stories. Jesus told stories. Jesus told stories. We need to tell stories.

I've even come across guys who have written, and so have you. Well, Jesus tried just teaching doctrine the first part of his ministry and didn't go real well, so he shifted to stories. Right. And so he made a mid-course correction like he didn't know what he was doing to begin with when he was just talking theology, and so he shifted into stories and, oh, it made such a huge difference. Nothing could be further from the truth. The shift came because Jesus was going to hide the truth. Parables hide the truth.

That's the whole point. Jesus says in Matthew 13, these things are not revealed to everyone but only to you, to his disciples. So the parables are a judgment.

I don't think people understand that. The parables are a judgment to someone who has no spiritual comprehension, to someone to whom Jesus doesn't explain the meaning. They're nothing but pointless riddles, and they are a judgment. Jesus actually says that from now on I am going to speak in parables so you will not understand.

You will not understand. This was a judgment on those who rejected him. Understanding this whole reality of why he taught in parables is critical. You mentioned the book, so let me pick up on that. The book is titled Parables, subtitled The Mysteries of God's Kingdom Revealed Through the Stories Jesus Told. Parables are just constantly misinterpreted by people who have the wrong understanding of them.

No reason for that. You need to get a copy of the book, Parables. You need to understand these monumental stories of the kingdom. The book will dig into familiar parables like the Good Samaritan, the Pharisee, the tax collector, the widow who gave the small coin, the rich man, and Lazarus, many more. 220 pages, reasonably priced. Order a copy of Parables.

Yes, friend, it is vital that you understand what Jesus' parables teach about heaven, hell, grace, and forgiveness, and how those truths apply to your life. John's book titled Parables can help. To order a copy, get in touch today. The hardcover book costs $14.75 and shipping is free.

To order, call our customer service line at 800-55-GRACE or visit our website, gty.org. The title of the book again, Parables. Get your copy when you call 800-55-GRACE or visit gty.org. And whether you're looking to study the parables or maybe what Scripture teaches about the attributes of God or how you can best serve your church, let me encourage you to pick up a copy of our flagship resource, the MacArthur Study Bible. It's an all-in-one spiritual library that has detailed introductions to each book, more than 140 charts and maps, and nearly 25,000 study notes from John MacArthur, all of it designed to help you understand and apply the life-changing truth of God's word. To order the MacArthur Study Bible, it's available in the English Standard, New American Standard, and New King James versions. You can call us at 800-55-GRACE or visit gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for tuning in today, and make sure you're here tomorrow when John looks at how to escape the horrible judgment Jesus describes in Matthew 13. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.